


Touched By An Angel

by hawkeyesmyguy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-16 21:39:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 615,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3503711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkeyesmyguy/pseuds/hawkeyesmyguy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is another rp that I just organized in order to be able to post as a please. It's really REALLY long. Seriously long. But I think of the many things that I've written with my bestie, this is one of my favorites we've ever done. I'll always be proud of the development in this story and Dean's character. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do/did. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Aleah was a hard worker, stayed out of people’s way, hell she avoided them almost entirely all except for her house mate. It wasn’t to say that she didn’t get along with people, in fact most tended to want to befriend her but she simply didn’t have the time. Between managing a high end fashion boutique just up the street and working on her nursing degree (her third attempt at picking a major), she was tired by the time she made it back to her apartment.

She had a long day, one of many and the week was only half over. The brunette rolled her eyes as yet again her roommate forgot to switch the porch light on so she could see in the darkened evening light. She could never understand why such a task was so difficult for the woman to remember, fiddling with her keys and fighting her bag to hunt for her damn phone to see the lock enough to open the door. Living in the city around the holidays meant longer hours and a later close for the store, her spiked red pumps doing a number on her aching feet. The woman hunched, setting her bag on the hand rail that lead up to her tiny town house as she dug for the device, cursing her stupid roommate internally.

The door pulled opened suddenly, startling her and she clasped a hand to her chest, “What the hell’re you doing out here still?” Her roommate Cecilia asked her. Aleah straightened and glared at her, pushing past her and into the complex with a shake of her head, not bothering addressing the fact that the woman before her was in fact to blame for her delay getting inside. She simply sighed, padding towards the backside of the building to get to the stairs that lead to her room, waving as her house mate called up a questioning good night.

Aleah’s eyes dropped, growing more tired by the second as she glanced again at the time, kicking off her heels, she had seven hours before her next class which meant by the time she got all this gunk off her face and dressed down only to reapply the layer again the next morning, she would only have three hours of sleep at best. She kicked off her heels, tugging opened her closet and putting the spiked kicks in their place on the lighted shelf, her cat ‘Manny’ perking up at the sound giving a mew and leaping off his domain in the corner. She smiled as she felt the grey tabby’s head ram into her bare calf, bending to rub behind his ears. The kitten purred and meowed at her when she walked away, undressing as she walked back to the bathroom connected to her space, flipping on the light by the door.

She cleared her face of the smoky eye makeup she so often wore, brushing her teeth in her bra and pantie set that complimented the outfit she wore previously. There wasn’t a single thing she owed that didn’t pair well with at least one other thing. She sighed tiredly as she brushed her teeth, finishing up her nightly routine with Manny lying on the tiled floor awaiting her departure to bed so he could curl up on her stomach as he often did. Aleah flipped the switch and headed back to her dresser, picking out a simply nightgown, tugging it over her head and brushing it flat over her stomach. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun, climbing in bed only to have Manny leap on her pillow. She grabbed him, “Too tired bud.” She chided, moving him over and resting her head on the mass of fluffy pillows she had at the head of her mattress.

She laid there, petting her cat’s head until his purring stopped and he had slipped into an unconscious state, wishing she could soon follow but her mind was still racing from the events of the day, examining her hands as though they might tell her something. This morning she was tailing a doctor, working as his stand in nurse, something they did for every student at the university and she was used to seeing many things. A young boy came in, having taken a harsh spill on his bike and she was asked to handle it, clean him up and ensure he didn’t have a concussion but when she touched the mark along his forehead, the blood vanished. She worried her lip with her teeth, balling her fists and letting them rest at her sides, closing her eyes and urging her thoughts away with her mind. Sleep was calling her but the sound of a blaring horn and bright lights made her eyes fly opened once more.

Aleah screamed, her body frozen as a car came straight for her. She shut her eyes again hoping it to be a dream and the rushing wind around her stilled. Very carefully the brunette peaked out, she was standing in a heavily forested area, her bare feet sinking into the wet ground. Her breathing heavy as she tried to grasp what the hell was going on with her, jolting as a fluttering sound caught her attention and out of thin air a trench coated man appeared. She stared at him, eyes wide, backing up only to walk into a tree, “Wh-What do you want? Who the hell are you?” She questioned, “How did you send me here?”

The scruffy man’s brow arched and he stepped closer to her telling her that he had nothing to do with why she appeared where she had, this was all her doing. She shook her head, “No. You did something to me.” She accused, pointing a finger at him until he got close and told her his name, saying hers in turn as if she didn’t know who she was. “What the hell is going on?” She demanded.

“You would not believe me.” The man called Castiel stated flatly.

“Try me.” She said and he was right, the story he told of her father being a much more powerful being than she ever could have imagined sounded ridiculous in her own mind. She shook her head, “My father was nothing more than a deadbeat. He abandoned me with her.” She spat, the distaste she held for her drunk of a mother apparent in her voice. She knew little to nothing about her dad other than the stories her mom told her as a girl. “I want to go home.” She said in a shaky voice, trying to hold her own and sound braver than she actually felt. Castiel told her she couldn’t, apologizing and saying that she simply couldn’t.

“Your abilities are becoming stronger nearly by the minute. I cannot leave you alone. I have watched you grow, Aleah, protected you from those who meant you harm. They will find you if we are not careful. I ask only for your trust in me.” Castiel muttered softly but firmly, his head held high, looking down his nose at her.

Aleah crossed her arms over her chest, shaking from a mix of the cold and uncertainty as she nodded her head. “Where are you taking me then? I don’t have anywhere to go.” She told him but the supposed angel grabbed her bicep and with a flash of light they were in a new location, near a heavy door along a gravel road. Castiel tugged her with him, easily getting inside this strange new place, “I can walk on my own y’know.” She grumbled trying to pull her arm from his hold but he didn’t let up. She bat at his hand and arm, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. He released her only when the door closed, “The hell is wrong with you?” She barked, pulling her arm quickly away from him to avoid getting held again.

The brunette felt the change in temperature, pleased to see that wherever he had taken her had heat considering her minimal clothing. She glanced around the place, curiously wondering what this was and where it was. “Are you going to lock me up or something?” She asked, spotting the line of swords along the wall when she heard another voice come from behind them, turning to see a tall green eyed man standing near the door in which they came. 

Dean was busy doing what he did best at night, not sleeping. He wasn't exactly the hit the books type like Sammy but with all the crap hitting the fan with this angel situation and no replacement for Kevin showing up on the radar, he didn't have much choice but to spend some time trying to figure out just how to eliminate their unwelcome heavenly guests.

He got up from the expansive table he had his laptop and books strewn across to grab a fresh beer, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing as he stared into the sparsely stocked fridge. Sadly there was no magical solution to the mess they were in between the long neck bottles and leftover burritos. 

The hunter grabbed his beer and wandered from the kitchen, twisting off the cap and savoring the chill the bubbly amber liquid left on his throat. His brows raised in shock at the sudden appearance of his friend and a... less than fully clothed brunette number in the bunker's entryway. He took a few hurried steps closer and stopped just short of them, catching the young woman's curt question about being locked up.

"Uh, Cas? When I said you needed to start being more direct with your intentions with women I didn't mean kidnap one and poof her back here like a caveman magician." He said with a note of concern, his sharp eyes scanning the woman in front of him almost automatically out of habit. He had to hand it to his trench-coated friend, she was a dime.

"Look miss, whatever he's told you, there's been a mix up and we're gonna get you home, okay? I'm really sorry, let me get you something to ah-" Dean set his beer down on the railing and stepped into Castiel's space, grabbing his friend and tugging his trench coat off of him and turning to place the garment around the brunette's shoulders. She was obviously fresh out of bed and the little slip of a nightgown she was wearing offered a nice view but he figured she would prefer being a little more covered up.

"Cold out tonight huh?" He questioned her with a little smirk, making her gasp and instinctively cover her breasts with her arm even though she was now concealed by Cas's coat. He took a step back and looked back to his friend, hooking his thumbs into his jean pockets. "Cas you know she can't be here. I'm all for you meeting girls but..." Dean started, cut off by the sound of Sam calling his name behind them.

The sandy blonde looked back over his shoulder. "Sammy? What are you doing up?" He asked his younger brother who was blinking blearily up at them as he approached the group.

"Cas 'woke' me." Sam answered, tapping his temple with his index finger. He came to stand beside his brother, looking about as unkempt as their unknown female guest in his flannel pj pants and white tee, his hair mussed from sleep. "Who's this?" He asked, cocking his head at the brunette holding Cas's coat close around her body. Dean shrugged his broad shoulders and turned back to face the fallen angel again.

"Okay then. Gang's all here Casanova. What the hell is going on?" The elder sibling asked expectantly. 

Castiel met the gaze of his companion, not quite understanding why he was using such an accusatory tone with him in this moment. “I am not a magician, Dean. I used my—“ Cas raised his hands to do airquotes with his fingers, “’Angel Mojo’.” He responded.

Aleah stared at the taller man a hint of worry present in her expression as he spoke to her instead. His gaze on her made her tense but she forced herself to square her shoulders and not show the fear she was feeling. Castiel had told her nothing of this place, of why he had taken her or what this other man was needed for. Perhaps he was an angel too, though both these men were hardly what she thought angelic beings would look like, both of them were too rugged and rough around the edges and unshaven. She eyed the other man as he went to Castiel taking his coat from off his shoulders and the man put up no fight.

The brunette appreciated his gesture of the warm jacket, allowing him to place it around her shoulders, that was until he spoke and his eyes darted down to her chest asking her about the temperature. She gasped, her mouth dropping opened and she very quickly covered her chest with her arms hugging around her frame in disbelief that someone would be so forward. Good to know that the man who thought himself to be her rescuer and protector only brought her to the home of another that treated her like a piece of meat, only serving as eye candy to this pig. She huffed but the man, “Dean” as Castiel referred to him paid her no mind, addressing his friend once more.

Cas just started to open his mouth in preparation for defending himself when a third man came round, hair mused from sleep and eyes tired, dressed in his own pajamas which oddly made Aleah a tad more comfortable but still she clung to the warm coat draped around her frame, avoiding the long haired man’s gaze, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself. Castiel stood straighter now with a three sets of eyes on his person, awaiting some form of explanation. “This is—“

“Aleah. And your friend, the dude in the suit kidnapped me.” The woman answered for him, arching her brow displeased with how long it took him to answer.

The two men faced Cas and the longer haired one ruffled his hair, asking Cas to please tell them why he picked up a half dressed woman in the middle of the night. “Aleah Jackson has been under my careful watch since she was born 28 years ago.” He started, earning a glare from the woman for revealing that to these two though internally she wondered how he even knew all of that. “She is—what Heaven sees as an abomination, born of both human and angel decent. If they knew of her she would be dead before I could find her.”

Aleah scoffed again as she had the first time Cas started to explain anything to her, it was why he brought her as far as he had, needing her in a safe place before he spread the news of who she was. “You must understand that my taking you is for your safety. I have my reasons and amongst those being that you are family.” Castiel told her flatly, moving into the living area and the others followed on instinct.

She shook her head, “You’ve got the wrong girl. I don’t want anything to do with this can’t you just… let me go?” She asked, hugging herself and trying to keep her emotions in check the longer that she stood where she was. She felt Sam’s hand on her shoulder, jolting at his sudden touch but he only meant to guide her to an opened seat. She gave him a faint smile and dropped down to the couch, adjusting the coat to cover her lower half as well.

“I was afraid of the day you would discover your other half. You are the only existing one of your kind, Aleah. You healed that young boy and not in the way you typically might. I could hear you, how frightened you were and then again when you transported into the open street of Chicago, your home. I followed but you vanished once more to a location that not even you had attended before.” Cas continued despite her interruption. He turned when Sam questioned for confirmation that Aleah was technically speaking, an angel.

“No. She shares the blood of my brother. Your father was in fact my brother, Gabriel. You possess the blood of an archangel which makes you much stronger than most and much more of a threat to the remainder of the garrison. They wish to kill you, should they know. The moment I heard your cries I came for your protection, I knew they were coming. It is likely they sense you are not fully an angel and yet you have full access to ‘Angel Radio.’ You have heard me speak to you as well. I know that you have, Aleah.”

The brunette shook her head vigorously, “No. Please I want to go home.” She pleaded, looking to the largest man in the room, Sam who hovered just near her. He had the kindest eyes of the three, the one she thought most likely to argue for her side. She stared at him, “Please. I don’t want any of this.”

Castiel grew harsher, his voice raising at the seriousness of the situation, “You have heard me, Aleah. You have made contact. You ignore the prayers made around you. I have heard you pray yourself to make the voices go away. They will not, no matter where you go they will hunt for you.”

Aleah shook her head again, biting her lower lip to keep it from trembling, he was right she had heard things in her head, others thoughts and prayers not meant for her. She had thought she was going crazy, refusing to believe that anything was wrong she forced herself to ignore them all, shut them out. She closed her eyes and cocooned herself in Cas’s coat, again refusing to believe that any of this was real. She was dreaming, she was home in bed with Manny at her side purring softly in his sleep. Her eyes squeezed tight and she could still hear the suited man’s voice echoing in her head telling her she was an angel that if she left they would come for her. 

Sam's heart twinged with pity for this woman, he knew better than most how it felt to be condemned to a cursed fate simply because of the blood that flowed in your veins. The poor girl was confused, frightened. It wasn't Aleah's fault that all this was happening to her, and neither Cas or Dean had the best bedside manner with this stuff.

"Take it easy, okay? We're gonna figure this out. I promise you you're safe here." Sam murmured, crouching down to be at eye level with Aleah where she sat in the chair. For a second it looked like she might be willing to trust him, but that tiny light of hope in her blue eyes was quickly destroyed by his older brother's rash words behind him.

"Safe? Sure maybe she's undetectable to the God Squad here, but the bunker is anything but safe with her in it. She's one of those what d'you call it, Nephilims?" Dean all but growled out the word, his opinion of most things pertaining to angels had more than soured of late. "And you're telling us she's not just any human-angel hybrid, her baby-daddy is a freaking Archangel? One that has messed with us on multiple occasions, might I add?!" Dean's voice rose in volume as he processed Castiel's words, making the woman shrink back even further, her sea-hued eyes bright with alarm.

"And who also saved our asses, Dean! Would both of you just calm down please?" Sam quickly came to their departed friend's defense, knowing his faults but able to focus on the fact that Gabriel had gone down fighting for the fate of the human race. He looked worriedly back to Aleah, smiling gently and trying to soothe her with both Cas and Dean going ballistic. "Look Aleah, I know this is a lot to take in at once, but-" Sam started to comfort her, but in less time than it took to blink, the chair their unwilling guest occupied was suddenly vacant. Sam blinked once, twice, sighing haggardly and looking back up at Cas. "Where did she go?" He asked, his voice tinged with annoyance at both of them.

Castiel's eyes took on a faraway look for an instant and he reported that she had managed to transport herself home, his expression more than a little uneasy and Sam couldn't help but wonder if that was partly because his beloved trench coat had left along with her. The angel cleared his throat and informed them that he'd go and retrieve her again, but halted when Dean spoke again.

"No, hold up a sec." Dean prompted, his green eyes flickering from Sam back up to meet Cas's gaze. "Now that she's used her powers, she's gonna pop up on angel radar or whatever, right?" He asked, grabbing his bottle again and taking a pull from it as Castiel explained that the longer Aleah remained in the open without learning to control her powers the more endangered she became.

Dean sighed, not liking where this was going. "You told us before that making these Nephilim are on the top of the angels' Thou Shalt Not list, right? So why have you been protecting her all this time? I mean you used to tow the company line. Why didn't you just ice her?" He asked, already pretty sure he knew the answer.

Cas considered his question, hesitating to speak and looking genuinely conflicted. Sam stood and put into words what their friend could not. "You heard him, Dean. She's his family. That means we've got to help her if we can." The younger Winchester reiterated, giving his brother a pleading look. Dean muttered a curse under his breath as he looked back and forth between his closest companions.

"All right, fine. Bring her back here, but not yet. She doesn't want to believe all this crap and I can't blame her, but she's got to if she wants to survive. She needs to feel a little heat first." Dean relented, holding up his hand to silence Sam when he started to protest his plan, "I'm not saying let her really get hurt, just keep a close eye on her and when her bubble pops, go and get her. I mean it, Cas." Dean warned when the angel looked like he might just go and fetch her immediately anyway.

"Trust me, she's not gonna buy what we're sellin' until she gets a little demonstration. And if she's anything like her dear old dad, she won't take to being told to stay. She needs to understand this is the only option, she needs to want to be here, at least on some level." He explained, and neither Sam nor Cas could deny he was right, even if they didn't like it.

Dean directed his attention more squarely on his angelic friend then, "Let's be clear though. I don't like this. It's dangerous and stupid and just waiting to go sideways. Once she gets here, it's Angel 101, you got that? You need to teach her how to control her powers so she doesn't blow our Batcave all to hell." He instructed, not letting up his intense stare until Castiel finally nodded, accepting his terms.

"And you," Dean turned to face Sam again, "You have to make sure she understands the score. We can't have Obi Wan over here training up the next Darth Angel to use her powers against us." He told his brother with a note of finality, wandering down into the main foyer to open a cedar box sitting on a table below the row of swords hanging on the wall.

Sam scoffed a little in his throat, relieved that Dean was willing to accept Aleah being at the bunker but a little put out to be dished out orders like he was a kid again. "Okay, and that leaves you to do... What exactly?" He questioned, following his brother's footsteps to see what he was retrieving.

"Me? I've got the most important job." Dean quipped, extracting one of the three angel blades they still had, spoils of war, in a manner of speaking. "I'm the insurance policy if this blows up in our face." He said with a darker tone. He examined the weapon, the ethereal metal glinting in the dim light and touched his fingertip to the wickedly sharp point. The elder Winchester had had more than his fill of angels and as far as he was concerned this Aleah chick was just another flavor of trouble they didn't need. He was willing to give her a chance only because of what Gabriel had done for them, for all of humanity and because he knew Cas and Sam wouldn't get off his case about it if he refused outright. But they couldn't stop him from ending things if it was necessary. And he knew he was the only fit judge of the three of them to know if it was necessary or not. 

Aleah couldn't withstand being in the bunker any longer despite Sam's kind words and attempts to comfort her it was no use. She simply shook her head at him with her eyes closed once more telling him she couldn't do it. And suddenly she was in her room again sitting up in her bed.

She was crying and breathing heavily repeating the words that they had the wrong girl. Her eyes shot opened and she realized she was back. She looked around the space for confirmation that it was real, reaching out and picking up a sleeping Manny. The cat mewed at her moving him until he realized who it was he relaxed.

She kissed the top of his head and nuzzled him to her chest, the coat still wrapped around her body. She refused to believe it all, setting aside her companion once more and tearing off the trench coat. In her mind she told herself it had been a dream, that the coat she wore came from someone at work and it was only that nothing more. The lies they fed her couldn't be possible in real life. There was no way.

The next morning she woke as always, hardly getting any sleep at all despite the attempts at trying. She showered and dressed in the same fashion she always did, tugging on her navy blue scrubs, the only time she would ever be caught without heels on was when she went to her classes. Still she kept up her made up image, coating her face in make up and curling her hair into perfect loose waves.

She left for work saying good bye to her cat and leaving the house. This morning felt different, perhaps she was simply tired but she wasn't certain. Her heart was racing as she had the odd feeling she was being followed on her walk to campus, changing routes to ease her mind and it only helped a little. She heard the voices again as she walked, eyes watering because this wasn't a common occurrence but the sounds in her mind didn't seem to quite after last night. She was thinking roo much about it she supposed and it sparked them to return.

She pressed her hands over her ears as though that might help quickening her stride to get into her class. She gasped as a familiar voice came through saying her name only this time it was someone actually visible. Her friend Aaron laid his hand on her shoulder and asked her if she was okay, hardly having realized she had made it to her class. "Aaron." She muttered relieved it was only him. He smiled at her and asked again if she was alright. "Yes. I just... didn't sleep last night and it's loud in here." She defended.

Aaron chuckled and looked around, telling her it really wasn't considering not many had come in yet. She looked around the ward and laughed at herself to brush it off, "Right. I have to go wash my hands and get my things." She whispered, smiling up at him. She walked away and down the hall, pressing a hand to her forehead and trying to concentrate on something other than what she was hearing.

Then she felt the same feeling before, someone following her. She spun on her heel and Aaron was right against her back. She jumped and tried to move away from him but his hand shot out and his expression changed as he grabbed her roughly. "I know what you are." He grumbled darkly to her. She pushed at his chest but it did nothing to get him away. Aaron forced her back further down the hall and roughly smacked her across the cheek. "Your kind are nothing. You are nothing. You are the ones that out us." He told her in a deeper tone than his own as her head whipped to one side.

"Aaron what are you doing?" She pleaded, pressing her hand to her cheek and trying to keep away from him until he backed her into an empty exam type room meant for the students. He stepped close to her ready to hit her again, his hand digging in his jacket and he drew a blade.

"Suppose I can kill you anyway I please given you are partly human. Shall we give it a try? See what harms?" Aaron asked only it wasn't aaron, how this angel over took him she wasn't sure. Maybe it wasn't a dream. Her mind reeling when the room rumbled around them. Castiel appeared right in front of her, his arm raised and he halted Aaron's advance stopping him with a grab to his wrist from stabbing Aleah.

Cas blocked him easily and the other was stunned by his sudden arrival. Castiel flipped the blade onto the other and forced his arm back, making him drive it through his own stomach. Aarons head whipped back and lights flashed illuminating from his being and lighting the room. Aleah covered her mouth to keep from screaming as she watched Aaron's lifeless body fall to the ground. "Oh my god." She breathed, staring at the man remaining before her. Eyes she recognized instantly. "No." She shook her head.

Castiel grabbed her, "you cannot stay here. I am sorry." He said simply holding her bicep and keeping her from leaving. Aleah glanced at the body on the floor starting to question how they took hold of him. "Promises of things we cannot offer, likely you or vows of wealth to make him agree to becoming a vessel. His real name was Abidel. Now we must go. There are more watching you." He said simply, waiting until she nodded at him and once more they vanished. 

It took even less time than Dean guessed for the security blanket Aleah had run back to hide under to be yanked away from her, late the next night Castiel returned from his little outing with the brunette in tow. Dean and Sam were both awakened from a sound sleep, tiredly helping unpack and move around all the woman's possessions that Cas had haphazardly piled in one of the bunker's spare rooms just down the hall from their own private quarters.

When Cas told them the story of how he'd retrieved her, Dean questioned why they didn't return immediately that morning and the angel offered only a cryptic response that there were a few things he had to teach Aleah first that the confines of the bunker wouldn't allow for. The elder Winchester accepted that explanation at face value for the time being, partly because he was dead tired and partly because the less he knew about angelic inner-workings the happier he was. He started sifting through a pile of clothing and random items, wincing as he discreetly threw away a few broken pottery items that had landed none too gently on the desk when Cas left them. He began sorting clothing items into the large wooden dresser by the door, rolling his eyes at many of her more frou-frou items. How could one woman have this many clothes, especially such impractical ones? This princess better get used to a rougher standard of living and quick. He thought with an inward sigh.

Sam busied himself shifting some of the bigger furniture around, asking Aleah what wall she wanted her bed against and other neutral questions, graciously pretending not to notice the tears welling in her large blue eyes and the way her voice wobbled when she spoke to him. Her whole world had been turned upside down through no fault of her own, he was amazed she was holding up as well as she was.

Castiel reappeared in the center of Aleah's new living space, informing Dean he had made all the necessary alterations to the minds of the few people the woman had left in her life that might wonder where she had disappeared to: Her flatmate thought she moved out, her teachers thought she transferred, her boss thought she quit. That way on the off chance an angel tried a more conventional approach to track her down, they wouldn't have any indication of when or where she'd actually fallen off the face of the earth.

"It still gives me the creeps that you can do that Cas. Get in people's heads and shuffle the cards." Dean shook his head, nodding his approval to his friend despite his words. Like it or not, Aleah had to cease to exist in every sense except the literal one to keep her safe. They could take down angels but only on their own terms, the three of them weren't powerful enough to play watchdog to this girl all the time.

Castiel stood awkwardly in the center of the room while the brothers and their new housemate tried to get her space in order, Sam was trying to cheer her up, telling her they had a ridiculous amount of medical science information not to mention just about any other field she might be interested in so between that and her training she wouldn't get bored at least.

"Easy with the bookworm stuff Sammy, the most important thing for her to learn first is to defend herself. If she ever wants to set a toe out of here again she's gotta be able to hold her own in a fight." Dean said in a matter of fact tone, not looking up from the pile of clothes he was sorting into the dresser already in the bedroom.

Aleah started to protest, saying she had been training to be a healer, and that she didn't condone violence of any kind. She looked to Sam thinking he might back up her views, but the younger hunter winced and shrugged, guilt in his expression when she realized he wouldn't side with her in this particular case.

"Oh would you please wake up already!" Dean exclaimed, interrupting her and slamming his palm on the desk as he turned to glare at her. "Look at what's happened to you in the past twenty four hours. I hate to break it to you princess but the world is a dark, cold, violent place and outside these walls it's kill or be killed. The sooner you get that through your pretty little head, the better!" He finished, brandishing the fistful of clothing items he had been sorting in her direction, realizing at the end of his tirade that he was holding a creamy pink push-up bra trimmed with delicate black lace and tiny sequins. The anger building in him took a back seat and his brain momentarily shorted out as the image of the curvaceous brunette wearing the little number he was holding flashed across his mind. He tried to hold on to his pissed off expression but still smirked a little as he looked from the bra back to her.

Aleah was able to forget the sorrow of her bigger problems for the moment, sputtering in offense as she reached out and snatched the garment from him, holding it to her chest and yelling at him to get out. Dean's temper flared anew and he threw up his hands, "Right then! If that's the thanks I get for taking you in, fine! Good night princess!" He half yelled half growled as he retreated out of her room.

Sam lightly touched Aleah's arm and tried to find something comforting to say to her but she tugged out of his grip and asked albeit in a far less angry tone for him to please leave her alone for the rest of the night. The tall hunter understood and nodded, reminding her that if she needed anything not to hesitate to come ask him, telling her his room was the second door from the end of the hall on the left. She nodded and managed to thank him, it killed him to know she was crumbling and there wasn't anything he could do to help her. Only time and arming herself with knowledge and skills would help her now. 

Aleah lingered near Sam, the man she felt most comfortable with from the start, answering his questions with short one or two word answers. She blinked, trying to clear her tears and keep them from falling from her eyes, taking in everything that happened to her and trying to wrap her head around it all. She was on edge, holding her arms around herself for comfort and jumping yet again when Castiel poofed into the room. Her eyes darted over to the man, listening to what he was telling Dean and it was enough to break her down, tears slipping down her cheeks to which she quickly wiped away, earning her a sympathetic smile from Sam.

She was virtually nothing to the world now, meant no one to anyone, well except a burden to the men surrounding her, worrying her lower lip to keep a sob from tearing its way out of her mouth. She knew it had to be done but that didn’t mean it hurt any less and the glares she earned from Dean as he unpacked box after box weren’t much help either. He made it very clear that while he would protect her any way that he could, he didn’t exactly like having to.

The three of them continued to unpack, monitored by the awkward re-trenchcoated angel. Sam approached with his light smile, a hopeful gleam in his eye when he told her about the library they housed here, that she could continue her studies in anything she could ever think of. She started to grin in return and thank him for his reassurance that she might actually like it here, when Dean opened his mouth again scolding Sam and telling him rather than her directly that she would need to focus on training. To her ears it sounded like it was hoping she would get strong enough and learn enough to defend herself without their help, pushing her out as fast as he might be able to.

She glared at him, “I’m in nursing school, Dean. I’m ‘training’ to be a healer and with Cas’s help I can hone into my angelic abilities or whatever to heal those that need it. I don’t condone violence of any kind. You would be shocked to find out what a simple conversation with a person can change.” She uttered back, sitting tall and looking to Sam for his agreement but he gave a pained expression that told her he had to side with Dean on this particular subject. She frowned in return and her shoulders slumped a little in disappointment to know there was no fighting this.

Dean’s voice rose, slapping his hand down onto the desk when he spun around to scream in her direction. Aleah stared at him with wide eyes glimmering with tears but she didn’t fight back, she refused to stoop to his level at least for now. He shoved the clothes he had been sorting in her direction but soon he paused, eyes darting down to his hand, eyeing the pink push up that belonged to her. His gaze darted over to her with a tiny smirk playing on his lip and her eyes went wide, “You’re sick!” She scolded, lunging forward and snatching the garment from his large hands, tugging the delicate piece to her chest and away from him. “Get out you perv! Get out!” She yelled in return.

Dean shot right back calling her the stupid nickname he apparently decided he would brand her with again. She managed to keep her composure until Dean finally departed with a less than kind ‘good night’. She felt Sam’s hand on her arm and she tucked the bra aside partly out of embarrassment but he said nothing. The brunette tucked her long wispy bangs behind her ear and pulled out of his hold, “You too. Please, I want to be left alone—I can unpack the rest myself.” She requested, nodding her head when he told her his room was opened to her at any time should she need him at all. “Thank you, Sam.”

Aleah spent the next hour or so busying herself with unpacking until she felt the exhaustion of the emotional rollercoaster she had been riding on front cart the past couple days finally kick in. She opted for sleep, dressing down in a pair of pink cotton pj shorts and a long black sleeve crew neck, tugging the sleeves over her hands as she often did for warmth as she climbed in bed. This was her bed, her room for the most, it was all her things but still it didn’t feel like home at all because it wasn’t. She hardly felt welcomed here.

She lay in bed for only a moment or two before she realized part of the reasoning was that something or rather someone was missing. She shot out of bed and searched the tower that belonged to her cat, checked his crate Castiel had zapped back and started to get a little frantic. Aleah pulled opened the door and padded out of her borrowed space once more, looking for one of the boys. She was pleased when she found Sam hunched over a desk in the front room, smiling slightly at him and he quickly greeted her with an equal grin asking her if everything was okay. “Umm… Yea. Well no but—Well I was wondering about Manny. I don’t sleep well without him there.” She stated as though expecting him to already know who she meant.

Sam’s brow furrowed and he shook his head apologizing and saying he didn’t know who that was. “It’s my—“ She started, being cut off yet again by the loud voice that belonged to the oldest Winchester. He made a comment about how he thought they put her to sleep, asking if there was a pea in her bed or something amiss to make her have to show up again. Sam gave his older brother a look and told Dean that Aleah had been looking for something or rather someone. 

“It’s Manny. I don’t sleep well without him next to me.” She repeated as though that might be enough. Dean laughed and told her that was too bad, she would have to deal without the cuddles because he sure as shit wasn’t going to fill in, proceeding to tell her of the ‘no boyfriend’s’ rule. She rolled her eyes, scoffing when he mentioned filling in, “It’s not my boyfriend, jackass. It’s my tabby.” She returned and Dean looked her over as though he wasn’t sure if it might be on her or what she was saying. “My cat.” She explained further before he could ask what the hell a tabby was. “I haven’t seen him and I—Well I’ve had him for years.” She explained further, glaring at Dean when she caught his eyes starting to wander to her exposed thighs, making her fidget and tug down the hem of her shorts to cover more of herself. She crossed her arms over her chest, recalling the night before.

Dean shook his head vigorously, raising his hand and telling her ‘no’ repeatedly, no boyfriends no pet. “That’s not fair to him. I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about him.” She pleaded, “Isn’t part of hiding me out here and erasing my past and existence on the planet. Manny still remembers me and wouldn’t you think that my flatmate would remember that I had him? She would wonder why I deserted him!” She bargained, her eyes starting to well when she thought he might tell her it simply wasn’t possible. She faced Sam, “Please. He’s probably wondering why I’m not home with him and all my stuff is gone—“ She muttered brokenly and Dean awkwardly hushed her.

Aleah could see out of the corner of her eyes that Sam wanted to say she could get him but giving Dean’s current stand point on the matter he didn’t seem like he wanted to go against his brother any further. Dean told her a flat ‘no’ without so much as an apology for things having to be like this. The older of the two grabbed his laptop and retreated to his room and Sam ducked his head already knowing that she was coming to him next for help. “Sam, please. He’s quiet I promise. He’ll stay in my room.” She half begged him with wide eyes to emphasize her stand point. “Castiel can take me home to fetch him. Haven’t you had a pet before? Manny is my family and I can’t leave him like that.” She continued, kneeling down beside his desk desperately trying to get him on her side.

Sam caved with a heavy sigh and agreed to her terms, telling her that she would have to suffer whatever effects it caused from Dean. She nodded an understanding, “I suppose he can’t get any worse than he already has been.” She said, giving Sam a weak grin and kissing his cheek, “Thank you, Sam.” She muttered again, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze before she spun around to go find Castiel. 

Dean stormed back to his room, a string of curses running through his mind mainly directed at his angelic friend for adding this new wrinkle to their already train wreck-status life. He flopped face down still fully clothed on his bed with a haggard sigh, hoping to find sleep quickly so he could forget about this whole mess for at least a few hours.

He had just managed to drift off when a tiny noise at his back made him jolt awake. His mind instantly ticked off every name on the roster: Sam would either make no sound or call his name, Castiel would wake him with his 'mojo' and he'd likely hear the princess a mile off in those ridiculous heels of hers. A small sound like this, even here in this sanctuary, made Dean's instincts immediately assume an attack. He snatched his colt from it's place beneath his pillow and whipped around to face his door, aiming the weapon at whatever was trying to get the jump on him.

His brows knitted together in confusion when the intruder turned out to be a small fluffy grey cat, staring up at him with wide green eyes. "What the hell?" The hunter sputtered, replacing his gun in it's hiding spot and standing up. He was perplexed for only a second, his sleep addled brain finally reminding him about Aleah whining about her cat. He groaned, knowing she must have convinced Sam to let her bring the animal here. So that was all his word was good for around here, was it? Well he wasn't about to let this go.

Dean crossed his room slowly, half-expecting the cat to dart away from him but the animal simply stared up at him, almost as if he was expecting something from the hunter. "All right c'mere you little fur-ball." He said as he bent and scooped that cat up, hooking his hands under the feline's front legs and holding him at arm's length as he proceeded out of his bedroom and down the hall.

He only got a few paces down the hallway when Sammy's door opened and both his little brother and their new housemate emerged, twin expressions of worry on their faces. Dean figured Aleah must have realized the cat had given her the slip, and so of course she was running to good ol' Sam for help finding him before Dean did. He rolled his green eyes when the woman nearly jumped out of her skin as she looked up and saw him.

"I assume this is 'Manny?' Dammit Sammy, I said no pets!" Dean reproached his brother in a harsh tone, holding the cat out for Aleah to take as she rushed over.

Sam held up his hands in a placating gesture as he tried to explain, "I know Dean, but... Come on. He's small, he won't get in the way. Aleah can keep the cat in her room he won't cause trouble." The younger Winchester hoped his sibling would take out his anger on him and not Aleah, the woman had been through enough already without being told she couldn't even keep her long-time companion.

"Like hell he won't! He hasn't been here an hour and he's already caused plenty of trouble!" Dean railed, jutting an accusatory finger at said feline's owner, "I don't appreciate living space being violated and I don't you sneaking around behind my back! You wanna live here princess, you want our protection? You better cut that shit out because I won't. Tolerate. It. Again." The hunter yelled, his final few words clipped with anger. Every muscle in his body tense and every nerve wound tight.

Before either Sam or Aleah had time to respond, Dean turned on his heel and stormed off down the hallway back to his room. He could hear Sammy call after him but he didn't care, he grabbed his gun from under his pillow and shoved it down the back of his jeans, walking briskly down to the range to take out his frustration on a few hapless target sheets.

Dean slammed a box of rounds down beside him in his lane, taking aim and proceeding to turn the sheet at the end of the lane into swiss cheese. He wasn't even that angry about the cat, not really. It was just easier to focus on that instead of the fact that he now had another person to be responsible for. Another life he was gambling with, there was no denying people who hung around him tended to die bloody. And the fact that this particular person also happened to be a grenade with the pin pulled at the top of the God Squad's most wanted list? Just the cherry on the shit sundae.

The hunter fired round after round, his grip on his weapon white-knuckle and the set of his jaw and shoulders were tense to the point of pain. This was all going to end badly, he knew it because helll, what didn't end badly for him? 

Aleah followed Sam out of his space in search for her cat Manny that she had retrieved with the assistance of Castiel. Her eyes widening when she saw Dean holding the cat as far away from his body as he could manage. Sam immediately came to her defense when Dean grew steadily angrier with the entire situation, taking the cat back from him and listening to the brother’s play their sides. Out of instinct she drew back a step or two, Manny wrapped in her arms once more as she stepped partly behind Sam while he spoke.

Dean pointed an accusatory finger in her direction, screaming at her. He harshly told her that if she wanted his help and his protection then she needed to obey his orders. Part of her wondered if he would actually give her up to the angels if ever given the chance, she hardly knew this man and all she saw of him was either pervy or angry. She couldn’t quite gather why Sam tolerated him for so many years, why he didn’t just ditch the man even though he was his brother.

Aleah looked to Sam when Dean quickly departed and left them standing there without giving either of them a chance to say anything in return. Sam called to him and she rolled her eyes, figuring it was hardly worth the breath at least for now, he was beyond livid and maybe he had a point, it was wrong of her to go behind his back and do something he didn’t approve of. Sam sighed heavily and apologized for his older brother’s behavior. “I should talk to him or something? Shouldn’t I? I—I mean I didn’t mean to upset him I just—“ She cuddled her cat closer to her frame, scratching under Manny’s chin. Sam nodded in understanding before she could even finish, getting that she was attached to her companion.

Sam reached over and pet Manny too, telling her he got it but Dean just needed a little space to get over his anger first. “Okay.” She smiled up at Sam who towered over her at least a foot higher. They parted ways for the time being and Aleah took Manny back to her room, this time putting him in his little caged space so he would stay in her room. The cat didn’t seem to mind being moved around, happy to have confirmation that someone was around at least. Aleah told him to stay put and left her room, still dressed in her pjs as she padded down the hall and managed to find the shooting range, the sounds of echoing gun fire bouncing off the walls, muffled by the door but it was enough that she could figure out where he had gotten to.

Aleah pushed open the door and saw him standing at one of the many lanes, gun drawn and at the ready. He fired half a dozen rounds at a rapid pace, taking out six targets in the blink of an eye. For a moment or two she simply watched him, silently closing the door behind her, crossing her arms over her chest. She bit her lip and her heart fluttered a little seeing him take control of his weapon like he was; she knew nothing about guns or shooting but the image in front of her of a strong man, broad shoulders squared and his feet boxed just right, perfect form and she couldn’t help but watch how focused he was on his task, that was until his voice rumbled over the sound of another shot.

She jumped slightly, realizing he was addressing her and not talking to himself, she hadn’t any idea that he was privy to her lingering behind him. Her eyes darted up from where they had tracked down to his rear, trying not to eye his biceps flexing slightly beneath his t-shirt as he berated her for ‘ogling’ him. So maybe she was a little but she wasn’t going to admit to that, “Don’t flatter yourself, there’s a difference between ogling and admiring a man at work.” She pointed out, glaring at him as he turned to look at her over his shoulder.

Dean didn’t say anything else, scoffing in his throat and turning back to the targets in front of him, raising his gun again and firing another round. She waited, as though expecting he might just finish up and let them talk things out but when he stopped to reload, starting up again, she realized she was mistaken. “Dean I—“ She started and another shot rang, “Dean I know that you don’t—like this situation— anymore than I do…” She called over the occasional pop. He chose to ignore her, even as she came up to his side he turned slightly to fire at a target further off to his left the opposite direction of her.

“Dean! Please I’m trying to talk to you.” Aleah muttered, her voice raising over the remaining sound of gun fire. “I don’t like this situation either okay? Manny… is the last part of my life to exist. My world just… crumbled to pieces in little over 24 hours. I tried to reason with you first but you’re really hard headed, Dean.” She said a little softer now, watching him lower his weapon but still he didn’t look at her. She shifted her weight nervously, the silence making her steadily more uncomfortable, tucking her hair behind her ear, “Cut me some slack. I just lost everything I’ve ever known, everyone I’ve ever cared about.” She muttered, her eyes welling again as she pleaded with him to give her a chance.

“I want to learn so you don’t have to be my protectors but… you’re making this really hard.” She whispered brokenly, trying not to let him know how much his temper was bothering her but she couldn’t fight back the slight wobble in her tone. 

As much as Dean didn't want to admit it, the woman's words struck a chord deep within him. He and his brother knew better than most how it felt to have everything you love ripped away. The hunter sighed and looked down at his gun he had set on the table, the weapon had become a part of him and he couldn't really recall a time in his life when he hadn't been fighting with his back against the wall any more. Maybe he had been too hard on her. Okay, he knew he was being too hard on her. But the simple fact was she had to face the seriousness of her situation, or she was going to die.

Dean's shoulders slumped and he finally looked over in her direction. He noted with an uneasy exhalation of breath that Aleah was on the verge of dissolving into tears, and women crying was something he was absolute shit at dealing with. He winced and straightened, clearing his throat and picking up his gun.

"Ever shoot before?" He asked, hoping she would understand he was trying to bury the hatchet by letting the issue about the cat and everything else drop. The brunette's eyes flickered between the colt in his hand and his face, finally shaking her head no after a long moment of awkward silence. Dean nodded, expecting as much and took a step back to allow her space and beckoning her closer. 

Aleah hesitantly approached and he stood close behind her, his larger frame completely enclosing hers. He showed her how to place her feet and hold her stance, putting his gun in her hand and guiding her shoulders to where they needed to be for optimum stability. "This is your foundation, okay? Focus on living right here, in this stance." He took a half step to the side and brought her arms up, molding her hands around his gun in the proper position, his callused fingers rough on her smooth skin.

"Now, you're gonna feel a little recoil, but I'll help keep you steady the first few shots. Line it up, take a deep breath." Dean coached in a low voice, trying not to get distracted by how good her hair smelled and how soft her skin looked. Just minutes ago he'd been so angry at this chick he could have kicked her out of the bunker on her ass to fend for herself, but that didn't mean he didn't know how incredibly hot she was. He wasn't about to let this live grenade get under his skin though. All hereally knew about her was that she was a danger to herself and the people he had to protect. That, and she liked damn cats.

Aleah's breathing was uneven and he guessed she was nervous about pulling the trigger, he gripped her hands tighter holding her steady. "Don't worry, I've got it. Show me what you got, Princess" He reassured her, trying to quell the tension lingering between them with his little smartass nickname for her. 

Aleah arched a hesitant brow at Dean as he asked her if she had ever shot a gun before. She glanced at the gun in his hand to his stubble covered face, shaking her head in response. He moved aside enough that she would have room in front of him, gesturing for her to come closer to him and join him at the lane. She worried her lower lip with her teeth, letting her arms unwrap around herself, “I don’t know that this is proper shooting attire.” She laughed lightly.

He didn’t seem to think much of it, nodding again for her to come join him and ever so slowly she did just that, stepping up in front of him. His larger taller frame wrapped around hers and boxed her into place. She swallowed when he handed over his gun, shifting his stance to get her to line up with the proper footing. She took his cues and did as he silently requested of her, stepping back a little and feeling him pressed up against her back.

His hand brushed over her shoulder, each one in turn, rotating her frame and trying to get her to relax a little. The brunette nodded at his statement, feeling him move only to have his fingers close around hers and lock them down to his gun, becoming increasingly aware of his touch along her smooth flesh. His hands were warm, liking the feeling of them enclosed around her chilled fingers. “I’m not gonna like fall over right?” She asked in a nervous tone of voice even as he reassured her that he would keep her steady.

Aleah nodded once more, feeling his arms locked around her and keeping her arms up like he had promised her he would. She took in a few shaky breaths, her heart fluttering and she wasn’t so sure it’s reasoning at the moment, whether it be from his touch on her skin or the fact that she had a weapon in her hands for the first time. His tone was much smoother, more calming against her ear as he vowed yet again that he would help her. “What if I miss?” She asked and he hushed her, telling her it wasn’t about hitting her mark right now it was about learning the gun in her hands.

She squeezed her eyes closed out of hesitation and pulled the trigger, feeling Dean’s finger guiding hers slightly against her knuckle. She jolted from the kick as well as the sound that seemed much louder now that she was standing right near the gun holding it herself. Her head still ducked a little she fired another and heard Dean chuckling at her telling her to stop. “What? Why are you laughing?” She asked him in a soft shy tone.

Dean reached and coaxed her to turn her head and made her look at her target, telling her she needed to keep her eyes opened and not flinch away from the shot. He told her it wouldn’t hurt her and that she needed to stay focused. Aleah let him guide her once more, lining up the sight this time and doing her best to get a good shot in, at least one but how could she keep her entire focus when he was pressed up firmly behind her, engulfing her easily within the width of his shoulders.

The brunette curled her finger around the trigger and fired one shot then another and another as Dean coached her to keep going. She did and he still lingered until she emptied her first clip with his assistance. When the gun clicked, indicating there were no more bullets to be fired he pulled back, taking the gun from her with a grin, “Was that—How do I know if I did okay? I can’t even tell if I hit the target or not.” He pushed a button on the wall and the target she had been aiming for came forward towards her, he pulled it off the clips it hung and showed her the few marks she had left, saying he kept track as well. She looked it over and spotted the area he obviously had fired at repeatedly, the center of the target was nearly completely shot out and she knew those weren’t from her, her bullet holes were much more spuratic.

Dean pointed to the left side of the target and explained that she needed to adjust her stance because she fired heavily to the left which meant that each time she felt the kick she jolted in one direction. He muttered that she needed to get a firmer grip on the weapon. Aleah listened, nodding her head at his explaination until he moved away and she asked what it was he was doing now. He told her that the rounds didn’t refill themselves, gesturing for her to come to the table so he could show her how to reload a clip.

He was slow in his description of taking apart the colt he so often used enough to reload it, showing her how to pop the clip out and then how to load bullets into it one by one, allowing her to do one on her own. Dean flipped the gun around once loaded and handed it off to her, saying she knew what to do and he would watch. “I don’t… Okay.” She started to argue but opted against it, taking the colt from him and lining up the way he showed her, “So I should aim more to the right then? So that I don’t shoot too far left?” She asked and heard him give an affirmative response. She did as he showed her before, drawing the weapon up and firing shot after shot. 

It was well past dawn when the pair finally decided to call it quits. Neither one of them had realized how long their little shooting session had gone on until the tiny beeping of the alarm on Aleah's delicate gold wrist watch went off. She looked at her clock turning it off and her eyes widened with surprise, clearly taken aback by how the time had flown by.

Dean noted the time over her shoulder and gave her a sideways look as he walked away to start gathering up his extra ammunition and cleaning tools to put away before they headed up. "Why do you have an alarm set for 4:30 in the morning? That's insane." He said with a wry chuckle, thinking idly that half the time he hadn't even fallen asleep by 4:30.

The brunette sighed and shrugged, explaining that she had to be up that early to have enough time to get ready for her early morning class. She hadn't thought about the fact that she didn't need it set anymore, it was just habit by now.

"What time was your class at?" He questioned, and she told him 7:00am. He blinked a few times in disbelief, running his hand absently through his short messy hair. "You take two and a half hours to get ready in the morning?" He asked incredulously, the glare she offered him in response doing little to intimidate him. "Look, I'm not trying to start a fight here all right? I just hope you know that when the heat is on we can't exactly stand around waiting for you to curl your eyelashes." He cocked his head at her, waiting for her to lash out at him in response but Aleah simply nodded, even if her full lips were pursed tightly together in irritation.

"Look I'm sorry for before, I am. But this is the first place Sammy and I have ever felt relatively secure. The first place we've kind of... Been able to call home, you know? Since we lost ours when we were kids..." Dean's voice trailed off and he mentally shook himself to banish the dark memories of fire and fear from the front of his mind. "I'll defend it with my last breath. And as long as you're here, I'll keep you safe too." He finished, his gaze never wavering from hers as he spoke.

Aleah opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out, he could tell she was struggling to keep the lid tight on her emotions. He stepped closer and grabbed his gun from her, tossing his head back over his shoulder indicating that she should follow him as he turned and walked towards the door. "Come on Princess, let's go get some sleep. Usually somebody's up making coffee around seven-thirty so if you want any while it's hot that's when you've gotta be ready." He told her without looking back at her again as he led her up from the shooting range through the series of winding passageways that were easy to get lost in if you didn't know the way.

They parted ways in the hall all their bedrooms opened up into, Aleah belatedly called a quick good night to him just as he shut his bedroom door. The corner of his mouth tugged up a bit, but he wasn't sure if he was more relieved that they had cleared the air between them a bit or just happy to finally be able to crash for a couple hours.

Sam was up around his usual time, busy making coffee in his pjs since he was the first one up and around. He heard footsteps approaching and his brow furrowed a bit, because there was a distinct clicking sound to the footfalls he wasn't accustomed to hearing in these surrounds. The tall hunter turned with the full coffee pot in hand, a look of mild shock flickering over his features as he took in their newest roommate.

Aleah looked like she'd just stepped off a New York city fashion runway, from her perfectly curled tresses and immaculate makeup to her sequined light blue cashmere sweater and distressed skinny jeans, all finished off by a pair of shiny red high heels and silver bangles. "Um... Good morning." Sam said with a grin, trying not to chuckle when he pictured his older brother's likely reaction to her appearance when he woke up. He grabbed a mug and poured for her, handing over the steaming mug and nodding when she thanked him.

"I'm making a spinach and tomato egg-white omelet for breakfast, you want one?" Sam offered, feeling a glimmer of hope that maybe with Aleah here there would finally be someone else around who appreciated healthy eating habits. The brunette eagerly accepted his offer and lingered by the stove watching him cook, commenting with a giggle that she was anything but domestic and hadn't cooked anything from scratch in god knew how long.

Sam laughed. "Sounds like my brother. I think the reason I like cooking fresh stuff so much now is because I grew up on a diet of spaghetti-os and fast food tacos." He expertly folded his first omelet over in the pan and slid it off onto a plate for Aleah to take. She tasted it and exclaimed delightfully how good it was, making him smile wide. 

"Yeah but you never went hungry now did you Sammy?" Dean asked from the door as he ambled into the kitchen still in his rumpled clothes from yesterday. He didn't even look at the pair standing at the stove as he made a beeline for the fridge, sticking his head and shoulders in rummaging around. "I thought we still had a few left over burritos, where'd they go?" He asked with a peeved edge to his voice.

Sam rolled his eyes as he continued cooking his breakfast. "I threw them out Dean, they were starting to grow penicillin." The younger sibling was wholly unperturbed by his brother's growl.

Dean straightened and crossed the tiled floor to the coffee pot, pouring himself a mug and finally really looking at Aleah for the first time. He stared openly at her in disbelief until the woman started to fidget uncomfortably and finally asked him what he was looking at.

"Going to meet the Queen today Princess?" Dean asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Aleah made a noise of disapproval and looked herself over, saying in an annoyed tone that there was nothing wrong with how she dressed, this was a normal day look for her. The hunter blinked once, twice at her over the rim of his coffee mug, sipping the hot liquid and clearing his throat. "You have got to be friggin' kidding me." He scoffed, taking his coffee back with him out of the kitchen to go get showered and ready for the day. 

Aleah left Dean late in the evening or rather early in the morning but rather than going to sleep she took the chance to get ready in her usual fashion. She curled her hair, put on her make up and spent nearly 30 minutes searching for something fitting to wear. The brunette tugged on a pair of red heels and strut down the hall with a little more confidence this time around now that she was starting to get settled.

She turned the corner and came into the kitchen, grabbing Sam’s attention and he greeted her. “Good morning.” She chirped, smiling brightly at him. He offered to make her breakfast and she gladly accepted, taking the coffee he handed her and wandering over to find the sugar. She fixed her drink up, telling him she hardly had the chance to make herself meals mostly because she didn’t have time but also because she wasn’t the best at doing so.

Dean entered not long after they were talking and she grinned up at him at first, recalling their evening together in the range and absently wondering if he had gotten to sleep at all. He dug through the fridge and she waited expectantly for him to say something to her, anything but he didn’t. He straightened out and made himself coffee without a single word to the woman, eyeing her over his full mug until she fidgeted nervously from his gaze. “What? W-why are you staring at me like that?” She muttered shyly, brushing a hand over her top to flatten it out.

Dean’s next words made her roll her eyes at him, snorting very unlady like, “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what I am wearing, Dean. I dress like this everyday, it’s professional and feminine.” She defended, shifting again when he didn’t seem to agree that any of it was needed. He shook his head at her and chided her for such an outfit, leaving her there with Sam once more. She suddenly felt self-conscious again, as though she had been anticipating his approval only to be let down so harshly. “There’s nothing wrong with how I dress, right? A lot of girls dress like this.” She repeated only to the taller long haired hunter this time who shrugged, not sure how to defend her but he didn’t seem to disagree with the comment either.

\----

Two weeks of training, a few knocking of head with Dean and dozens of hours of angelic preparations (or something) with both the Winchester brothers as well as her ‘uncle’ Castiel. She was steadily feeling more accepted, more a part of whatever it was that these three men were though Dean still seemed a little hesitant to trust her, if anything only Sam vouched for her now and again or paid her any mind. He was the most helpful when she truly needed it and for that she was thankful.

She was sitting with said man in his room, asking him again to show her how to clean the gun Dean had decided she was ready enough to have. He was doing some research on a case just outside of the area, something close to home that he thought might be ‘their kind of gig’. “So what’s the body count? Do you guys keep tabs on that sort of thing or something? Like if it suddenly spikes does that make you guys tick and run off to catch whatever it is?” She asked him, nearly dropping the emptied out chamber she had pulled apart to clean, sitting cross legged on his mattress while Sam told her a bit more about what they even did for work.

He explained and she nodded, “Is it weird for me to like wrap my head around all of these supernatural beings? Even though I guess that I am one?” She questioned, making him laugh and shake his head in the negative, telling her that sometimes even he didn’t believe a lot of what they fought even though he had been right there. “Sam?—How come you don’t hunt angels? All angels I mean? Castiel has done wrong… he told me he has a history as well. I guess I don’t… understand why I have such a high price on my head when humans and angels get along so well. Castiel said I’m an abomination.” She continued quietly, not expecting his sympathy but actually seeking for some real answers.

Sam opened his mouth to speak but Dean came rushing in in nearly the same moment, announcing to his brother his arrival with flinging the door opened and telling him he better be clothed. Aleah could almost hear Sam roll his eyes at his older brother from where he sat at his desk and Dean froze in the door way as he spoke, saying something about having a case he thought seemed interesting. The shorter haired of the two glanced up and realized that who he was speaking to in Sam’s bed wasn’t even close to being Sam. He processed the image of the woman before him and seemed utterly confused as though maybe he had taken a wrong turn until Aleah’s hand raised and she flicked her finger over into the direction of where Sam was sitting.

Dean stared at her for a moment more but didn’t address her presence, walking over to the younger of the two and handing him a file filled with information on a police investigation of some rather odd murders that had taken place. He was muttered something about a nest, about vamps or something like that, how this looked different but he was itching to go back out there. Aleah was intrigued, slowly getting up from her spot on Sam’s mattress, extracting the blanket she had around her waist from the foot of the bed and tossing it aside once more as she wandered over to them, her brow furrowed.

The brunette came up behind Dean, her hand pressing to his bicep to urge him out of the way of her view, wanting to see the files for herself and know what he was talking about. “Oh my God. Vampires?” She questioned, her eyes going wide in wonder and surprise. She blinked at the images and Dean quickly slapped the folder closed telling her that this didn’t concern her at all, that she should go play dress up down the hall and invite Cas to a tea party or something. “Dean I can help.” She told him, glaring back up at him.

“Sammy has been teaching—“ She started only to be cut off by him for having called him Sammy which apparently wasn’t acceptable in his eyes. She sighed, continuing anyways. “—teaching me about knifes and hand to hand kind of stuff. I mean I haven’t had to use it but… but Cas he’s showed me more about containing my powers and all of that.” She defended to which Dean shot back that there was no way in hell that barbie’s brunette play pal was going to join him on a hunt. “Dean you said. You said I needed this training for these kinds of thing! For when the going gets tough, for when something comes up!” She fought.

“Please. I’m going crazy in here. I’m pretty sure I’m driving Sam nuts—don’t lie Sammy.” She pointed to him when he opened his mouth to disagree, she had all but become attached to his hip. “I just want to help. I’ll sit in the car… at least let me come with you. Please? I’ve been in here for eleven days!” 

Dean could still hear Aleah's arguing and pleading ringing in his ears the whole drive over to the next state where the purported group of vampires had made their new nest. He grudgingly admitted that she was making good progress and taking a lot of the more batshit crazy elements of their life in stride, but she was no where near ready to go up against a group of those ravenous bloodthirsty bastards.

He had been driving for nearly eight hours and was starting to drift off a bit at the wheel when Castiel suddenly materialized in his passenger seat with his typical monotone greeting. The hunter jumped and shook his head, at least he was fully awake again.

"I said I could handle this job, Cas. You don't have to be here." Dean commented as he turned the radio down so he could hear his friend better. But the angel didn't speak after several moments, so he voiced the train of thought nagging at his mind, "Wouldn't your time be better spent back at the bunker? You know, training the Princess?" He asked, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice but not really succeeding.

Castiel responded that she was busy learning from Sam lately, and that for the past few days he had felt out of place somehow around the pair of them, though he wasn't really sure why. Dean chuckled and rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah well, it's kind of awkward being the third wheel." He said with a sideways grin at the angel, who just seemed more confused by his comment.

"Come on, you know. The third wheel? The odd man out? Don't worry about it, if there's something going on between Sammy and Aleah that's their business. I don't know her but I do know my brother, he won't let it interfere with our work." He reassured Cas, though thinking about the two of them together put him in a foul mood. He guessed it was just his natural inclination to dislike angels, with only a very few exceptions. Still, if she made his little brother happy, he'd let it slide, as long as like he mentioned Sammy didn't let her get in the way of what they had to do. She needed to stick to their side, part-angel or not.

Castiel still didn't seem to really understand what Dean was getting at, the man had finally gotten his halo popped at least but he was still largely in the dark when it came to women and relationships. The pair drove in companionable silence the rest of the way to their destination.

\---  
It hurt to breathe, let alone move. Dean wasn't sure which was he was more angry about, the fact that the vamp's nest had been a trap set by the God Squad or the fact that he'd fallen for it hook line and sinker. If Castiel hadn't come along, he would have been dead long ago, but it seems his help was just putting off the inevitable. Cas was an incredibly skilled warrior but even he and Dean together couldn't hope to stand against a whole garrison of pissed off tree-toppers.

He had fallen from a deep stab wound from an angel blade to the gut, his life bleeding out of him into the dirt. At least he'd taken the bastard out on his way down. Dean could just barely make out through his bleary vision that Cas was still fighting, trying to get to him but he was fading fast and he knew it.

The hunter coughed and wheezed painfully, tasting blood. He used all his effort to make himself empty his gun of the clip of silver bullets he'd gone in with and work on loading the few rounds made from a molten down angel blade. At least Crowley was good for a few helpful tricks now and again. Dean loaded his weapon, he only had four bullets so he had to make each shot count, which was going to be difficult since his hands were going numb and his vision was graying out rapidly.

Dean struggled to hold his weapon up and fired, but he didn't know at all if his shot found his mark. He thought he heard Castiel's voice, but maybe he just wanted to hear it, wanted to believe his friend hadn't been taken down yet, could get out alive. Suddenly his friend's face appeared above him and he blinked rapidly trying to clear his swimming vision. "Cas?" He choked, trying to move but groaning with pain when he did. He felt his friend's fingertips on his forehead and inside his next labored breath, their surroundings changed completely. 

Aleah jumped up from where she sat on the sofa, reading through one of the many books that came from the library, hearing the familiar sound of Castiel’s typical returns to the bunker. The angel hardly used a door so she adjusted to the fluttering noise rather quickly with him around. She knew that he and Dean were back or at least she hoped that they were both back. She jogged over to them in nearly the same moment that Sam came around the corner to see them.

Dean was hurt and bad, the angel wasn’t much better off than his companion, falling back as soon as he landed. “Castiel.” She squeaked when he tumbled, seeing how drained he was from fighting, his trench coat torn and she stared at them both. She rushed over to them both and Sam yelled Dean’s name to wake him but the man was slipping through the cracks and fast, his eyes heavily hooded as Sam grabbed his face and tried to keep him awake.

Aleah kept her focus on Cas who wasn’t in much better shape. “Castiel you have to do something. What do we do?” She questioned to both him and Sam and the elder of the angels shook his head, showing a gash in his own frame which light illuminated from telling her that he couldn’t even heal himself let alone another.

“You have to do it, Aleah. He will not survive without attention.” Cas told her, pushing her away from him and coaxing her towards Dean. She shook her head but he snapped at her, “Do it, now!” He yelled, making her jump, her eyes watering with fear. She had never done a job this big, never healed anyone intentionally and what if she messed up this time, what if she harmed him further?

She swallowed hard, fighting her worry and nodded as he told her yet again in a stern tone that Dean would die if she didn’t succeed, telling her albeit a bit angrily that she could do it alone. “Okay. Umm—I know. Yea.” She muttered to herself, looking to Sam as though he would be able to help but he looked just as scared and at a loss as she was. “Can—can you move him on the couch for me?” She requested her tone starting to steady as she went into the same mode she forced herself to take when she worked at the hospital in Chicago.

Sam nodded and did as she requested, making Dean scream in pain at the sudden movement and she could see in his brother’s face it was killing him to even see or hear any of this. Aleah followed them over to the sofa and Dean tried to tell her ‘no’ to make her back off. “Dean stop. I’m trying to help you.” She murmured when he nudged her back with a wave of his hand. Her eyes were still watery, seeing him like this was eating at her just as much, while he might be a pain in the ass most the time she couldn’t help that she cared about him for all he had been doing to help her. Dean slumped suddenly and his body started to convulse and Aleah’s hands shot out, “Hold him down.” She instructed Sam, pushing at his chest already.

The brunette’s nervousness slowly slipped away as she took on her role. She put her hands gently over either side of his face, holding his head and keeping it still, her eyes slipped closed in concentration. She felt nothing at first, no change, no magic from the tips of her fingers, heard no response from Dean only Castiel screaming at her to do the job and fix all of this. She jolted and nodded her head, trying harder to keep focus. And then she heard it, the gasp of breath she was waiting for, Dean’s eyes shot opened in nearly the same moment hers did.

The blood on his face was gone, the injury to his side healed and she could feel his rapid pulse against her fingers again. She laughed happily, seeing that she had been successful, her hands lingering against his face. “Dean.” She whispered, smiling at him and stroking her thumb over his cheek. 

Everything was a blur of pain, frightened voices, and darkness. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Dean knew he was dying and he was having trouble giving a damn. With Heaven locked down and Hell in chaos, he didn't really know what would happen to him once he kicked the bucket, all he knew for sure was that he was getting damn tired of this carnival ride and he wanted to get off.

"It's not like you to quit, Dean. Not this easy." A dry tone of voice jolted the hunter and suddenly he wasn't trapped in a haze of pain and fear, but he was standing in the kitchen of his childhood house. The house. Where it had all ended, and started. Dean glanced around frantically, drawing his colt from the back of his jeans and pointing it at nothing.

"You won't be needing that." The voice piped up again, and it's owner finally clicked into place in Dean's mind. He turned again and there he was, Death was sitting at his mother's kitchen table.

"So tell me Dean, are you ever going to do something the easy way? You seem to have a knack for getting yourself into trouble." Death asked, his bony hands fidgeting idly with the ivory handle of his cane. Dean scoffed a little in his throat, a crooked smile adorning his lips but not warming his green eyes.

"Well you know me." The hunter quipped, shrugging his broad shoulders and replacing his gun in the waistband of his jeans. Not that he really had it, or really existed physically here in this place. This was just the stage his mind had taken him to in his final moments. He had always been a glutton for punishment.

"Yes, unfortunately." The ancient being replied, his bottomless gaze fixed on the mortal leaning against the kitchen counter like they were discussing proper lawn maintenance or the a football game.

"Aw come on. We had a few laughs, didn't we? So what, you're here to sign my pink slip? I'm flattered." Dean pressed his open hand to his chest in mock surprise, figuring if he was on the way out he might as well do it in style. 

"Hardly. You're playing with a stacked deck son. Which is precisely why I'm here. I wanted to give you a bit of advice before she heals you." Death shifted in his seat and slowly stood, every movement deliberate as he approached the hunter.

"She? You mean Aleah? What's she got to do with anything?" Dean asked, suddenly filling up with dread.

"Everything." Death's eyes widened with emphasis as he spoke. "Well, everything that concerns the tiny speck of rock you call home. She's the key Dean. That's why I made time to come all the way here to enter your feeble little mind as a personal favor to give you some advice. Don't get attached to her Dean." The entity said with a hint of warning to his seasoned voice.

"What? She's the key?" Dean stuttered, completely thrown for a loop by Death's appearance and what he had come to say.

"You know what she is, but you could not possibly hope to fathom the gravity of what her existing means. Did you know that it is technically impossible for Archangels to create Nephilim? Well your little Trickster friend found away around his father's rules. Because he knew the puny little world he had grown attached to might need her one day... And it does. Every soul tied to this planet depends on her Dean." Death paused when Dean made a sound of disbelief, nothing in his expression or tone giving any indication that he cared if Dean liked what he was saying or not.

"There isn't much time left Dean, so listen carefully. The souls that would go to Heaven, are simply dissolving into nothing. The natural balance of this world is steadily being thrown off because of it. I believe your friend Castiel told you it took killing a Nephilim to close Heaven? Well it takes a very special kind to open it back up again. The impossible kind that your new companion just happens to be. And you'll have to kill her to do it. So don't get attached to her." The ancient being stared directly into Dean's eyes with his last words, nearly swallowing him up in his infinite stare. 

Dean could feel somehow that he was being put back together, being pulled up out of the dark recess of his mind and his mouth went dry with fear as Death's words sank in. "No. There has gotta be another way." He spat, trying to hold himself here and continue this discussion but it was useless. In the next second Dean snapped back into consciousness, fully healed and staring up into Aleah's flushed face.

Her soft brunette hair was hanging down around his face and her touch was gentle on his scruffy cheeks, it only took him a second to realize she had been the one who restored him. Death's words echoed in his mind and he scrunched his eyes shut, trying to block out the being's warning with sheer stubbornness. He might not exactly get along well with this girl, but she was under his protection now and she'd saved his life, not to mention if she was with Sammy now that made her family. 

He couldn't let innocent souls keep vanishing out existence but he was not about to sacrifice Aleah's life to fix the problem. They would find another way. And if there wasn't one to be found, he would damn well make one.

"Dean? Are you okay?" Sam asked from the other side of the brunette, relief coloring his features as his brother sat up with a deep groan.

"Yeah I think so. It was a trap. Angels." The elder brother reported, giving his sibling a concerned look. "They're changing their tactics, and the game just got a whole lot bigger than we thought." Dean continued, looking back over to Aleah's worried face. 

One week and a couple days passed, nearly a month since the night she moved in and she was finally feeling like she had completely adjusted to the boys daily routines. She spent most of her time training with one or more of the others but on occasionally she worked alone simply to pass the time a little quicker. There were only few times that she had managed to get out of the bunker and back out into the world. Dean still didn’t seem too keen on having her join them on hunts despite all that she had learned and all that she was putting her body through.

Yet again he had told her to stay behind and this time it only angered her. When he told her to stay home with Castiel as her guardian it felt different, his tone was different, not harsh like she expected or at least not in the same form that she had expected. He still got his point acrossed but in a manner that said he really was doing this for her own safety, especially when the last hunt they had gone on had managed to be a trap set by the garrison that wanted her head and possibly those of the Winchesters.

Aleah was firing shot after angered shot at the target far in front of her, hardly caring if she managed to even hit anything she just needed a release. Dean had come back again, a little battered and bloody, nothing bad enough that Cas would allow her to risk herself to heal for him but still it reminded her of not long ago with the vamp case he took. When he returned on his last breath of air and she watched him die only for a second but it was the most frightening second of her life. She felt like he was keeping something from her, like there was much more to this story and his reasoning besides being an asshat for having forced her to stay behind.

She emptied a clip in seconds flat and heard Dean calling to her, whistling with his teeth against his bottom lip to catch her attention but she ignored him until she felt his hand on her shoulder and she harshly spun around to look at him, smacking his hand away. “I could’ve shot you. What the hell are you doing?” Aleah snipped a little wobble of emotion in her tone when his worried green gaze met her own. He stared at her and questioned the same thing in turn, telling her she was wearing herself out that Cas had told him she had been down here training all day. “So? It’s the only way to get you to think I can take care of myself. You won’t let me do anything else. I have to keep myself busy somehow.”

He said nothing back and she still felt the need to speak to him, blinking rapidly to clear her vision. “I thought that there was a point to this, that you guys needed me too… I thought—I could fight by your side someday and be as good as you. I thought you would see me on the same level and give me a chance to proove that I can do it, because I can.” She argued, her voice still wavering the more she spoke up to him. She swallowed hard and managed to look directly at him, “This whole me watching you get hurt thing doesn’t work for me. I want—“ She muttered, her eyes darting back and forth to both of his.

Aleah pushed forward on her toes and set her weapon aside, gripping Dean’s neck and tugging him down to meet her. She stood on her toes as tall as she could without her heels on, the shoes she normally wore kicked to the side. She kissed him hard, pressing her petite frame up against his larger one and savoring his arms gently holding her, the only thing keeping her from flying apart was having him there and knowing he was okay this time.

She pulled back and looked up at him, eyes still shiny with unshed tears, “I’m really glad you’re okay, Dean.” She whispered, figuring she was likely throwing him off with her reeling and spuratic emotional state. The woman smiled at him finally, hugging him around the waist and pressing her cheek to his chest. “Now I learned from the best, when you feel something you shoot, right?” She teased him, clearing her throat and playing off her sudden action by stepping away and over to where she lay her gun. She picked it up and arched her brow, “Come shoot with me.” 

Dean's brain shorted out when Aleah's lips captured his and her frame fell against his chest so he had to grip her suddenly to keep her steady. She kissed him voraciously and he was so caught off guard he couldn't really even respond to it, standing there stiffly until she finally broke away with a little gasp of breath. He was completely shocked, he had thought she had something going with Sammy, the pair hardly ever seemed to be apart anymore and she got along with his little brother best, though that wasn't too hard since her only other options for companionship were himself and Castiel.

She stepped back and picked up her gun again, inviting him to shoot with her but all he could think about was the kiss and how good it had felt mixed with the pressure of the warning he'd received from Death. He wasn't going to be able to just shrug this off and act like he was fine with what had just happened when he knew the whole score. "No, ah- I just came down here to make sure you were okay. You keep at it, your groupings could still use some tightening up. I've got a.... Thing I need to do." Dean stammered, taking a step back but pausing when Aleah grew agitated and started trying to apologize for her actions.

"No it's fine, I just... I thought that you and Sammy-" Dean started in a confused tone, fidgeting with his hands because he didn't know quite what to do with them. Aleah's eyes went wide and she immediately dismissed his thought, telling him that she cared for Sam a lot but saw him more as an older brother type. Dean nodded, processing that information still struggling to maintain rational thought when all he wanted to do was pin Aleah to the wall and make her scream his name.

The pair stood facing each other in awkward silence for a long moment until Aleah spoke up again saying they could just forget the kiss happened and move on if it was going to be a problem. She was trying to play it off like his reaction to her advance didn't bother her, but he could see her eyes getting watery and that only made his instinct to bolt that much stronger. After everything he'd been through with Lisa and with what he knew was on their plate now with reopening Heaven, he just couldn't let himself get more attached to this girl. He was going to prove Death wrong about Aleah needing to die, but he couldn't ignore his advice about her in the end after all. It was for her own protection.

"Yeah, sure." Dean responded lamely, clearing his throat and backing further out of the range. "So yeah, that thing. I'm gonna... Go." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder and haltingly turned and left, feeling like some awkward punk kid running away from his first crush. Real smooth, Dean. Real smooth! He railed at himself, retreating to his room and making a token effort at doing some research on the spell Cas and Metatron had used to close Heaven but his mind was still back down in the shooting range, reliving Aleah's kiss over and over and wanting more.

Things were more than a little tense in the bunker for the next few days and while Sam didn't know exactly what was up with his brother or his friend he was fairly certain it was no coincidence that they were both acting strange. Sam spent most of his free time with the woman and she didn't seem to feel like opening up to him, so when he couldn't take it any more he finally confronted his brother about it.

Dean was digging in the fridge for a beer and Sam cornered him. "You're not being forthcoming as usual so I'm just gonna ask. What's up with you man? Did something happen with... With Aleah?" Sam asked, his voice getting quieter when he spoke the woman's name, the last thing he wanted was for her to overhear them talking about her even though he knew she was busy training with Cas.

Dean straightened and cracked open his beer, facing his brother directly and shrugging. "No, nothing's up and nothing happened. Have you figured out any more about the spell Metatron used to close Heaven?" The older sibling asked, taking a pull from his bottle. 

Sam sighed in frustration, running a hand through his long hair. "See that's part of what I'm talking about. Why are you suddenly so adamant about learning more about the spell? Heaven is closed for good Dean, we know that already. We should be concentrating on fallen angel clean up and-" Sam started but was interrupted by his brother slamming the fridge door shut and fixing him with a death glare.

"No, Sammy it's not. We're gonna figure it out, I told you Death said there's a way to undo it." Dean argued, his green eyes dark with anger.

"Yeah and that's all you told me! There's something you're holding back Dean. I can't help you if you don't give me all the information you have. Please." Sam pleaded, digging his heels in until his brother finally filled him in on everything he and Death had talked about that was apparently tied up in how odd his brother had been acting lately.

"Look... He didn't really go into detail but there is a way to undo it, and we have got to find it. I didn't wanna put this pressure on you, but... Death told me that until we can open Heaven, all the souls that are meant to go there just... They cease to exist. And Aleah's wrapped up in it." Dean admitted, taking another long drink of his beer.

"Oh my God." Sam exclaimed, shifting his weight uneasily from one foot to the other. "And Aleah? What's she got to do with it?" He asked, half afraid to hear the answers now that he was finally getting them. Dean proceeded to recap his entire conversation with Death, he hadn't wanted to bring it up but he had no choice anymore. 

"We've got to figure out a way to get the job done without killing her. I don't believe Gabriel would've gone to all the trouble to have a kid behind big Daddy's back without knowing there was another option. He's not that cold. There has to be a way Sammy." Dean finished, his voice strained with emotions he didn't want to acknowledge. 

Sam nodded. Aleah had become a member of their family and as far as he was concerned, they had to do everything they could to save the souls of the people of Earth, but do so without sacrificing her life. "All right, I'm on board. Are you gonna tell her?" Sam asked.

"No. No she doesn't need that on her shoulders." Dean responded quietly, and the brothers nodded solemnly in agreement. 

“Me and Sammy?” Aleah repeated, shaking her head vigorously, “No. I mean I care about him a lot but—In like a we share conditioner and he’s my big brother kind of way not like a boyfriend sort of thing. No.” She defended when he said he thought she had a thing for the man. Dean gave an awkward smile and nodded at her, seeming to be processing what she had to say.

Her eyes welled and she could hardly look at him fully anymore, “Let’s just forget that happened and move on okay? It’s no big deal.” She muttered, feeling silly now the longer that he lingered without saying anything in regards to the matter. She didn’t know what that meant for them. He finally agreed and she hummed a response, saying nothing as he back pedaled out of the room and she reloaded her weaponed for another go at the targets.

The next couple days were tense and more than once Sam had asked Aleah what was on her mind when she didn’t immediately open up to him like she might normally. She told him time and time again that she was fine, simply trying to keep her focus but she knew that he didn’t buy it, Sam was smart and when Dean started acting off as well he seemed to be putting two and two together.

She was finishing up her training session with Castiel, arguing with him for nearly ten minutes about if she was ‘allowed’ a drink or not. Aleah fought her side saying that she was still human, still deserved to have a glass of whatever because she couldn’t simply replenish herself by only a thought. He caved and agreed to her departing for a few moments to rest and get herself something to wet her lips.

“Friggin’ angels.” Aleah mumbled to herself as she walked, dressed in her usual attire, a lace front sweater, light wash skinny jeans that had been purposefully ripped in the knees, ones that Dean made fun of her for wearing but at least she had agreed to switching to wearing flats or bedazzled tennis shoes on training days, leaving her heels only for the times she had nothing of importance to be doing. Today she opted for a pair of coral colored ballet flats, still covered in make up and jewlery but for her it was a big step in and of itself. She could hear the boys talking to one another and she frowned at the sound of Dean, knowing that he was lingering just around the corner.

She turned back on her heel ready to head out and pretend she hadn’t been headed their way when her name caught her attention. They were talking about her? Her brow knitted with curiosity, moving forward once more towards the entryway of the kitchen, keeping as quiet as she could because for a second she though maybe Dean was going to confess his feelings to his little brother or something… one could only hope. She bit her lower lip and listened intently in on their conversation and of course Dean brushed off his question about her, instead deciding to talk about Heaven and Meta-whatever’s spell.

The brunette waited, leaning against the wall as they started to argue, rolling her eyes at their behavior which she hardly understood. Dean always picked and poked at Sammy when all his brother had were good intentions… though Dean thought he did too, usually he just had a different way of going about things. Her eyes went wide suddenly as the shorter haired Winchester went on about ‘Death’ which she couldn’t quite understand to what he was referring? How could he talk to death? He mentioned her again, saying she was involved, her heart starting to race at what this all could mean. How could she fix Heaven? How was she involved in something that she had only just started to learn about, hell she didn’t even know she was part angel until not but a month ago.

She listened to his explanation, tears starting to stream down her cheeks as she processed all this new information. She had to be killed? She had to die to save all of these souls? Because she still remained in existence that meant thousands or millions of others couldn’t, they vanished much to a similar fashion that she had to. It was all so overwhelming to her, her body starting to tremble and she felt she might explode if she didn’t get out and quick. What if Dean decided to kill her? Maybe she deserved to die to save the others… if it was all they could do.

Aleah left them in the kitchen, saying nothing and missing the end to their conversation as she huffed off in a near mental breakdown. She ran back to her bedroom and Manny mewed at her only for the first time in she didn’t know how long she didn’t even feel comforted by her typical companion. She pushed him away and darted into the bathroom of her quarters, a broken sob tearing it’s way out of her throat as soon as she slammed the door closed. She slumped against it and slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor, curled in on herself, shaking with a mix of half a dozen emotions, to which she couldn’t decide was stronger.

She closed her eyes, her cheeks soaked with tears as she tried to comfort herself. She could hear Castiel making his way down the hall, his deep voice coming through under both doors, he was looking for her. All she wanted was an out, a little time to gather herself and decide what to do, if she even knew her options. It was overwhelming to hear all that she had, to know even that he kept it from her for one reason or another, maybe he had intentions of holding her here until he decided himself if they would kill her or not. Would her soul go to Heaven then or would she vanish like the others?

She steadied her breathing and felt the weight of her frame lessen, the familiar rushing sound as she vanished into thin air. When her large eyes opened once more she was in familiar settings, the lake outside the small town she had grown up in. The temperature much warmer than at the bunker, the sun on her lightly tanned skin brought a warmth to her aching heart. She breathed in deep, hearing the birds chirp and rustling of the leaves as the wind blew, her fingers threading through the tall grass and for a moment or two she simply laid there.

Castiel rounded the corner into the kitchen, calling to Aleah, his brow furrowing at the sight of the two brothers in front of him. He stared at them both, “Aleah, she has come for water, have you seen her here?” He asked but then he felt it. The sudden emptiness that told him he was again a lone angel, the only supernatural being within miles. Sam pushed forward clearly noting the change in Castiel as he asked him what was wrong. Dean started in as well, demanding to know if he had lost Aleah or something and the fallen angel stared up at them both.

“I have not lost her. She has run.” Castiel answered in his usual serious tone. 

Dean's guts clenched at Castiel's words, Aleah was out in the open, unprepared and vulnerable. He wasn't exactly sure why she had suddenly bolted but they couldn't afford the risk of letting her have a her little temper tantrum. He could only assume she was still upset with him about the other day, and felt it was his job to bring her back. Maybe it was time he trusted her more and at least gave her more of an explanation about what the score was here.

"Dammit." Dean growled under his breath, setting his beer down. "Where is she?" He asked, sighing when Castiel reported she was on the other side of the country. Friggin' angels. Or in this case, half-angel. Cas announced he would go and retrieve her, but Dean stopped him. "I'm going with you. It's probably my fault she left anyway." He said with a hint of annoyance. Why did this chick have to make his life so complicated?

"Why? I thought you said nothing happened between you, Dean." Sam cut in, giving his brother a sideways look, smiling wryly.

"Oh blow it out your ass Sammy." Dean shot back, shaking out his shoulders and bracing for the rush he disliked so much from hitching a ride on the Cas express. The pair flickered out of the kitchen and appeared on the shore of a picturesque little lake. The angel pointed and Dean's eyes followed, Aleah was laying sprawled in the tall grass several yards off. Castiel took a step forward but Dean stuck his arm out in front of his chest. "Just wait by the car, will ya?" He told his friend, completely ignoring the angel's confused comment that they had not in fact arrived by car.

Dean ambled through the gently swaying grasses, getting closer to the reclining brunette and trying to put something decent together in his head to say.

"What they hell are you doing out here? I thought you understood how dangerous it is for you to leave the bunker!" Dean called to her when he was nearly to her side. Not exactly poetry, but he'd never been good with this touchy-feely stuff. Aleah jumped at the sound of his voice, sitting up and hurriedly wiping her eyes that were red from crying.

The brunette stared up at him, lips quivering and her breathing shallow and catching in her throat with emotion. Dean sighed, trying again. "Hey. I'm sorry all right? Why don't ya come on back, we'll talk this out." He prompted, squatting down in the grass to meet her eye-level. 

Aleah was sprawled in the long yellowing grass, letting herself relieve some stress and let go of the emotions she hadn’t realized she had been fighting back (maybe unsuccessfully on occasion). This was one of the few vacation spots that she ever remembered liking as a kid, not that she recalled much of it but it was one of the few places her mother took her that she hadn’t ended up having to hold her mother’s hair back while she drank herself sick. Maybe because there wasn’t much within a ten mile radius she had access to.

She jumped at the sound of another’s voice, recognizing it almost immediately and she quickly wiped beneath her eyes, clearing her tears that lingered. Her lip trembled and she shook her head at his request, “No. It’s not all right, Dean. None of it is.” She squeaked, moving away from him involuntarily but he squat down beside her anyways despite her not inviting him in the least bit. His brow knitted together, never taking his eyes off of her, making her shift with nervousness as he asked what she meant.

“What you said to Sam… That I have to die to save Heaven. They’re hunting me to reopen the gates and set the world right again.” She murmured through her tears and it all clicked in his head, she had heard what he said, most all of it. Dean sighed, telling her that they didn’t know for sure what the deal was but she cut him off, “Please stop lying to me. Dean, please. If that’s what it takes then how am I suppose to be okay with just living my life accordingly? They’re going to kill me one way or another.” She sobbed, jumping when he touched her suddenly, her emotional state putting her more and more on edge.

Aleah stared up at him from where she sat her legs folded beneath her and she tried to reach up and pry his hand away from her cheek, wondering what he might do but the look in his eye was something she wasn’t sure she had seen before. He told her otherwise, that they wouldn’t touch her if they knew what was good for them because she had the Winchesters on her side. “But—“ She started, cut off by his lips crashing into hers. She moaned lightly and her hand that had been attempting to remove his own, slumped and eased her fight.

He kissed her like she had done to him the other night when he came to check on her, like he craved it, the touch of his hand on her neck, keeping her pulled towards him made her shiver. Dean pulled away, both of them desperate for air but he lingered near her lips, his thumb brushing over her jawline as he gently reassured her. “I hardly think that was talking.” She blinked at him, her cheeks flushing pink and her breathing heavy but she nodded her understanding as best she could. 

Dean smirked at her comment, keeping her face held close to his and enjoying her sweet sent and the lingering taste of her lips on his. "No I guess not. But I'm not very good at the whole 'talking' thing. Never have been. I'm sorry I wasn't up front with you before, there's just... A lot at stake and I didn't want that hanging over your head." The hunter's gaze fell downwards and he felt a pang of guilt when Aleah responded in a small voice that he didn't think she was strong enough to handle the truth.

"No. That's not it." Dean met her eyes again, his grip on her tightening. "I just wanted to protect you. And that's exactly what I'm going to keep on doing. I know you don't know Cas, my brother and me very well, but... We're kind of used to coming out on the other side of impossible. A little worse for wear maybe but we manage. And we don't give up." He told her adamantly, his green eyes searching her face for a sign of hope.

Aleah nodded slightly, her voice still wobbly when she thanked him, but started to talk about how if her death was really crucial to restoring Heaven, maybe her one life wasn't worth stacking against all the countless souls being lost even as they spoke. Dean's anger flared and he interrupted her mid-flow.

"Stop it. I don't wanna hear talk like that! We're going to fix things, but we're gonna do it our way. I am not going to let you get killled, I swear it." He exclaimed, a little surprised himself at how much the thought of losing Aleah scared him. Aleah's wide blue eyes blinked rapidly and she asked him quietly why he cared so much, why he would put himself through so much trouble just for her. Dean swallowed hard, hating himself for not being strong enough to put his own feelings aside to protect her. He leaned forward and captured her petal soft lips again, kissing her long and deep until they were broke apart shaking and gasping for breath.

"Because I would rather die than lose you Princess." The hunter murmured, kissing her again. Now that he had started, it was getting harder and harder for him to stop. 

“You don’t think I’m strong enough for all of this…” Aleah whispered but he rejected the statement. She nodded at his explanation, understanding what he was saying and trying to get where he was coming from with all of this. “Well thank you for wanting to protect me but—If I’m the key and my death is really that big of a thing in rebooting Heaven then I hardly see how keeping me here is worth it. All those souls could have a place with me gone so why~” She started, pausing when Dean cut her off.

His tone was a little harsh but adament about protecting her, something she really didn’t think she would see from him. “Why do you care so much about keeping me alive? Why go through so much for one person?” She questioned quietly and he pushed forward again, kissing her again and leaving her breathless and her heart racing a thousand beats a minute.

The brunette met the hunters gaze, his next words making her eyes well but for an entirely different reason this time. She gripped either side of his corded neck, fingers running along his jawline as her arms snaked around his neck and through his short dark hair, keeping him close to her as they kissed ravenously. She shivered as his own strong hands found her hips and he all but lifted her off the ground only to coax her back to lay in the grass. She reached and gripped his wrist that started to travel, breaking away from his lips, “Dean.” She gasped, lacing their fingers and trying to halt his advance.

Her bright blue eyes flickered up to meet his green orbs and she could see the want in his gaze, gulping as she tried to catch her breath. “Let’s go home okay?” She requested and he smirked, kissing her again and distracting her from moving where she sat with him hovering above her in the grass. She giggled for the first time in she didn’t know how long when he admited to liking kissing the ‘Princess’. “Dean…” She laughed out his name, his fingers on her hip tickling her.

“Dean.” Castiel’s monotoned voice bellowed, forcing the pair to break apart and the angel’s brow arched in wonder seeing the two entangled together. “We cannot stay any longer and there are no cars for me to stand by.” He answered when Dean barked out a ‘what, Cas’. Aleah’s cheeks flushed and she pushed at Dean’s chest to make him create a little distance between their bodies.

Dean started to grumble that Castiel could go and he would watch over Aleah just fine on his own but she interupted, “He’s right, staying in the open like this after having just flashed myself here, hardly seems like a way to keep me safe.” She reminded him, smiling softly when his gaze flickered over to her. “You can protect me all you want at the bunker.” She teased with a laugh, getting to her feet again and leaving Dean in the grass as she spoke to Cas. “Are you able to take both of us home at once?” She asked and the angel nodded his affirmative response.

Castiel nodded for Dean to join them and he rolled his eyes and did as he was asked. The male angel pressed two fingers to Aleah’s forehead and two of the opposite hand to Dean’s and Aleah reached over as they started to transport, taking the hunter’s fingers in her own. 

The trio arrived back on base together and as expected Sam questioned them all, considering he was the only one that got left behind. He stared expectantly and Aleah flushed pink as she looked at Dean and Cas for some assistance. Castiel said nothing and Dean jumped right in to the… sort of, rescue. She licked her lips that still tasted like Dean’s own, nodding her head in confirmation, “Yea I kind of thought—“ She started only to be cut off by the stiff standing angel.

“Apologies Sam but I was awaiting Dean and Aleah’s fornication. I could not wait that long, Dean as we could have been compromised.” Cas said, his tone no where near apologetic as he looked from Sam to Dean, giving a nod and back to the taller.

Aleah turned an even darker shade of red in the cheeks, pulling away from Dean shyly. “We—We we’re not going to fornicate.” She insisted, her heart fluttering at the thought alone. Sam stared at them both, giving a very slow few nods of his head but seeming as though he wasn’t so certain. “We weren’t.” She insisted again and Sam raised his hands in defense, telling her she owed him no explanation. She spun around and nearly crashed into Dean who’s grip on her and the tiny smirk playing on his face at her fluster didn’t help her situation at all. She felt his strong yet gentle touch in every corner of her body as he steadied her back up straight. She pushed at him a little to coax him away from her, hurriedly saying her good nights and leaving Dean to fend for himself.

The next morning she followed her same ritual of getting up around six rather than four-thirty to get ready for the day. She hadn’t completely changed her style but certainly had decided to tone it down a touch or more. She was ready to go though she didn’t have anywhere she needed to be so she opted for putting her yoga pants on with a knitted top and accessories to match.

Aleah was straightening up her room, something she tended to quite frequently when she got tired of reading. She was picking up her stray decorative pillows when someone knocked hard on her door, forcing it opened and who else would it be, besides Dean instantly eyeing her rear with a smirk on his lips. She rolled her eyes and quickly stood back up completely, tossing her pillow at him harshly which he easily dodged. “What do you want you perv?” She teased though her tone was much lighter than it was usually when she addressed him.

Dean shrugged, nudging the door closed a ways and eyeing the rest of her. She instantly tugged her cardigan tighter around her front to cover herself and he took her cue and met her eyes instead. He asked her why she did that, hid herself out of habit and she tinged pink, tucking her hair aside, “Because I’m not here for you to ogle, Dean.” She teased, her smile never fading and he chuckled, nodding his head in understanding as he stepped further into her space. She busied herself once more with picking up her place, feeling him come up beside her and grab the pillow she was reaching for, tossing it on the bed for her. “That’s not helping. If you’re going to do it then do it right.” She said with a playful smack to his chest, pushing past him to fix the bedding and he rolled his eyes at her.

Dean dropped down onto her mattress and she knew it was only to get under her skin and mess up her things, Manny purred, padding over from his domain and jumping up beside Dean who at least seemed less put off by the cat. “Why are you in here, you never come in here?” She pointed out and Dean sat up, watching her move through her space before finally telling her he had somewhere to take her. “Me? What like—like a date?” She asked, closing her eyes and internally berating herself for even asking that question. “I mean… I didn’t think I was allowed out, remember? We got in trouble just yesterday for it.” She reminded.

The man nodded but claimed this didn’t count, seeming amused by her first question and teasing her by saying it could be considered a date if she wanted it to be. “Shut up.” She murmured, hearing him get up and he stepped up behind her, turning her around and forcing her to face him head on. Clearly he sensed her insecurities, tugging her against his frame, her pulse quickened as well as her breathing as he murmured that he wanted nothing more than to take her out but that wasn’t what today was about. Aleah sighed into the kiss he placed over her lips, relishing the contact from him especially.

He kissed her between words, asking her if she had protection and she froze, pulling away from him and arching a brow, “Dean. Do you really think I just keep stuff on hand? I haven’t had time for a boyfriend in—“ She defended and his laugh cut her off, seemingly amused by his own word play. He explained himself when he saw her confusion written all over her face, saying she needed to get the anti possession symbol somewhere. “What do you mean, ‘get?’ I don’t know where they sell those.” She said and he grinned, tugging down the collar of his shirt and saying they were offered at any tattoo parlor.

Aleah shook her head, “I am not getting a tattoo. No way. I can’t, Dean.” She said, fighting him when he argued with her that it didn’t hurt as bad as people make it seem. “I don’t care what it feels like! That’s perminant. Can’t I just like… I don’t know, only shower in holy water? Wear rock salt earrings?” She questioned, making him laugh at her again only this time she was learning to ignore it. “That won’t hide me from angels anyhow will it?”

Dean had a certain gleam in his eyes as he told her that was why she was going to get a little more in depth version of his inked artwork. She hardly had time to argue, having him tease her and tell her to get dressed because the one damn time he was taking her somewhere she wasn’t in her heels and a dress. She roughly pushed him out her door and did as he requested, changing into jeans and wearing and bikini top underneath her shirt like Dean suggested her to for when she got her tattoo. She hoped that she could convince him on the way there that this wasn’t something she needed.

\---

They arrived at a bo-dunk old tattoo shop that Dean claimed had good ratings but she didn’t really understand how, the place was run down, clean on the inside but the owner looked frightening to say the least. She had her short consult with the only available artist, worrying her lower lip with her teeth as she sat on the massage style table, Dean spining back and forth in one of the available seats next to her. He asked if she was nervous and she nodded, feeling sick to her stomach or like she might faint if she wasn’t sitting down already. She was blankly staring at the equipment in front of her when she replied to him, “I really hate needles. Dean, what if I pass out while he’s tattooing me? Or I can’t take the pain and then I have a half completed tattoo on my body forever.” She whined.

The artist walked over and Aleah’s eyes were watering slightly, trying to keep herself from going into full on break down mode. Dean likely thought her weak for how easily she cried but right now she didn’t care, tugging off her top when the skinny man requested she do so. She was wearing a beaded teal bikini top that showed off more than she might normally like to and almost instantly she could feel Dean’s eyes on her as well as those of her tattoo artist. The man placed the stencil of her work over her side to show her placement, offering a mirror and she shrugged at his question of if it pleased her, “Umm… Does it look okay?” She asked Dean who hardly managed a nod. She focused on Dean’s face, fighting back a whimper at the way he was devouring her with his dark green eyes as she laid back on the table, untying the back of her top and exposing her whole left side to the artist to work on once she confirmed she liked that tattoos placement.

She was just getting settled, feeling the man’s gloved hand touch her skin and she jolted out of nervousness, expecting the pain of the needle. Her one arm folded up as extra cushion for her head, the other gripping tightly to the padded table she lay on. She had her eyes squeezed closed but before the artist got to work she felt a hand over her own. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know who’s they were, what hand they belonged to, she just knew they were Dean’s from the many times he showed her how to hold a gun, how to throw a knife, how to pop open a beer with the strength of one finger and most recently from their caressing in the field. She looked over at him from where she lay, smiling slightly when he coaxed her to turn over her balled up hand, cupping his over hers and letting their hands lie together on the table, his thumb running back and forth over her knuckles in reassurance that she was tough enough and she appreciated the gesture, especially as the needle bore down onto her untainted skin.

Aleah’s fingers tightened around Dean’s on occasion as she hissed in pain and Dean seemed to be rather sympathetic considering she was getting hers in a much more sensitive location. Nearly three hours of work, not including the twenty minutes or so she had to take a break before she puked or passed out or both, having Dean there to tell her she was a tough cookie and assure her it was almost over. She wasn’t usually this much of a wimp with pain but her fear of needles made her tolerance a lot less. The process was finally complete and Dean nudged her to let up on her hold on his hand, getting out of his chair so he could see. Aleah sat up, showing him her side that had the same tattoo he did now as well as the enochian phrase that Castiel had along his ribs, lying just beneath it. He muttered or rather growled his approval and she rolled her eyes, smacking him again with a smile on her face.

Sam paced anxiously in the library of the bunker. Dean and Cas were taking way longer than was reasonable to retrieve Aleah and his brother wasn't answering his cell. He cursed at his own limitation, he should have gone with but his brother wouldn't allow him to set a toe out of the bunker till he was more healed. He pulled out his phone to try calling Dean again, when Cas suddenly appeared before him, Aleah and his brother in tow.

"There you are! What took so long?" Sam asked, trying not to sound as agitated as he felt for Aleah's sake. The trio that just arrived glanced at each other hesitantly and Aleah's cheeks flushed. The younger Winchester waited expectantly, meeting each of their gazes in turn. 

Dean cleared his throat as he rocked back on his heels, "Sorry. She overheard us, I had some explaining to do." The short-haired hunter explained, hoping Sam would leave it at that since he wasn't exactly up for admitting that he had basically bared his soul to the brunette out in that field, not to mention the other aspects of their 'conversation.' 

Dean paid the tattoo artist and preceded his companion out of the shop, taking a big deep breath of the fresh air. He was grateful to have the safe haven of the bunker, more grateful than he could ever put into words, but like Aleah he tended to get stir crazy being cooped up in there between jobs. He knew they should head straight back just in case but he found that he just couldn't quite convince himself to go unlock Baby and start her up for the trip home.

Aleah came out of the shop to stand beside him, asking if everything was alright. Dean look down at her and offered a crooked little smile. "Is there anything else you wanna get before we head back? Any like... I dunno, girl items you need?" He asked with a slightly pained tone, not really wanting to think about certain aspects of his companion's gender.

The brunette giggled at the term 'girl items' and shook her head, saying she thought she was pretty well stocked for now. Dean nodded, disappointed but scrambling to think of some other way they could stall for time away. "How about food? You hungry?" He asked, tossing his head at the suspect looking burger joint across the street from the tattoo shop. This earned yet another giggle from Aleah and he went on the defensive when she slyly asked if he was asking her out to dinner.

"No, it's only two, still counts as lunch." He replied as he began to amble across the all but deserted small town street, confident that she would follow after him. She did and asked him what the difference between lunch and dinner was, it still sounded like a date to her. "There's a big difference. Lunch is way more casual than dinner, don't you know that? Come on." He pulled open the restaurant door and tossed his head indicating she should enter and he followed close behind.

It looked just as run down on the inside as the outside, but honestly Dean loved places like this. They might not be classy, but generally the rougher the establishment, the better the burger. And he had been craving a big, juicy, beefy burger smothered in cheese and bacon. They seated themselves at a rickety table and looked over the menus that were slightly tacky to the touch. There wasn't a single healthy thing on the menu, just how Dean liked it.

Aleah was less than subtle with her discomfort with the place, shifting on her chair and wrinkling her delicate nose as she read through the menu options. She was a health food nut like Sammy, well he aimed to fix that with some immersion therapy.

When the waitress who looked about as skeevy and rundown as the place itself came to take their order, Dean didn't give Aleah a chance to speak. "We'll have two cokes, two double bacon cheeseburgers and fries, animal style." The short-haired hunter instructed, wiggling his brows playfully at the brunette seated beside him when she stared at him mouth agape for simply ordering her such a grease-bomb whether she liked it or not.

"Just trust me on this Princess. You'll like it." He quipped, a shit-eating grin transforming his normally stern features. 

Aleah laughed at Dean’s response to her question about the difference between lunch and dinner when both were still a date in her eyes. She followed him to the quiet little restaurant and grinned as he held the door opened for her. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of greasy fries cooking in the back, the booth Dean guided her to was no where near as clean as she would have liked. But still she sat down, not before wiping down the chair with her hand but the other paid no mind, picking up his menu and looking it over with a grin.

The brunette sat down and took her own, holding it with the very tips of her manicured fingers as she felt likely whatever the last person here had eaten was stuck to the laminated paper. There wasn’t a single thing on this menu that she would even consider eating, starting to put it down when the waitress came to their booth to ask what they wanted. She opened her mouth to ask if she could have a simple egg white omlet or a salad specially made but before the words even came out Dean jumped in, ordering for her.

Her mouth hung opened in shock that he would make such a move when he knew her eating habits. “Pretty sure that I won’t. Guess I know how I’m going to die… of a grease over load.” She grumbled back making him chuckle. She scowled at him, pushing the menu back to it’s place as the waitress left. “I don’t even drink soda or do you not pay attention?” She questioned, arching her brow and trying to remain angry with him but the look on his face made it difficult and the use of the little nickname he had branded her with made her lips tug up at the corners. “You’re like a five year old, you know that?” She teased with a shake of her head.

It wasn’t long before their food arrived and she stared as it was placed in front of her, forcing a ‘thank you’ and a grin to the waitress who nodded. Her stomach was growling but this wasn’t anything she was hungry for, not ever. Dean told her to stop picking at it and just try it, nudging her hand that was pulling apart bits of the bun and hunting for a sign of something that would do her good in this meal. “Why can’t I eat what I want? What kind of date are you?” She glared at him, finally picking up the burger in both her small hands and drawing it to her lips. He nodded encouragingly, tearing into his own and shoveling fries into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten anything in weeks.

Aleah took the smallest of bites and chewed, taking another and humming lightly. “Okay not bad.” She complimented, laughing when Dean told her to stop sampling it like it was going to tear her face off or something, ordering her to enjoy it. So she did, taking a much larger bite this go around and groaning at the taste. “You know I haven’t had a burger in six years. Forgot what they tasted like.” She muttered through a mouthful of food, making him grin. He pushed her fries closer to her that had come on a separate plater, they were covered in cheese, onions, bacon and a sauce of some sort.

She understood his gesture, picking up her fork until Dean chided her for it, telling her to eat it like she meant it. She rolled her eyes and put down the utensil using her fingers instead to pick up a couple fries that dripped cheese and were coated with a tiny bit of everything. She shoved them into her mouth, “Oh my god.” She groaned, looking at Dean who seemed utterly proud of himself for breaking her so easily. “Eat your burger, you ass.” She laughed, plucking up a few more fries to eat. 

Dean was more than happy to comply with her instruction, wolfing down his burger and fries and loving every greasy bit. He smiled smugly at Aleah's enthusiastic response to her own food once he pushed her into letting go and enjoying it, he liked a girl that could eat. The pair finished their food and both of them sat back in their seats with satisfied groans, fully packed.

The hunter supposed they couldn't be out much longer without Cas or Sam getting concerned so he wiped his hands on his jeans and shifted to get up when Aleah made a little noise of protest. He paused and looked back at her, his eyebrows arching quizzically and the brunette sheepishly requested if she could order a milkshake to go before they left.

Dean couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped him but he nodded, flagging down the waitress and watched with an amused grin as Aleah ordered a chocolate-strawberry shake with extra whipped cream. The woman asked him if he was going to get a shake too and he shook his head. "Nah. I only like ice cream with pie." He commented, pulling out his wallet and leaving the money for their bill on the table.

They left town after their meal, Aleah sipping on her milkshake while he drove with AC/DC blaring. She didn't make any comments about his music choice but he had long been of the mind that the driver gets the final say on the tunes anyway. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little curious about what sort of music she liked. They hardly spoke the whole way home, but it was a companionable silence, like they'd taken little journeys like this hundreds of times before and felt at ease in each other's company. Aleah rolled her window down and stuck her arm out to coast in the rushing wind, her polished nails and assorted silver bangles glinting in the sunlight.

This was about the last thing Dean would have pictured when Aleah first came into their lives, but now that it was reality, he relished every second of it. He could only hope he'd forgive her when things got bloody as the inevitably did around him.

They returned to the bunker and Aleah proudly showed off her 'battle wound' to Sam and Castiel, though the angel seemed a bit uncomfortable seeing so much of his niece's skin. The younger Winchester handed her a bottle of ointment he had left over that would help soothe her skin and she accepted it gratefully, not being familiar with proper tattoo care.

Castiel immediately took Aleah off for training, leaving the brothers alone in the vast adjoined foyer and library of the bunker. "Dean, there's something you need to look at." Sam told his sibling, gesturing at the pile of dusty tomes he had stacked on one of the long tables. Dean nodded and followed, looking over the information Sam was working off of. His heart clenched as he read over the copies of Kevin's notes from his work on the tablets as well as photos of the tablets themselves. 

"Now from what I've been able to translate, I think I've been able to figure out at least one of the other elements we need besides Aleah's power to undo the spell-" Sam started to explain, only to be abruptly interrupted by Dean.

"From what you've been able to translate? What, are you telling me you figured out how to read this stuff prophet-style??" Dean uttered in disbelief.

"Kind of. I mean not exactly. I worked with Kevin a lot on his translations, and I had some... Help." Sam responded uneasily. He could see his brother wasn't going to let the issue drop so he rolled his eyes and continued, "Look, Crowley knows a spell that can give a mortal temporary prophetic ability. Its just brief flashes but I've been able to piece together some information at least. I've been giving him hits of my blood in exchange." Sam finished, looking down waiting for his brother to fly off the handle. Dean said nothing for a long moment and so Sam dared to add, "Look I had to do something to pull my weight around here while you and Cas did all the dangerous stuff out there. I'm never going to be able to translate all of it like a real Prophet, but at least it's something." Sam shrugged, looking his brother in the eye again and trying to get a read on him.

It took all of Dean's will not to throttle his younger brother, to rail and rant at him about not making deals with Crowley and not putting himself through so much strain when he was still torn up from the inside out in the first place. He held it all in, taking a few deep breaths and trying to focus on the fact that despite how much he hated how it was being obtained, this was information they sorely needed. They needed to know how to unlock Heaven and how to do it without sacrificing Aleah's life.

"Fine. Look it's whatever." Dean brushed off his brother's further attempts to justify his actions. "Good work Sammy. Show me what you got." The brothers went over the data Sam had painfully gleaned from the tablet and pieced together with Kevin's notes, and while they still didn't have all the puzzle pieces they knew for sure that one item on their list was going to be a real bitch to obtain. The spell to close Heaven required a very special item, and to reverse engineer it they needed an item that was it's polar opposite.

"The Golden Apple of Discord, created by Eris daughter of the greek God Ares, she was the goddess of chaos and strife. The inscription on the apple she wrote caused a dispute among the Gods which ultimately led to the trojan war. Basically the spell Metatron used required an item that symbolized love and unity, the Cupid's bow. And to undo it, we need the ultimate symbol of discord and strife and we have to destroy it in a ritual similar to the one Metatron used." Sam explained, referencing half a dozen books and a few files on his laptop to show Dean what he'd discovered. 

"So... Where do we find this doom-fruit?" Dean asked, not even bothering to try and figure out how his brother could possibly put all this information together. He had learned a long time ago to just accept Sam's word on all this brainy crap.

"Well, that's the problem. I don't know yet. But we'll figure it out I'm sure. If there's information on it, I'm sure it's in these archives somewhere." Sam assured his brother with a weak smile. He was worn out physically and mentally, but the younger Winchester was a long ways off from quitting. Dean clapped his brother on the back encouragingly.

"All right, that's what I like to hear." Dean nodded at his brother, acknowledging Sam's efforts in his own way. He settled in to help him dig up what they could.

It was late when Dean finally decided he'd gotten enough of a headache from pouring over old mythology books for one day. It was times like these that he especially missed Bobby and his fountain of knowledge of all things that go bump in the night. He made Sam go to bed as well, shooing him off to bed despite the taller man's protests that he wanted to keep working.

The elder hunter cleared away the few cups and wrappers left behind by his brother then wandered off to find his own bed a while after Sam retired. He rounded the corner down the hallway and his tired eyes grew more alert when he spotted an unfamiliar sight. His bedroom door was cracked open, and he always left it shut and locked. Old paranoid habits died hard. He knew it was probably nothing, but he put his hand on his colt in the back of his pants anyway as he slowly approached his door.

Dean slid up to the door and slowly pushed it open further, immediately relaxing when he saw Aleah standing awkwardly in the center of his room. She was dressed in a baggy black tank top and short cotton shorts that showed off more than a generous amount of her toned legs, and while her makeup and hair were still done all her jewelry was removed so she was obviously getting ready for bed when she decided to... break into his room?

Dean cocked his head quizzically at her, releasing his grip on his weapon. "Something I can help you find, Princess?" He asked with a slightly peeved tone. He was irritated that she would break into his room but it was hard to hold on to the irritation when he had such a nice view of her legs and the fact that he could see quite plainly she wasn't wearing a bra anymore made him lick his lips unconsciously.

Aleah apologized awkwardly, saying that when she was getting ready for bed she noticed Manny wasn't in her room and she was worried he had snuck in here again and that Dean had accidentally locked her cat in. Her suspicions were confirmed when the grey tabby suddenly darted out from under Dean's bed and out the door, making a beeline for his owner's room likely to get at the food and water he had been separated from all day. Dean rolled his green eyes.

"So the damn cat's been in here all day. That's great." Dean growled, trying to keep his eyes on Aleah's face but not really succeeding. "How did you manage to get in here to look for him anyway?" The short-haired hunter asked, and the girl sheepishly revealed the small lock pick set she'd been holding behind her back. She informed him that Sam had taught her, and even praised her for having a natural knack for it. Dean rubbed the back of his neck and let out a curse under his breath. "So instead of oh I don't know, asking me permission to go into myroom you just snuck in here, hoping to be in and out with the cat before I knew any different! I thought you were done going behind my back!" He lashed out at her with more anger in his voice than he really meant to have because he was tired and worried about Sam and the whole apple deal.

Aleah flinched almost like he'd physically slapped her, ducking her head and mumbling an apology. She tried to hurry past him and out but Dean exhaled roughly and snatched her upper arm, halting her retreat. She looked back up at him and her blue eyes were moist with threatening tears. Dean sighed, feeling like a huge ass for taking his temper out on her like over something relatively small. Still, she had to know she could just come to him with problems instead of trying to sneak around him. Though him yelling at her wasn't exactly going to encourage that behavior.

"Hey. I'm sorry." He murmured, turning to face her and grip her opposite arm with his other hand. Aleah shook her head and blinked rapidly to quell her tears, telling him in a wobbly voice that he was right, she shouldn't have broken into his room like she had.

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have gone off on you like that. We're all on the same side here, okay? If you need my help, with anything, just ask for it." He told her in a far gentler tone of voice, reaching up to brush away the one tear that had managed to escape Aleah's long dark lashes. The brunette nodded, taking a shaky little breath and Dean bent his head to sample her soft lips again. He had always been shit at talking to women, especially crying women, so he fell back on what he knew. He could much more easily show rather than tell Aleah that he cared.

Aleah immediately responded to his kiss, opening up to him and he swept his tongue into her mouth to taste her more fully. His hand cupping her cheek swept back to tangle into her dark wavy locks and he used his other arm to tug her smaller frame up against his. Her arms slipped around his neck and he growled in his throat at how good she felt, smelled and tasted. He kissed her relentlessly, backing them up to push his door shut without breaking contact with her, pinning her between the door and his body.

Mindful of her fresh tattoo he didn't follow his inclination to caress down her side but instead simply placed his large hand on her hip; canting their hips together and grinding his growing erection against her center as his mouth wandered from her lips to kiss and nip at her soft throat. Aleah mewled with want, her breathing ragged and her whole body trembling as he held her up against the door.

He was about to slip his hand beneath her shirt when he felt her pushing back at his chest and he stopped, looking back up at her face, panting with his need for her. "You okay?" He asked roughly, getting even harder seeing her flushed cheeks and her pupils blown wide with desire. Aleah nodded but continued to push at him so he backed away, confusion warring with his baser instincts. The brunette was obviously turned on but she also looked apprehensive, and she managed to speak through her labored breaths that she should probably call it a night, make sure Manny was safely in her bedroom so he wouldn't cause more trouble.

"Uh... Okay. Good night Princess." Dean responded, not wanting her to go but also not wanting her to feel forced into doing something with him she didn't want to do. Even if all his vast experience was telling him that she very much wanted him the same way he did her. 

Aleah knew it was silly to break into Dean’s room like she had but a part of her still feared talking to him, still worried that if she opened up or made requests he would get angry with her. Though she supposed that this didn’t help prevent that anger either. He yelled anyways and she shook her head at his apology. “No you’re right. I should’ve come to you not snuck around and broke into your room. I’m sorry Dean.” She admited, nodding gently when he told her to ask him for help no matter what it was if she needed it.

He brushed away a traitorous tear and again she felt stupid for crying like she was but when he kissed her that feeling went away and was replaced with all the want and need for Dean’s acceptance and touch that she harbored. She responded in kind, opening her mouth to him and moaning roughly at the feeling of his tongue along her own, she was lost in his taste and touch, the feeling of being wrapped in the hunters arms was far better than she could have imagined. She hardly noticed he was pushing her back until she felt her back and shoulders hit the door.

The brunette groaned into their kiss, feeling him grind against her front. Something she both wanted and was afraid of, every touch and every kiss he gave was meant to evoke a response, he knew what he was doing in this department and that much was clear to the half angel. She was shaking, barely managing the will power to push at his chest just as his hand pushed up the hem of her shirt. He was quick to break away and ask her if she was all right. She nodded, her stomach full of butterflies and warmth in the pit of her belly that spread lower the longer she looked at him.

“Yes… Fine. I should—I should call it a night.” Aleah stumbled over her words, pushing at him again to make space, to get him to move enough that she could open the door and retreat. “Manny. I should make sure he’s in my room and… stuff. Umm—make sure he’s not causing Sam trouble or something.” It was apparent that he didn’t want to stop or let her leave but he did anyhow, offering a very confused good night as she pulled his door opened. “Thank you. For uhh… the tattoo and lunch. It was—nice.” She mumbled in a nervous rush, slipping through his door and trying to keep her pace slow as she darted down the hall back to find her room. She could feel him watching her, imagine in her mind the expression he held likely wondering why she would leave him like she just had.

Three days passed since Dean’s assault in his bedroom and maybe half a dozen sentences had been traded between the pair. She could tell he was trying his hardest not to be upset with her for telling him no… though she hadn’t really told him no, not completely. She was sitting on the sofa near Sam, half pressed into his side like she often was as they leafed through book after book for lore on the ‘Apple of Discord.’ “So Ares… we have to kill him or something? Or find him?” She questioned, trying to wrap her head around all that Sam and Dean had disclosed to her.

Sam shook his head and explained that it was his daughter they were more apt to dealing with, Eris. “Okay. And you really think that finding the opposite of the Cupid’s Bow that Megatron used will reverse all of this? Like a placement for… well for killing me?” She asked, flipping the page of her tattered hard bound book. “And what if it’s another person we have to kill and not an object? I mean it’s not really a piece of fruit that we’re trying to find right? ‘Cause I’d imagine anything from the trojan war is probably pretty rotten and gross…” She commented, hearing Sammy chuckle, the sound making her smile.

He explained for likely the dozenth time that there was no way of ever knowing for sure what the Apple might really be. “So I guess it’s like fighting blind then. The trojan war was in Troy… Do you think there’s any possibilty that the Apple is still there? That maybe I don’t know… it’s like only someone souly Greek could house it?” She continued absently, trying to help the man in anyway she could though she knew she wasn’t the best assistant in all of this. She was smart but history and mythology weren’t exactly her areas of expertise. Dean came around the corner, beers in hand, offering Sam one and taking the other for himself without saying a word to her.

She bit her lip and avoided his eyes, continuing her reading rather than forcing herself to make awkward conversation with the other hunter. They were at it for another good solid hour or so when Sam started rubbing his head and neck, as sign which she had learned meant that the man was being pushed past his limits of exhaustion. “Gimme that.” She instructed, snatching his laptop from off of his legs and pushing at his shoulder to make him stand up. “Go. You’ve been at this longer than Dean and I. We can hold the fort, Sammy. Get some sleep okay? We need you better sooner rather than later.” She said in a gentle yet insistant tone and he laughed once more, starting to get up until Aleah leaned forward and kissed his cheek good night like she often did, wishing him sweet dreams to which Dean rolled his eyes.

Aleah sat back against the sofa, taking over Sam’s laptop and reading the article he had pulled up about Eris and the story of how she began the trojan war. Dean and her sat in silence, the tension in the room apparent and making her increasingly uncomfortable no matter how hard she tried to ignore it all. Her eyes darted up over the screen, nearly the only light left in the room besides the side lamp next to Dean. “Come sit with me?” She requested and he looked up at her barely, his eyes moving and acknowledging her but his head remained focued downward. He grumbled that he was fine where he was and she nodded as he continued to read and sip his beer.

She got up instead, bringing the blanket wrapper around her delicate shoulders as well as one of the books from on the table with her. “Scoot then.” She half demanded, gently nudging his leg with the text she carried and despite his grumpiness he did as she asked, making room on the smaller sofa for her to sit beside him. Aleah kept to reading as much as she could, occasionally stealing a glance in his direction and feeling him do the same. She didn’t know what to say to make this better but clearly he thought he did when he asked why she hadn’t crawled in bed with Sam or decided to hide in her room with her cat again. “We talked about me and Sammy. You know how I feel, Dean.” She muttered and he grunted an inaudible reply under his breath. She didn’t know what to say to make this better but she hoped that she knew what to do, biting her lower lip she pushed her book closed and turned enough to grip Dean’s face in her hands, making him turn and she inched over, pressing her lips hard to his own and earning a groan from him in response. He slapped his own text closed and instead his hand found her hip, gripping her tight and he lifted her with ease by the waist, dragging her into his lap and forcing her to straddle him.

Aleah moaned into their kiss, entirely focused on ensuring he understood that she felt only for him and no one else. He pushed the blanket off her shoulders and his hands slid over her bare thighs and up her hips, pinning her against him and grinding himself up against her center just as he had before. She mewled with want, feeling her desire soaking her panties the longer they kissed and touched and again his hands found the hem of her shirt, pushing up the fabric and slipping his hand beneath her shirt. She gasped as he gripped her chest, almost on instinct she pushed his hand away while they kissed, rejecting his touch and breaking away she tried to keep his hands away from her body, sliding off his lap and starting to make a lame excuse to go but he growled harshly in protest, questioning why she was coming on to him only to stop him a second time.

She blinked, strugging to find her voice as he stared at her, her cheeks flushing pink. “I should really go to bed. Castiel wants me to—“ She started, pretending not to hear him and he snatched at her arm to keep her in place above him, saying he wanted to know why the hell she was being such a tease and she stammered, avoiding his gaze and shaking her head. “I—Dean I haven’t ever… Umm…” 

The second Aleah started kissing him, Dean went from horny and pissed to... Horny and pissed. She felt and tasted so good, he told himself to make her stop and demand an explanation of her hot and cold behavior, but with her scent in his nose and her soft body against him, all he could bring himself to do was drag her atop him and ravage her mouth with his.

He was just starting to touch her how he'd wanted to for god knew how long, when just like the other night Aleah rabbited. A harsh growl escaped him and he gripped her tight, demanding to know why she was pulling this again, not about to let her scamper off again without explanation. She babbled nervously trying to feed him an excuse and he jarred her a little in his lap, not hard enough to hurt her but enough to get her attention.

"Is this your thing, huh Princess? Yanking my chain? Why the hell do you keep teasing me like this?" He sputtered angrily, his mind buzzing with frustration even as his body raged with want for this beautiful woman straddling him. Aleah turned a deep shade of scarlet and she began to stammer, not helping his confused, aroused state any.

"Haven't what?" He reiterated, exasperated to the point where his annoyance was eclipsing his desire for this to continue. Aleah opened her mouth to continue but no sound came out, after a long awkward moment Dean finally cleared his throat and shuffled her off of his lap. He stood up and smoothed his jeans a bit, looking down at the woman he wanted more than anything in the world. "Look I really, really like you. But I can't do this hot-cold stuff Princess. I'll give you your space until you figure out if I'm good enough for you or not." The hunter said harshly, nabbing his beer and storming off to his quarters. Part of him hoped she'd come find him, jump in with both feet, but he couldn't handle going to the next level with someone who was going to dangle a the carrot in his face and then yank it away the second he reached for it.

Dean made it to his room and yanked his gun out of his jeans, setting it on the night table as he sat down heavily on his bed. He bent and unlaced his boots, mumbling under his breath the whole time about how women were worse torture than anything he'd experienced on earth or in hell. He tugged his feet out of his shoes and flopped back on his bed, legs and arms outstretched. He counted the pockmarks on his ceiling and took deep breaths, trying to wind himself down from the ridiculously turned on state Aleah had gotten him into. 

Dean’s departure left Aleah speechless, sitting crookedly on the small sofa where he had all but tossed her aside and out of his lap. Her eyes welled with tears, which seemed to be a common response that Dean evoked from her, blinking to clear them and refusing to let them fall this time. She sat for a good half hour or so letting him cool off and have his space while she kept reading through the book she held before, only now she could smell his cologne, feel his warmth from where he sat and every minute that ticked by she struggled to sit there alone anymore. He deserved an explanation and she had every intention to give him one had he let her have a little time to muster up the courage on the matter.

She worried her lower lip and tossed aside the blanket and books, putting away what she could quickly before deciding she was going to search for him. She gulped, filled with nervousness as she found his door in the hall. His light was off but she hoped he was awake still, knocking softly and speaking his name. He said nothing and for a second she thought he was actually passed out but then she heard another frustrated grunt tear out of him, making no sense at all but she knew he was irate with her. “Dean? Can I come in, please?” She requested again, pressing her ear to the door and hoping for a positive response.

She heard him get up, the sound of his heavy foot falls on the floor and the door popped opened, he was standing there still dressed which was rather common for him to sleep in his clothes. He asked her what she wanted and she couldn’t even make herself look at him. “To talk. I don’t think that… you understand.” She muttered and he sighed, pulling his door opened further and walking back to his bed, not inviting her but letting her make the choice if she wanted to.

Aleah followed behind him and pushed his door closed, not wanting to risk anyone walking by or hearing her speak with him. He stood in the center of the room, telling her to get to talking so he could get some shut eye. “Please… stop talking to me like that.” She pleaded, hating the tone he used when he was mad at her. She fidgeted and crossed her arms over her chest, walking over and sitting on the edge of his bed after he dropped back down onto it as well. “Dean I really like you too… okay?” She assured him, reaching over and brushing her knuckles against his. “And I—you’re the first guy I’ve ever been… that I’ve ever wanted like I do.” She confessed and Dean didn’t seem to process what she was saying.

She sighed and to her surprise he didn’t yank his hand away from her touch. “I haven’t ever had…” She paused, turning and looking up at him from where he sat. She shifted and crossed her legs beneath her, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I haven’t had sex before. You’reonly the second guy I’ve ever let kiss me like you do.” She admitted softly, feeling self concious as she spoke. “And it’s very clear that you’re far from being a virgin, Dean. I don’t… want to disappoint you because I haven’t any idea what I’m doing. And I-- I'm really nervous because I want that with you..." 

Dean half choked on a laugh at Aleah's words, unable to suppress his knee-jerk reaction to her admission. He felt a pang of guilt when he watched her face fall, quickly gripping her hand before she could pull it away from his.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh." He said quickly, feeling relieved that this was the reason she had been so touch and go with him. Even if he found it almost impossible to believe. "Aleah..." Dean sighed, trying to collect himself enough to come across as sincere. "You could absolutely never disappoint me. Okay? You're like... You're friggin' hot." He said with a little lingering laugh, but more out of relief than anything. She flushed at his words and he hooked his finger under her chin when she looked down bashfully.

"Now. I told you before, didn't I? I've got your back and I'm here to... Help you." Dean murmured, his breathing getting heavier again as he pictured the multitude of ways he might 'help' Aleah with her in this circumstance. He leaned in and kissed her deeply, slipping his hand into her hair and holding her in place as he explored her mouth with his.

"Like I said. If you need me, I'm here. If you want me." He added in a rough whisper, hoping she'd give him a chance. The brunette stared at him a moment longer, then finally nodded with a shy smile. He grinned widely and their lips met again. Dean growled low in his throat when Aleah shifted on her own to settle in his lap much like when he had pulled her atop him out on the couch. He gripped her hips and tugged her flush against him, continuing to taste her and let his hand roam over her body.

Aleah's hands slipped over his broad shoulders and her nails dug into his back, spurring him on and making him groan as his erection strained painfully against his jeans. They broke apart to gasp for breath and Dean looked up at her with a wry smile, making her question why he was looking at her so funny and he chuckled. "How can you possibly be a virgin?" He asked, honestly baffled though he believed it when his question made her blush deeply once more. She playfully thumped his chest and whined at him shyly. "No really, I believe you but.... How?" He repeated, it just didn't compute in his head, especially not with how ridiculously sexy she was. 

Aleah flushed at Dean’s words, ducking her head but he quickly hooked his finger under her chin and made her look back up at him. He offered to help her and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes, returning his kiss just as eagerly. She moved and climbed over his lap just like before, straddling his hips and he responded, tugging her harder against his front.

She moaned into their kiss, gripping his shoulders and back, the effect she was having on him was apparent the more they kissed and touched. When they broke away, the look on his face made her arch a brow at him, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” She flushed, half laughing when he questioned her right back. She bat at his broad chest, shaking her head, “You gonna keep questioning me ‘cuz I’d kinda like to keep kissing you… if you don’t mind.” She hummed, pressing her lips to his once more.

His hands gripped her hips, encouraging her to grind down against him and she took his cues, ravishing his mouth as she started to roll her hips into his. They groaned in sync, his hands hooking into her shirt and kissing her neck as he started to pull the garment over her head. She grinned, breaking contact enough to nod and let him undress her upper half. He untied the bikini top she had been forced to wear the next few days, his lips and teeth on her chest, nipping along her cleavage. She pushed him back, pulling off the top and revealing herself to him. He paused, taking in the sight of her before he continued, “What?” She asked quietly, starting to cover herself on instinct.

Dean grabbed her wrists and shook his head at her, telling her he hadn’t prepped himself enough for seeing her bare. She turned a darker shade of red in response, laughing shyly, “Dean.” She whined, carding her fingers through his hair on either side of his head, tugging him lightly and rolling her hips again. The sound he made, forced her to pause, eyes darting back and forth to both of his. “Sorry… Am I hurting you?” She asked uncertainly and he laughed, shaking his head and telling her it was just the opposite.

Aleah hummed as he captured her lips once more and guided her hips to move again. Her heart raced, busying herself with taking off his shirt which he was all too eager to rid himself of the garment. Their lips crashed together but he didn’t linger, kissing his way down her chest and latching onto one pert nipple. She gasped and her fingers scratched over his scalp, her desire fore more soaking her panties through.

Dean’s hands wandered, gently grazing over the partially raised tattoo on her side and continuing further south. He drew her away from him only slightly to slip his hand between their aligned bodies, watching her intently and asking her permission. She froze, even this much was a lot more than she had ever done. “Umm…” She hesitated, eyes darting down to his large hand at the hem of her cotton shorts. He waited but it wasn’t long before he asked if this was too much for her to handle right now. “No. Dean,” She snatched his wrist before he could move it away. “Bear with me… I haven’t even… on my own or anything. It’s gonna take me a bit to relax I think.” She pushed his hand a little lower into her bottoms and panties, her eyes dark with need for him. “But I want you to touch me. I want it to be you.” She half pleaded, making him smirk at her.

Dean’s fingers brushed her clit and her hands gripped his shoulders harshly, trembling in response to his touch. Her chest heaved with heavy breathing, his fingers slowly working circles over her button of nerves at the top of her entrance, her eyes squeezing shut at the feeling, holding onto him as if she might tumble if she wasn’t careful. He hummed pleasingly, his digits dipping into her center almost experimentally and on instinct her hips jolted against him, and her teeth snapped down onto his lower lip unintentionally, making him growl. Her eyes shot opened and she met his gaze, her back arched, opening her mouth to apologize but instead he started to move, stroking her walls and drawing her slickness up to swirl around her swollen clit. 

Dean jolted and growled at the sudden stab of pain when Aleah bit him hard, but whether it was healthy or not the pain and slight taste of blood only turned him on more. He smirked and licked the spot of blood from his lip, relishing the brunette's nearly out-of-control reaction to his ministrations. He added another finger to the first, pumping in and out of her body and teasing her clit with her own slickness that was soaking his hand. 

She felt so wet and tight, it was making him crazy wanting to be inside her but he knew he had to curb his enthusiasm a little bit. The last thing he wanted to do was overwhelm her and make her bolt on him again. He zeroed in on the woman gasping and mewling in his lap, noting her every response and cataloging them for later use. As hard as he found it to believe that she or anyone over the age of 18 could still be a virgin let alone not even tried to 'help themselves out', he had to admit it was insanely hot watching how intense her reactions were considering she had never felt them before.

"You like how that feels? Harder? Softer? Faster?" Dean prompted, his nimble calloused fingers playing her like a finely tuned instrument. Aleah writhed and bucked on his hand, panting to him that she wanted him to go faster and he obliged, increasing his pace as he pumped into her and flicked his thumb over her sensitive clit. Aleah's blue eyes flew open with shock and her whole body stiffened above him, her lips parted in a silent scream as he drove her further to the edge. She started to gasp his name, telling him he thought she might be coming but she wasn't sure.

Dean chuckled a bit in his throat, gripping the back of her head with his free hand and tipping her face down to meet his. "Trust me Princess, when it happens you'll know. Now close your eyes..." He whispered, waiting for her eyes to flutter shut and then continued, his hand working her slowing a bit so she could listen his words better, "Focus on how it feels... Tell me how good it feels if you want. Don't think about anything else..." He murmured, placing errant kisses over her chest and throat. He resumed his rapid pace, drawing her taught like a bowstring and nearly losing it himself as Aleah's moans rose in pitch and volume and she let go of any lingering doubt.

Her walls clenched and fluttered around his fingers and he brushed his thumb back and forth harder over her clit, smiling despite the fact that his own want for her was so intense it was bordering on pain. Aleah screamed in pleasure, muttering his name over and over as she came down from her orgasm. She slumped heavily against him, her breath ragged and punctuated by little breathless giggles.

Dean withdrew his hand from her body and steadied her in his lap, smiling and feeling a little out of breath himself as he spoke, "You okay?" He asked, a pleased grin smacked across his face. 

Aleah didn’t know this feeling or pleasure, never drove herself to anything near this. All of this was new to her and she wasn’t sure what it felt like to come, telling Dean she felt that she might be but wasn’t entirely certain. He gripped her and his pupils were blown out, she knew full well he was holding back just for her, to show her how good all of this felt, how much he wanted to pleasure her and not just himself. He slowed his pace and instructed her to shut her eyes, so she did, letting them flutter shut so he would continue.

He told her to tell him how it felt if she wanted but she could hardly manage a solid syllable let alone a full sentence. She ran her hands over his shoulders and neck, pinning him to her and encouraging him to keep kissing her. She bucked against his hand, “Ahh… Oh god… Dean.” She gasped, digging her nails into his flesh and honing in on the feeling his fingers were causing. “Dean—Please don’t stop.” She pleaded with him, her inner most muscles clenching around his fingers and she screamed his name, her hips rolling into his hand as she came around his calloused digits.

The brunette rode out her high, breathing raggedly and slumping against him. He kept her up right, withdrawing from her heat and asking if she was okay. She managed a nod, “Yea. I don’t think okay is the word.” She panted, pulling back to look at his face and seeing how rather pleased with himself he was. Her thumb ghosted over his bottom lip where she had bit, pressing her lips to the spot in a silent apology. With his hand aside, his digits covered in her slickness sliding up her thigh as she kissed him, she could feel his straining erection in his jeans.

“Do you… you know, have a condom or?” The brunette asked him shyly, her hands pressed to his chest, her breathing still heavy with want for the man she was seated on. He glanced at her and said that they didn’t have to if she wasn’t quite ready for all that, he could manage on his own. She shushed him, drawing herself close to his face again and meeting his green gaze. “No. Dean I want to. Please?... I want you.” She whispered to him, pecking the corner of his mouth and feathering kisses acrossed his lips as she assured him she was ready to take the next step if he was just as willing.

Dean grinned into their kiss, using the nickname he had dubbed her with once more as he agreed. He pinned her to him and shifted their bodies and she hardly noticed until her back and shoulders pressed into his mattress and he settled over top of her. He continued his attention to her body with his lips, kissing and biting along her exposed flesh as he tugged down her bottoms completely and this time she didn’t shy away from his gaze that flickered over her naked frame. “You too, big guy.” She arched a brow encouragingly, finding his belt and unfastening it when he followed her back for another lingering kiss. She tugged at his jeans, popping opened the button with trembling hands until he paused her to tell her that she needed to tell him if she changed her mind.

Aleah nodded, shifting beneath him and leaning up to bite his neck, her legs hitching themselves around his waist, drawing him down. It was enough for him to understand that she had no intention of changing her mind. He pushed down his bottoms, fully exposed to her as well and she could feel his tip at her center, breathing hitching as he kissed her and pulled away to rifle around in his drawer near the side of the bed until he found what he was hunting for, tearing the condom wrapper opened with the edge of his teeth.

Dean continued to kiss her and she him, her arms wrapped around his larger frame, forcing him to stay close to her while he rolled on his protection. “I want you…” She muttered once more. Once adjusted he shifted his weight more over her and she laid back completely, watching his eyes as he pushed into her shallowly, she gasped at the sudden intrusion, overwhelmed by his size. He stopped, asking her if she was all right and she whimpered, “Yes. You’re just…” She started, flushing red again as she spoke, “A lot to handle.” She muttered with an embarrassed little giggle. 

It took all of Dean's control not to plunge into her slick sheath, even with the barrier of the condom he could feel how hot and tight she was. He snickered at her comment, pushing a little deeper inside her and gripping the sheets at her side hard trying to maintain his restraint. "Don't worry... You've just gotta... Give yourself time to adjust...." Dean growled, partly to reassure her and himself at the same time. As much as he wanted to let his instincts take over and drive into her hard and fast, he needed to give her time to get used to his invasive presence in her body.

Aleah nodded, humming with pleasure as he started to slowly move inside her, drawing nearly out of her body and thrusting back in, groaning as her inner muscles clamped around him as he buried himself to the hilt. He kept up his steady pace until the brunette started to arch up against his movements, her plump lips parted and her nails marking the smooth skin of his back. "Good?" He panted, watching her intently and smiling when she nodded. He sat up a little further from her and hooked his hands into the crook of her knees, slowly pushing her legs back and open wider. She watched him manipulating their position curiously, gasping suddenly as he braced on his knees and started taking her with more force, holding her legs open wide so he could drive into her more deeply.

Aleah's hands clamped around his wrists holding her legs up, her spine bowing up off the bed and she clung to him for dear life. "Better?" He quipped again, knowing she liked it but wanting to hear her say it. The woman stammered out an affirmative response and he leaned down to suck and nip at her full breasts as the bounced in time with his thrusts. Dean felt a little thrill of exhilaration, his lover's body was like a blank slate and he couldn't wait to show her everything he knew.

Fairly confident that she had grown comfortable having him inside her, Dean slid out of her body and grinned at her little whimper at the loss of contact. "It's okay..." He soothed in a rough whisper, prompting her to sit up and gently turning her to face away from him. She looked over her shoulder at him, a little nervousness back in her eyes and he leaned over her to seal his lips to hers in a deep kiss.

"Trust me Princess." He urged her again to follow his lead, knowing that with how sensitive her clit was that she would enjoy this position. Aleah nodded and turned back, kneeling on the mattress and bracing her hands against the wall. Dean gripped her hips and guided himself back inside her tight sheath, reaching around her narrow waist and beginning to tease her clit again with with his calloused fingertips.

Aleah immediately responded to his touch, bucking back against him and moaning loudly, her feel and sounds crumbling his resolve to be gentle. Dean held her firm and thrust up into her madly, keeping up his rapid pace with his fingers over her most sensitive spot and groaning with pleasure as she clenched around his length. The brunette began to quake against him and he kissed and bit his way up the back of her neck. "Come for me Princess." He growled, pounding into her and crying out as he found his peak in the same moment that she came hard around him. 

Aleah whimpered when she felt the loss of Dean inside her body, giving a little pout and for a second she thought maybe he was through with her. But then he smiled and reassured her that he obviously wasn’t, gently pulling her up and prompting her to turn around for him. She stared at him over her shoulder, taking her lower lip in her mouth and wondering what he was doing. He leaned forward, pressed up against her back and met her lips in a deep longing kiss.

She did as he prompted her to, giving him her rear and resting her palms against the wall where she knelt on the mattress. She sighed as he guided himself back inside her, his hand coming around her waist and teasing her still sensitve clit for added sensation. She moaned loudly as Dean took her hard and fast, driving her quickly towards the edge, his lips and teeth against her neck and the sound of his voice were enough to push her over. She gave into his request, her body clamping around his length and drawing him in deeper, coming hard around him and hearing him join her.

He rode out their shared high inside her body and she could hardly keep herself upright even braced against the wall, she would have tumbled forward had Dean not kept his arm locked around her waist, keeping her up against him until his motions slowed. He kissed her shoulder and she turned to look at him again, panting heavily still coming down from her second pleasure. “Better?” She questioned a little teasingly, pressing her lips to his.

She sighed as he slipped from her body and she turned around to face him fully, giving him a shy smile feeling his eyes on her front. She hummed into the kiss he placed over her plump lips before breaking away and promising he would be right back. He departed only for a second to discard his full condom and by the time he came back she was sitting with one of his pillows in her lap, covering her exposed front. She giggled and broke her gaze from him, his comfort with being naked in front of her was something she might have to adjust to.

Dean climbed back up on the bed and tugged at her hips, making her shift away from the top of his bed and fall back against the mattress completely. He smirked and kissed her sweetly, gently prompting her to move the pillow from where it was over her chest, asking her why she was hiding. “Sorry.” She mumbled quietly, wrapping her arms around his neck and grinning up at him. He shook his head and told her yet again how sexy she was, especially falling apart under his touch. She bat at his chest and shook her head until he asked sincerely if she was doing okay.

“Yes. A little sore but… in a good way?” She admitted, not sure how to explain what it was she was feeling. Dean smiled, nodding his head at her response, shifting and laying beside her in his bed. “You probably want me to go… I mean if Sammy sees me coming out of your—“ She started, squeaking when he tugged her over to him and wrapped his arms around her smaller frame. She laughed, her cheek smooshed into his chest, trying to tell herself to fight him and go like she suggested but the warmth of his bare body against hers and the scent of his deodorant mixed with gun oil and something uniquely him kept her from moving out of his space like she tried to tell herself to do.

Aleah nuzzled into him, her feet moving to entangle her limbs with his own, closing her eyes. “I like… having you, Dean.” She admitted softly, caught off guard by the man’s willingness to hold her in such a manner when he hardly seemed the type to do so. He had been so good to her, ensured she was comfortable and enjoying herself and she wondered if he was only humoring her further by embracing her like he was. She tried not to let her mind think much of it and enjoy the feeling of him cradling her so closely. 

Dean smiled at Aleah's hushed words, more than pleased that the brunette had enjoyed her first time and that he was at least partly responsible for that. He held her slender frame against his body and sighed, slipping into a deeper state of relaxation than he had experienced in... Actually he couldn't recall ever feeling like this. Even when he'd been with Lisa, he still had to bear the weight of knowing that if the woman he loved ever found out about his past, about what he really was, she'd run screaming for the hills and be well within her rights to do so.

But Aleah was different. She knew who and what he was. Hell, by definition she was one of the supernatural beings he'd spent his life hunting. There was no pressure on him with her to shield her from the truth, to suppress the parts of him that made him who he was at his core. It was a surprising relief after so long living keeping other people at arms length.

As much as he might not care to admit it, lying entwined with Aleah like this felt better than anything he could remember. Dean squeezed her tighter and let his eyes fall closed, making a little grunting sound in response when Aleah murmured again that she should probably go sleep in her own room. When he said nothing in response she lifted her head, kissing along his scruffy jaw up to his lips, wishing him good night and shifting against his chest to get up.

"Hey." Dean protested, gripping her arm and tugging her back against him. "I didn't say you could leave your Highness." He chuckled, threading his fingers into her soft dark hair and drawing her face down to his. He kissed her deeply, making her mewl against his lips and she shivered under his touch. He rolled to partially cover her with his body, doing anything he could to keep her from leaving. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of this new feeling being with her gave him, but he did know he hadn't gotten enough of it yet.

Aleah started to murmur a little protest as he settled between her legs and he gave her a quizzical look. "Still feeling a bit sore?" He asked, lightly brushing his fingertips over her temple. She blushed slightly and nodded, but that didn't deter him in the least. "Well I know just the way to take your mind off that." He quirked his eyebrows at her and grinned devilishly, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck and sampling her soft throat. 

Aleah's breathing hitched in her throat as his hands slid down her bare body. His lips wandered down between her breasts and over to latch onto one rosy peak, teasing her flesh to a rigid point with his teeth and tongue. Her little moans and gasps encouraged him and he gave similar attention to her other peak, pushing the sheets tangled over her legs down as he slid further down the bed. He placed a line of kisses down the flat plane of her belly and nipped at her hip bone making her jump and giggle.

He grinned up at her and bent his head to breathe in her sweet scent, settling between her legs and drawing closer to her center but her hands tugging at his head made him stop. Dean glanced up and he saw that Aleah was feeling nervous again, she asked him what he was doing and he chuckled. She really was innocent if she hadn't even heard of doing this.

"I'm going to make you feel good Princess. Just lie back and relax, and let me taste you." He murmured in a rough voice. It wasn't something he would tell anyone, but eating a woman out turned him on like nothing else. There was something about it that got him going, the power it gave him to evoke a response in his partner, the touch, the taste, the view, the sound of it, he fantasized about performing the act just as much as he did about receiving it.

Aleah's blue eyes widened and her cheeks flushed, her fingers carding through his short hair till her hand slid off his head and fell to rest on the sheets at her hip. She nodded and he smiled up at her again, dipping his head down to nip at her inner thigh. Dean could see already that she was wet for him and languidly licked at her folds, dipping his tongue only shallowly inside her to avoid causing her any discomfort.

Aleah gasped and shivered at the contact, and he let out a low groan as he savored her taste over and over. He used his fingers to hold back her delicate skin and exposed her swollen clit, lightly dabbing at it with his tongue first before sealing his lips around the sensitive bud and swirling his tongue in rapid patterns designed to unravel her.

Aleah cried out loudly, bucking up against his face and he used one arm to pin her as he did his damnedest to make her lose her mind. He loved the way she tasted and just her reactions to his mouth on her was driving him to his own release. He thrusted a little against the mattress involuntarily, needing some relief himself as he wound her tighter and tighter with his tongue.

Aleah began to shake and moan incoherently, her own hands drawing up her front to tease and tweak at her nipples, she didn't even seem to realize she was touching herself, reduced completely to her baser need for the climax of the pleasure she was being overwhelmed by. Dean pressed himself harder into his mattress and lapped greedily at the nectar flooding out of her, resuming his motions on her clit once he'd gotten more of her sweetness.

Aleah tensed and screamed until her voice cracked, her orgasm so intense that she couldn't even cry out anymore. Dean growled against her and maintained his pace until she shuddered and went slack, gasping for breath. The hunter sat up and tugged the sheet off his bed, considering that he had followed her over the edge himself and made a bit of a mess on the sheet. He climbed back up the bed to sprawl beside her, resting his hand gently on her belly and enjoying watching her face as she tried to collect her scattered thoughts. 

Aleah tried to pull away from Dean and get up to get dressed, knowing it was likely the best thing to do though she didn’t particularly want to leave the warmth of his arms. Clearly he had other plans, his lips trailed down her body and she was quickly distracted from her previous task of escaping his sheets and heading to her own space. He settled between her legs and his mouth ventured further until she gripped him, attempting to halt his advance. “What’re you doing?” She questioned though to some extent she thought she might have an idea.

Dean responded to let him do what he had wanted, to taste her sweetness and make her lose her mind again. She nodded her agreement and he ventured further, his tongue finding her core and delving into her. She bucked up against his face as the tip of his tongue swirled around her button of nerves, driving her quickly towards the edge of release. He pinned her down and kept her from moving around too much so he could focus on what he was doing and bring her over.

He arched against the bed, grinding himself into the mattress while her hands swept up to her chest, absently teasing her chest. She tweeked her harden nipples and rocked up into his face for more contact and screamed his name, the word catching at the end. He kept his attention against her center and she rode out her pleasure on his mouth, panting heavily as her back hit the mattress again. He yanked the sheet from off his bed and she smirked a little, knowing that he had come undone with her a second time pleased her as well.

Dean’s mouth was glistening with her slickness as he climbed back up her frame and laid a hand over her belly possessively. She flushed, hardly able to meet his gaze until he tugged her and forced her to look at him, telling her she tasted good. He leaned in her direction, closing the gap between them and kissing her deeply so she could taste herself on his lips. She moaned, breaking away from him, “I really don’t think I could last for round four, baby.” She informed him, her breathing still a little heavy and her core ached and pulsed with lingering pleasure that he had caused. He chuckled and brushed her hair out of her face, kissing her once more.

“Get some sleep, okay?” She whispered to him between kisses but he didn’t let up until she tugged her face away from his hands laughing at him. “Dean. My head is going to explode if we don’t stop.” She confessed, sitting up and hunting for her panties, pulling them up over her thighs when she stood. She searched for her shirt, buried beneath the sheets until Dean laughed and rolled over, getting up himself and pulling on his briefs. He grabbed the navy blue button up from the chair in his room, opening it up and just like the first night that she met him he wrapped the garment around her shoulders, using it to pull her close to him for one final good night kiss.

Aleah pulled away and moved to stick her arms in the sleeves of his shirt, leaving it unbuttoned but hugging it around her slender frame, thanking him as she scooped up the remainder of her things that she could find. “I’ll umm—see you in the morning.” She promised and he nodded, watching her leave his room and making her giggle at the way he was looking at her. She bit her lower lip and padded back down the hall to get to her room, popping it opened and Manny was already curled up on her bed.

The next morning Aleah woke early, her body ached slightly but it was nothing she couldn’t walk off, in fact she enjoyed the feeling knowing that Dean had been the one to cause it, glancing down and seeing she was still dressed in his button down from the evening before which only confirmed to her that she hadn’t dreamt of it all. She hugged her arms around her, smelling him in the fabric and sighing lightly as she got up, wandering to pull on her pj shorts she had worn last night.

She padded lightly towards the kitchen and when she rounded the corner she realized that she hadn’t beaten Sam to making coffee this morning. He was standing there, talking to his brother in a hushed tone and he sounded a little irrate for one reason or another. It didn’t process in her mind what might be the matter until his eyes darted over to her standing in the doorway in his older brother’s shirt and give Dean a look that spoke volumes about what he already had assumed about the two of them. She flushed bright red and ducked her head, stammering to find something to explain away her attire, her eyes darting up to Dean’s face and a smirk played on his face, making her recall the evenings events over again in her mind. “This is… really uhh—Good morning.” She muttered, tucking her sleep mused hair behind her ear. 

"I'm all for you actually having a real relationship Dean, I really am. But look, quarters are kind of close in here so all I'm saying is keep it down or take it someplace... A little farther away from my bedroom?" Sam asked, his aggravation written clearly on his face though deep down he was pleased with this new development between his older brother and the girl who had in such a short time become such a close friend to him.

Dean was about to offer a smart-ass comment in response but stopped, grinning devilishly as he saw who else had joined them in the kitchen around his brother's shoulder. And she was still wearing his shirt he'd sent her off with last night. It was definitely a good look in his opinion. Sam looked back and nodded stiffly at Aleah, trying not to take out his irritation from lack of sleep on her since she was obviously feeling self-conscious.

She fidgeted nervously but the longer Dean stared at her the more she smiled and Sam knew he wasn't going to get much of anything useful from either the hunter or the half-angel until they'd gotten their little post-coital giddies out of their system. So the taller hunter simply sighed and grabbed his steaming mug of coffee, retreating to do some work in peace and leaving the pair in the kitchen.

Dean leaned against the counter top, a smug grin still pasted across his face at the sight of Aleah in his shirt. He knew where Sammy was coming from and he made a mental note to be more discreet with their activities, since he sure as hell wasn't about tell his little Princess she needed to quiet down. The brunette crossed the room to pour herself a cup of coffee and Dean gripped her waist, tugging her close and immediately mouthing at her neck. He knew better but the sight of her ruffled from sleep and in his shirt was just too much for him to be able to keep his hands off her.

Aleah squeaked a little in protest but she still tipped her head to give him better access to her flesh, reminding him in a small voice that Sam or Cas could show up at any minute. Dean chuckled in his throat and lifted his head, "I'm pretty sure they're both more than aware of what's going on between us your Highness." He quipped, laughing again at the deep shade of scarlet she acquired at his comment.

Still he let her loose to get her coffee, taking a swig of his own and letting his eyes roam freely over her figure as she wandered to the fridge for an apple for breakfast. "Let me see that." He prompted, catching the fruit one handed when she gently tossed it to him.

Dean took his small razor sharp pocket knife from his jeans and flicked it open, deftly peeling the green skin from the fruit. As he worked his mind wandered to Eris' Golden Apple they needed to find, his brow furrowing with concern. He finished his task and cut a thin wedge out of the pale fruit for himself, popping it in his mouth off his blade as he held out the rest for Aleah.

She took it back gratefully and asked him if he thought they would be able to find the mythological apple, or whatever the object really was. Her thoughts had obviously wandered to the same place and her lovely face was darkening with worry.

"Hey." Dean ducked his head to meet her downcast gaze and lifted her chin up. "We're gonna find it. We're gonna make all this right. I promise." He swore, a fierce protectiveness taking root deep inside him that had a lot less to do with keeping the world safe and a lot more to do with keeping her safe. 

Sam left the pair alone and Aleah felt a slight sense of guilt despite how Dean was eyeing her in the kitchen. She wandered across the tiled floor but it wasn’t long before Dean had caught her up in his arms, wrapped around her and pulling her back against him as she poured herself a cup of hot coffee. She giggled and craned her head, chiding him for his actions but refusing to pull away. She laughed and her cheeks turned red at his words, knowing they had made a ruckous last night.

She pushed lightly at his arm around her waist and he relented, letting her go so that she could finish making her cup of coffee. She padded to the fridge and ducked to grab one of the remaining apples out, tossing it to Dean as per his request. The brunette sipped her coffee, wrapping her fingers around the warm mug and standing at the man’s side while he easily skinned the shiny green apple. She bit her lower lip, wondering absently about the Golden Apple they would need to find and sometime soon. They hadn’t any leads quite yet it seemed and she was starting to get concerned that they might never find any sign of this item or person or whatever the hell it was.

Dean popped a chunk of the fruit in his mouth and she watched him, taking back the apple from his hand and eyeing it in thought. He sensed her worry, which was no surprise to her, despite how much he might not like emotions he seemed to read them rather well in her, either that or she was horrible at hiding them. He tugged her face up to look at him and the vow he made, evoked a tiny grin on her lips. Aleah rose up onto her toes and pressed a kiss softly to his lips, “I know.” She responded though the words were meant to ease her mind it didn’t, she trusted him to do his best but with how little they had found involving possible whereabouts of this ‘Apple’ she wasn’t so sure it would happen.

Aleah wasn’t even certain on just how long she would allow the Winchesters and their clipped winged friend to watch over her, to protect her. She couldn’t bear the weight of knowing the number of souls she was keeping from having a place to go, Heaven or Hell, it didn’t matter but it felt wrong knowing they simply no longer existed. Dean’s lips crashed with hers again and she hummed pleasingly into his kiss, opening her mouth to him at his prompting with his tongue against her lower lip. She could taste the wedge of apple he had just eaten, mixed with coffee and his own sweet taste. She nudged him to break contact, leaving her breathless, “I’m sure that protecting doesn’t always mean getting in my pants.” She teased and he pointed out that she was in fact wearing shorts. She giggled at his hands tickling her stomach as he pushed up the fabric of her shirt or rather his shirt she still wore.

“Dean.” She groaned, trying to keep her hold on the apple in her hand. He hummed in response, kissing her flesh. “Stop.” She laughed, worming her way out of his hold, ducking under his arm and getting to the other side of him. She picked up her coffee and shook her head, though her heart was pounding and every part of her wanted him to pin her to the wall or toss her over the kitchen table but she knew better. They had work to do. “I’m going to shower. Alone.” She added the last part, ensuring he understood. “Then we have research to do.” She said, picking up her mug again and giving him an innocent little grin over the rim as she took a sip, turning around and heading back to her room.

\----

Aleah showered up, dressed in her usual attire now, tight jeans and a flowy baby doll top that she might have chosen specifically for Dean. The dark blue fabric complimented her creamy skin nicely, made her eyes pop more than usual and showed off a generous amount of cleavage. She braided her hair into a long fishtail, pulling it over her shoulder and letting her bangs hang loosely around her face. She smiled at him when she entered the room, sitting beside Sam like she normally did and pretending not to notice Dean watching her get settled.

“Did you get a chance to read through that book I found, “Mysteries and Myths behind the Trojan War?’” The woman questioned her friend, folding her legs beneath her and adjusting Dean’s shirt around her shoulders, rather liking the effect that it had on Dean. Sam nodded and pulled the text out, showing her things he had highlighted that might be good leads on the Apple. Her brow furrowed as she listened, shaking her head, “Seems a little far fetched to ship out Castiel… send him to Troy to check things out. I mean… especially when we don’t know who or what we’re looking for yet.” She stated, looking across the room to Cas who was sitting rather uncomfortably in one of the recliners but he seemed to catch what she was saying.

“I had assumed that my searching in Greece would spark something in me… That I would sense the object should it exist in the location. As you know it takes me little time to travel and even less to search the entirety of the city of origin.” Cas muttered in return to which Aleah nodded her understanding.

“What about cities here? In the US?” Aleah began and Dean’s brow arched up but before he could speak Sam did, asking if she meant what he thought she did, “There are a number of cities in the country that are largely populated—“ She kept on, getting back up and heading into the library to hunt for something, an index and a large text on Greek subcultures, where they migrated and when. The three boys were all staring at her, waiting for her to continue. “Sorry… I can’t believe I didn’t even think of it before but… there’s a town along the shore… in Florida. I went there when I was little. Only for a day but my mom’s umm… friend took me sailing.” She said, leafing through the book she held and plopping back down on the couch.

Aleah’s eyes scanned over the index in the back, looking for a list of cities or something that might help her remember the name. “Tarpon Springs.” She tapped her finger on the page, flipping quickly through the text and finding the chapter on Greek American’s. “The Greek population is the largest in the US. Like 11 percent or something like that. They migrated there for fish and game I think, being close to the water and all. I mean there are Greeks scattered outside the town as well but… when we passed through for the most part it’s centralized towards the warf.” She explained, turning the book around and handing it to Sam so he could read about what she meant and confirm her idea. He seemed to grasp what she was getting at, that maybe they would have better luck in a little less obvious place.

“It’s worth trying right? And it’s pretty close. It’s better than sending Castiel to Greece. I mean I can go with you guys on this one… by car of course.” Aleah worried her lower lip, hoping they might take the bait and let her join them on the excursion. “I’ve been there before. I’m sure I could remember some of the area.” Though she really doubted it would be much considering it was 15 years or so ago. 

Dean listened intently to Aleah and Sam talk out their latest theory, it wasn't exactly concrete but it was still a better lead than they'd been able to come up with after all their time spent researching. His expression darkened a bit when the brunette mentioned heading out on this little excursion with them. The unattached portion of his mind knew that she was ready for something like this, and acknowledged that she deserved the chance considering that checking out the town in Florida was her idea.

But... Just the idea of her being put into harm's way made the hunter's blood boil. Sam, Aleah and even Cas were all looking at him expectantly, and he knew they were all waiting for his go ahead. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the floor, torn over the decision.

"Dean? I think this is our best shot short of sending Cas to turn over every stone in Greece." Sam prompted, fairly confident that he knew what was keeping his brother from just agreeing to the plan. "She's ready. And we'll be there to protect her." He pressed further, flinching a little when Dean's eyes darted back up to meet his.

That was at least something Dean could dismiss outright and sidetrack from his conflicting feelings about letting Aleah go. "You are definitely not going on this field trip Sammy." Dean pointed a finger at his brother, "You're better than you were but playing prophet is taking it out of you. It's slowing down your recovery and you know it. No if we're gonna do this, you've gotta be here figuring out exactly what it is we're looking for once we get there." He said with a note of finality, and for once Sam didn't argue outright.

Another tense moment passed and Aleah quietly asked who was included when Dean said 'we.' The short-haired hunter could see the agitation in her expression and growled in his throat. "It means me, Cas... And you Princess. But you gotta keep a lid on your mojo, all right? No using your powers for any reason. That's the condition." He responded, knowing he had to let her accompany him but still not liking it.

Aleah's face lit up and she nodded, hugging Sam gently before getting up, mentioning that she'd go start packing for the trip. Dean shook his head and called after her as she hurried away, "Pack light Princess! We're not going on vacation!" Dean looked back at Sam and the crooked smile his younger brother was giving him did not help his mood any. Dean looked at Castiel. "It'll take us around 24 hours of drive time, so we'll have to stop for the night. You stay here and keep helping Sam with the tablet translation, meet us in Tarpon when we get just outside of town." He told his friend, going to pack up his own supplies for the trip. 

Aleah waved her hand to Dean, acknowledging his instructions but she didn’t think she would stick to them much. He didn’t understand the need to be presentable… Though she thought maybe he would more considering it was his arm she would be on. She all but skipped back to her room, packing up all that she thought she might need for however many days they would be there. It could be a couple could be weeks for all she knew.

She was carrying her bags out to the front of the bunker where Dean and Sam were piling a bag of ammo and loads of weapons they thought might be of use should they find anything. Aleah hauled her midsized roller bag and another smaller one with all her toiletries and hair products she tended to use depending on the day, her purse slung over her shoulder and filled with snacks for the trip as well as her own personal items. Sam looked up when she came over and gave a grin, knowing full well how Dean would react. The short haired hunter glanced up from the trunk of the car at the sound of her clicking heels and rolled his eyes, scolding her for the amount of stuff she was hauling on her person.

“What? This is light!” She defended immediately, “We don’t know what the weather is going to be like.” She explained, handing him the handle of her bag expectantly and when he didn’t take it, Sam did. “I brought the smallest ones…” She whined, feeling like she really had tried to be smart about her packing. Dean shook his head and closed the false bottom of the trunk that concealed their armory in the Impala. He questioned why she had more than one bag in the first place when all she needed was a change or two of clothes and asensible pair of shoes. “Are you really going to make me change and repack? There’s room in the car.” She pouted at him, “Plus you don’t exactly need all those guns do you? And yet I’m not telling you to pick a favorite.” She pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for him to cave.

Sam chuckled and moved around them to help get her things in the car and Dean sighed, giving in to her and taking the smaller bag from her to pack away as well. Aleah smiled, satisfied in getting her way this time around. She hugged Sam good bye and kissed him on the cheek, giving him a note with instructions on taking care of Manny who ate a specific times during the day. She liked to give him routine while he adjusted to his new life and the taller hunter nodded, promising her he would take care of him as she slid into the passenger side of the Impala.

Dean shook his head, walking to the opposite side and grumbling as he climbed into the drivers side. He slammed his door closed and she felt the lingering tension of the fact that she hadn’t done as he asked her to. Tugging her purse from off her shoulder and placing it in the backseat she glanced down at her hands when she got settled, “I’m sorry. I did try to at least… and I packed the boots you and Sam got me.” She muttered and soon his hand was on her leg, giving a gentle squeeze without saying anything in regards and she knew all was forgiven as they took off down the street. She couldn’t decide if she was nervous or excited to be going on a hunt with Dean finally, or a hunt at all for that matter, she was itching to get out of the bunker and see the outdoors again. “And lucky for you because I’m nice, I packed you beef jerky and powerade. The red kind.” She grinned sweetly, hoping to make up for it. He chuckled and thanked her gently, telling her they had a long drive and he would save it for a little later, she nodded at him.

Dean took them as far as he could without passing out at the wheel, every so often stopping for soda or coffee to get him by another hour or so until he couldn’t go any longer. They drove nearly half the time the trip alotted for and Aleah had been dozing on and off the past few hours despite her desperate attempt to stay up and help keep him awake as well. Her head rested on the side of the door, fingers loosely holding onto Dean’s and seemingly undisturbed by his music still playing through the speakers of the car.

She stirred when the warm hand in her lap moved away, touching her arm instead to rouse her when they came to a stop. Dean was murmuring to her that they had made it as far as they probably should, suggesting they get some good sleep before taking off in the morning. She nodded, feeling a little more rested, car rides always soothed her since she was a kid and it was easy for her to drift in and out of conciousness when she felt comfortable. Aleah stretched and grabbed her shoes she had kicked off onto the floor, taking her things and getting out of the car, following Dean’s lead.

The short haired hunter gladly helped her with the bags she brought, taking them with him but he paused to look at her as she adjusted her top on her frame. “Where are we?” She asked, rubbing her tired eye and nodding when Dean shrugged and said ‘a motel somewhere halfway, “Well that’s promising.” She laughed, shaking her head and walking in front of him towards the office so they could check in. “Do you think we could find a place that delivers this late to… cheap motels.” She questioned, feeling hungry and Dean shrugged, saying worst case he would go grab them a couple burgers since they had become one of her favorite things.

Dean checked them in and she shivered against the cold while she waited for him to return with the key to their room, biting her lower lip and smiling as he wriggled it in front of her. “So did you get two queens?” She asked, arching her dark brow as they walked up to the correct door number. He smirked and fought with the sticky door, managing to jiggle the key enough to get it opened and she got her answer, one queen in the center of the small room, a tv on the opposite wall. “Real subtle, big guy.” She teased laughing when he said they could share the shower too if she liked. 

"Hey it's cheaper than a double. We can share the shower too if you'd like." Dean chuckled, depositing Aleah's bags on the end of the bed. He dug around in his duffle bag for the canister of rock salt, lining both windows and the heat registers. He marked every flat surface with anti-angel sigils using nearly invisible spray-adhesive so the hotel couldn't fine him an arm and a leg for damages. Aleah watched him move around the room making his various checks and precautions.

"All right, I'll go find us some grub. Salt the door once I leave and don't open it without checking that it's me through the peephole first all right?" He instructed, gripping her arm gently and looking her square in the eye, seeing from her expression that she didn't quite take all the precautions seriously.

"Look I know it seems like a bit much. But this is all absolutely necessary. I'm going to keep you safe, no matter what it takes." He said firmly, trying to impress upon her just how serious this situation was. Aleah's expression sobered and she nodded, stepping into his space and placing a light kiss on his lips. She thanked him for letting her come along and for protecting her and he smiled, kissing her again.

"The only way this works is if we have each other's backs, all right? So hold down the fort while I'm gone." He told her with a half-smile, adjusting his weapon under his jacket and leaving her to find them some dinner.

Dean returned with a brown paper bag full of Chinese takeout, knocking in the code he'd given Aleah and tipping the bag in indication when he saw the peephole darken. After a moment the door opened with a scraping sound over the line of rock salt and Dean smiled satisfactorily that she had taken his words to heart. 

He set the bag down on the table and started taking out the little white containers, letting Aleah paw through them and find something that looked good. He forced himself to order one item that had vegetables in it, and of course she took that one. Dean grinned and took the six pack out of the other shopping bag he had, cracking open a beer and sitting down heavily at the table. 

They ate quietly for a few minutes, Dean wasn't really much for idle talk so it caught him off guard somewhat when Aleah cleared her throat and awkwardly tried to start a conversation. The hunter looked over at the woman as he chewed his General Tso's, trying to think of something to say but failing. Aleah chuckled, mentioning that there had to be something he was interested in talking about.

He took a pull of his beer, not really sure why women always had to talk all the time but understanding he wasn't gonna get away with not doing it. A little smirk crossed his face as something did actually occur to him that he was interested in. "Okay, you never did tell me how and especially why you managed to stay a virgin. At least, until you met me." He asked with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, still feeling a little smug that she had chosen him. 

Aleah dug through the bags that Dean brought in hunt for something that sounded good at the moment, smiling at the little roll of his eyes he gave that she didn’t miss when she picked the one with veggies in it. “I’ll save you from the carrots, Dean. God forbid you eat something with color that isn’t artifically dyed that way.” She teased him with a smirk, taking a pair of chopsticks for herself and starting to dig in through the opened container.

They ate in silence for awhile but she opted for breaking that, “So…” She started, hoping he might take the bait and think of something to say so she didn’t have to. She laughed as he simply stared at her and waited, “There has to be something that you want to talk about. Something that sparks your interest? So we can get to know likes and dislikes of the other?” She shrugged, waiting again for him as he took a pull from his bottle.

She smiled when he started to speak up, pleased to think maybe they would have a decent conversation after all and of course… the topic up for discussion was one that involved their more recent activities. “Of course you would pick sex right off the bat.” She laughed, balling up a napkin and tossing it at him teasingly. He brushed the napkin aside and sat forward, telling her he seriously wanted to know when she was as stunning as she was, how she had managed to stay so innocent. “It’s called morales, sweetie. I promised myself that I wouldn’t until it felt… right.” She answered, tucking her hair behind her ear a little shyly.

He stayed quiet and watched her as though waiting for more of an explanation. “I’ve been in situations before and it’s come up… it’s not like I’ve hidden away in my apartment all these years I just never had the time and never had someone that I truly wanted to be with like that. Believe it or not Dean, sex comes with a lot of emotions behind it for some people. I tend to attach myself and end up hurt and that’s without the intimate aspect added into the mix.” Aleah continued. “And without having known that my life is more or less hanging in the balance and that I’m half archangel.” She half laughed. 

Dean processed her response, the topic he'd chosen more to elicit a response from her than anything suddenly getting a lot heavier than he'd anticipated. Sure he knew that sex meant a lot more to some people, most people really. It had even meant more to him for awhile. He knew what it was like to get hurt, though if he was honest with himself he was usually the one doing the hurting.

He smiled at her crookedly before taking another drink of his beer. "Yeah well, you might be half-mac daddy angel but... And trust me when I say it took me a long time to come around to this opinion but, who you are is about the choices you make, not what's in your blood." He told her, reflecting on all the things he'd come across in his less than stellar trip around this rock. In his line of work he had to make tough calls, but he'd also learned that sometimes the hardest part of the job was acknowledging that he wasn't always gonna make the right one.

The atmosphere in the room grew heavier and Dean knew she was waiting for something else, for him to admit something or open up or whatever girls called it. He looked her square in the eye, deciding to come clean whether it was a good idea or not. "There was someone... For awhile. But... Being with me, it purt her through hell. Almost got her and her son killed. I'm not trying to scare you, just think it's fair for you to know that. You might not wanna let your emotions get involved here, either. Trust me when I say I'm not worth the pain." Dean finished with a rough chuckle, his voice cracking slightly with emotion as dark memories flickered across his mind.

The pair sat in heavy silence for a long moment, and Dean regretted telling her the truth but at the same time he knew it wouldn't be right of him not to before she got too attached. The tall hunter stood and ran his hand over the back of his head. "I think I'll get cleaned up. I can... Sleep on the floor, I've slept worse." He told her as he headed for the bathroom, upset with himself because he should have known better from the get go not to let himself care about Aleah like this. Not when it was only a matter of time before she had to find out he was a horse she shouldn't hitch her wagon to. 

Aleah listened quietly expecting Dean to say something more, confess to her that the reason he felt so strongly was because he knew what it felt like to lose people, had someone before and could relate to a certain extent. He did, not quickly at all but he finally spoke up and told her that there had been someone before and what he said broke her heart. Her eyes welled with sympathy and sadness that he would think he wasn’t even worth it, that he wouldn’t let her make the decision herself. He tried to laugh it off but she knew it was eating at him.

He hurriedly got up and she took a second to follow after him, standing up a little stiffly and keeping her space from him. She stood next to her chair, “Dean.” She muttered in a soft nervous voice, afraid he might lash out at her like he used to. She cleared her throat and tried to boost her confidence to speak up to him. “I don’t really think that’s fair of you. To tell me not to let my emotions get involved.” She stated quietly but much more stern a tone. “I’m not expecting you to return it but… you don’t get to tell me who’s worth it, okay? I’m not going to let you push me away like that.”

Dean glanced over his shoulder at her, finally turning around after he thought she was done, facing her and she could see the pain and sadness in his eyes. “It’s okay to still love her. I’m not… trying to replace anyone. But… I’m not scared.” She assured him, meeting his bright green gaze. He nodded at her but it was clear by silent understanding that he still needed to clear his thoughts and spend some time alone for a bit no matter what she said.

He left her to shower and by the time he got out she was putting away all of the take out and beer in the mini fridge that the motel had to offer them. Dean busied himself with checking and rechecking his gun he so often slept with, setting it on the table along with his car keys. Aleah crept up behind him, standing uncertainly near him until he turned around, her arms instinctively slipped around his waist when he spun to face her. She didn’t care what he had to say, whether he was angry or not she wanted to feel him again.

It didn’t take him long to wrap his arms in turn around her frame, squishing her against his front just as she did him, her cheek pressing into his chest and hearing the rapid beating of his heart. She pulled away to look up at him, gripping his face instead and forcing him down the good distance to be at her level. She kissed him on the lips sweetly at first, holding him there. “Every princess needs a knight in shining armor. Let me pick mine on my own.” She murmured, pressing her mouth to his again, kissing him slow and deep to drive in the words she spoke.

Dean pulled away to take a moment to chuckle at what she just said and she rolled her eyes at him, “Don’t make me pick somebody else ‘cuz I will dock you points for laughing.” She teased, poking her finger into his chest and smiling. She kissed him again, hooking her arms around his neck and pressing herself up against his hard frame as they embraced. 

Dean had to work hard to only slightly chuckle at her knight in shining armor remark, when what he really was inclined to do was laugh in her face for making such a ludicrous analogy. He was about as far from a shining knight as you could get. But she had a point, he couldn't control how she felt about him, and the truth was he couldn't help that he cared about her too, more deeply than he knew he should.

He held her close, pressing his large hand into the small of her back keeping her pinned against his sturdy frame as they kissed. He swept his tongue into her mouth and made her moan as he tasted her, his body coming to strict attention from her taste and feel and sounds. He backed her up till her calves hit the bed and started to tug her shirt up. She lifted her arms to help him and he tossed the garment aside, his eyebrows quirking a bit as he recognized the pink and black lace bra she was wearing from the first day they met.

She looked down at her chest where he was staring and back up at him, asking him what he was looking at and he chuckled. "Nothin'." He murmured, sliding his hands up and down her curves, cupping her full breasts and rubbing her pert nipples with his thumbs through the soft bra cups, enjoying the way she leaned into his touch. She tugged at his thin white undershirt and he removed it.

Dean leaned into Aleah's space prompting her to fall back on the bed and she giggled as he tickled her skin along the hem of her skinny jeans. He unfastened them and tugged them off, sliding his rough hands up and down her smooth legs. The brunette's chest was rising and falling rapidly, her pupils blown out with want and seeing her open and hungry for him was enough to make him painfully hard.

The hunter knelt down and tugged her forward closer to the edge of the bed, grinning up at her and very pleased with himself when she mewled in anticipation of what she knew he was planning to do. He was most certainly not a knight, because he was far more interested in defiling his lady's honor than defending it.  
He bent his head further down and breathed in her sweet scent, placing a light kiss on her inner thigh and making her quiver. He kept lightly kissing her leg until Aleah's fingers swept through his hair, trying to tug him closer to where she wanted.

Dean chuckled low in his chest and he looked up at her, deciding she wasn't going to have it as easy this time. "What? What're you trying to tell me Princess?" Dean asked with mock innocence, a mischievous smile tugging at his lips. Aleah moaned his name and tugged at him again, but he held steady just above her center still hidden by her already wet panties.

Dean made a tsking noise in his throat. "Tell me... Tell me what you want me to do." He prompted again, relishing the flush that rose in her cheeks at the prospect of having to voice her desires aloud. "Come on Princess..." He urged again, leaning down to mouth at her center through her panties, making her gasp and moan at the contact but stopping after only a few seconds and refusing to go any further until she said the words he wanted to hear. 

Aleah’s nails skimmed over his scalp, urging him closer and he mouthed at her but it was enough. “Please.” She begged, feeling him give a shake of his head in response. He wasn’t going to give in until she said it out loud what she wanted from him. “I want your mouth all over me again, Dean.” She confessed, her chest rising and falling fast with her heavy breathing. She pleaded once more and his fingers hooked into the hem of her panties, tugging them off of her body and revealing more of her to him.

His eyes were dark as he settled again, hands caressing her thighs and he glanced up as best he could to see her face as he pushed forward, lapping at her center just light the night before. She moaned roughly, her hips arching up into his face and her hand tugging his short hair while the other balled up into the sheets beneath her. “Oh… God I love your mouth.” She panted without really thinking much of it, her eyes screwing shut as he pinned her down and delved into her dripping heat.

Dean worked her over until she was shaking, begging for release and he easily guided her to it with his lips and tongue. Her finger nails bit into his arm that held her down, crying out harshly as she came against his tongue. He growled and licked her clean, kissing her thigh as he withdrew and straightened out. Aleah sat forward, her body trembling as she gripped him, holding his face and forcing her lips to his in a deep hungry kiss, groaning as she tasted herself on his mouth. He lifted her up enough to drag her higher up the mattress, settling over her body.

He covered her frame with his, kissing along her skin and prompting her to sit forward so he could unhook her bra, tearing it off her front and pressing his lips to her pert nipple. She could feel his erection strained against his jeans and pressing into her center. She sat up, never breaking their kiss as her hands worked open his bottoms, curiously slipping down his abdomen. Dean panted, pulling out of their kiss and pressing his forehead to hers, watching her and waiting for her to continue. She swallowed out of nervousness but she knew the only way to work past it was to jump into it. She wondered what he felt like, not just inside her body but in general, wondered what it was like to do the same for him, watch him fall to pieces under her touch.

Aleah forced her hand lower and her soft fingers brushed his shaft. He probably thought she was afraid of him or something but only out of innocence and shyness did she worry that she might not be able to please him like he did for her. She wrapped her fingers around him, her free hand pushing down his bottoms to get to him easier and her breathing hitched. He was velvety soft to the touch and yet his length completely hardened. It turned her on in a way she hadn’t expected to see his mouth fall open in response to her hold. She kissed his lips sweetly, “I don’t--- know what to do.” She confessed and he grinned, cupping her face in one hand and using the other to keep him propped up off of her a bit.

He assured her that he would ask her to stop if he wasn’t enjoying himself and she nodded when his hand slipped down to grip her wrist and guide her to start stroking him. She followed his lead, gripping him and stroking his length again and again, her eyes darting back and forth to both of his, watching him react to her and moan at her ministrations. She continued the motion, brushing his tip experimentally with the pad of her thumb and he thrust forward, half startling her as his weight slipped and pressed her more into the mattress, his erection throbbing in her hand and she reached with her free hand to cup the side of his face.

“I—I want you inside of me again, baby.” She requested and he coaxed her to let him go, ravishing her mouth and getting up to shed the rest of his clothes before he returned back over her. 

Dean was more than happy to give Aleah what she wanted, pleased that she told him what she wanted without prompting from him the second time. He back up off the mattress and shed his remaining clothing, grabbing a condom from the small toiletry bag he had in his duffle by the bed and ripping the foil open with his teeth.

He joined her back on the bed and Aleah made a little noise to get his attention before he could put the protection on, shyly offering to do the task for him. Dean smirked and nodded, handing her the condom and keeping still for her so she could roll it onto his hard length. She blushed just from handling him and he found it surprisingly cute, he was glad to be the one helping her get more acclimated to these things, which was out of character for him. Normally the more experienced the girl was the better in his book, but Aleah was different. He found her endearing, refreshing in a way he couldn't quite describe.

She got him ready and scooted a little further up the bed till her head rested on the pillows. Dean followed and settled over top of her, his hardness prodding at her entrance. Aleah gripped his head and drew him down to kiss her deeply, lightly nipping at his lower lip and raising one leg up to hook onto his hip. Dean gripped her thigh and pushed into her tight heat, groaning into her mouth as they joined.

He tipped his head back to meet her gaze, watching her lips part and her eyes flutter shut as he started moving inside her. Desperate little mewls fell from her lips with every breath and he increased his pace, wanting to make her scream his name in ecstasy again. The hunter rolled his hips up into her, panting heavily and smirking a little at the loud squeaking the hotel mattress was emitting from their movements.

Aleah noticed it too and giggled breathlessly, reaching up behind her head to grip the edge of the wooden headboard with one hand, the other gripped his neck and kept his face close to hers. Dean growled and buried his head into her neck, biting and kissing at her sweet flesh and whispering to her absently about how good she felt and tasted.

Aleah moaned loudly, her back arching up as her pleasure built, encouraging Dean to continue driving up into her at a particular angle she seemed to like. "Tell me..." He prompted her, and this time there was no hesitation. Aleah practically begged him to take her harder, nearly making him lose it right there.

Dean gripped her other leg and guided it up to wrap around his waist as well, bracing on his knees and pounding into her hard and deep. The old bed springs protested louder, squeaking rapidly in time with his thrusts but soon Aleah's cries were far louder than the springs. Just as Dean thought he couldn't hold on any longer the brunette tensed beneath him and gasped his name, her grip on the headboard white-knuckle as she came around him. 

Her walls clenched around his length as he drove into her and the hunter fell over the edge with her, coming deep inside her body and riding out their shared pleasure as long as possible. He withdrew from her heat and leaned over to discard his condom, cleaning himself up a bit before settling again on the mattress beside her. 

Dean pushed into her as they kissed and she moaned into his mouth, breaking their kiss when he started to move. Her hand hooked his corded throat, keeping him close and in place above her as he drove into her tight heat. She gasped, arching up into him, his lips all over her slim finger from her neck to her chest and shoulders. His breath against her ear as he whispered sweet things to her and drove her closer and closer to her peak.

He requested that she tell him what she wanted when her body moved and she did, tightly gripping him as well as the headboard. “Harder… Dean take me hard.” She commanded roughly, giggling a little at the sound of the bed squeaking in time with his thrusts inside her body. He hitched her opposite leg around his waist and drove into her deeper, following her request and slamming up into her body. She screamed at the sensation, her body wracking with spasms of pleasure, fingers gripping tightly to the headboard above as she found her peak and tumbled over the edge in nearly the same moment he did.

The hunter rode out their orgasms inside her body until he was utterly spent, withdrawling from her body and she hummed at the same satisfying ache she felt between her thighs. He discarded his condom and climbed back in bed with her, grinning as she took his arm and tucked her head against his shoulder, guiding his arm around her shoulders so she could snuggle up into him, both their bodies damp with sweat. Her lips pressed to his chest, sighing heavily and relaxing with him holding her once again. “Mmm…” She purred, feeling his hand brushing back and forth over her back and bare upper arm. “Real glad you got the one bed… think I would’ve ended up over in yours anyways.” She murmured, her breathing slowly starting to ease once more the longer they laid together.

Dean chuckled, shifting and feeling the goosebumps on her frame, he reached for the covers, nudging her to move so he could pull the comforter over their bare bodies. She smiled at him thankfully, letting his pull the covers up around her shoulders and she turned onto her side, giving him her back and prompting him to spoon up against her, her feet seeking the warmth from his own limbs, tangling with his. He absently asked her if she was still a little sore from yesterday and she giggled, “Well yes but you’re hardly giving me a chance to realize it anyways. I suppose the best way to recover is to work through the aches.” She smiled, tugging his hand that rested on her wasit and drawing it up for her to kiss the back of it. He kissed her shoulder in turn and murmured a tired and false apology for being so tempted by her sweet flesh. She nudged him with her elbow gently, shaking her head. “You drive me crazy, Dean Winchester.”

“We’ve got a long drive tomorrow too. You need your rest.” She berated him, halting his kisses and turning enough that she could smile over her shoulder at him, puckering her lips expectantly. He leaned forward and nipped at her lower one before kissing it good night.

Aleah drifted off easily with Dean pressed up firmly behind her, sharing his pillow and lingering in his space through the evening for warmth. She woke before he did the next morning, knowing it was best to leave him sleeping while she got ready for the drive, hoping in the shower and blow drying her hair once done. She came out wrapped in a towel still, digging through her larger bag to find the clothes she wanted to wear, hearing Dean’s sleepy approval of her ensemble. She rolled her eyes but laughed when he said he definitely approved of this as her driving outfit. “Of course you would… but if I wore this, you wouldn’t do any driving.” She pointed out, straightening out and leaving her clothes to step over to the mattress, grinning at him and shaking her head at his comment about what exactly he would be driving. “Stop.” She scolded, her cheeks tinged pink as she stepped between his legs and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“You need to get some clothes on and so do I… then we’ll grab some breakfast up the street and head out?” She suggested, stepping away from him only to have him grab her and pull her back, tugging at her towel and prying it opened for a little sneak peak. “Dean!” She laughed, pushing at his hand and readjusting the towel on her frame again. “Get dressed, Lancelot.” She teased him with a smile, padding back over to pick up her things and sneak off into the bathroom, shaking her head. 

Dean's eyebrows rose at the nickname she'd given him, the first thing that sprang to mind was the fact that Lancelot's betrayal had become one of the world's most famous stories of infidelity and heartbreak. He shook his head, trying to take the name in the way she'd intended it and chuckled.

The pair headed up the street to find some breakfast, the hunter in his usual rumpled plaid and jeans, the woman on his arm dressed in another one of her designer outfits. She was holding out her compact looking at her reflection askance and Dean sighed. "You look just fine." He told her for the third time since they'd left their hotel room.

She fussed a bit more and complained at him for rushing her out the door before she'd had time to put on her full makeup, forcing her to make do with little more than foundation, mascara, blush and lipstick. Dean halted, waiting for her to walk a few paces as she kept talking till she realized he was no longer beside her. She turned and walked back to him asking him why he stopped.

He snatched the compact from her and snapped it shut, shoving it in his jeans pocket ignoring her little squeak of protest. "We don't have time for the Miss America pageant routine when we're on the road Princess. Besides, you..." Dean stammered a bit over his words, "You look a lot hotter without all that gunk on your face anyway." He finished, sounding for all the world like a lovesick middle schooler for half a minute.

Aleah looked like she was gearing up to be angry until his last awkward statement, her features going soft again and she shyly tucked a lock of dark hair behind her ear. She asked him if he really felt that way, and Dean reached up to gently cup her face. "Yeah I do. I mean I get that girls like all that prissy stuff but... You don't need it. You're beautiful, you. Not that stuff you paint on." He told her sincerely, tugging her closer and she stepped willingly into his space to share a deep kiss.

They broke apart after a moment and Aleah asked if she could have her mirror back. "Nope." Dean responded quickly with a wide grin at her little huff, striding off to find the diner knowing she would quickly catch up, her heels clicking on the pavement. 

Aleah fussed over her appearance as they walked together, ignoring Dean’s insistence that she looked ‘fine’. “You know if you’d given me twenty more minutes I would have been done and looked 100%. Me looking good makes you look good too, you know.” She stated, brushing her finger beneath her full lower lip and clearing the tiny bit of lipstick that was in her mind out of place. “I know you hate it but it’s important… image is important to maintain for—“ She turned, realizing he was no longer at her side, her brow raising, wondering how long ago he had stopped.

“Why’d you stop?” She asked, taking the half dozen steps back to where he was behind her. “Hey!” She exclaimed when Dean snatched her compact straight for her hands, reaching for it but he stuffed it in his pocket out of reach. She glared at him, ready to yell and defend herself, that this was how she was and he had to accept that just like she accepted his stupid plaid shirts that were tight in the biceps… and jeans that were tattered… that showed his toned ass…

Dean stumbled over his words and her expression grew far less harsh, tucking aside a dark curl that hung around her cheek, flushing at his words. “Do you really think that?” Aleah questioned in a quiet voice, feeling his hand on her cheek, she smiled up at him as he spoke once more, promising her he wasn’t simply saying that to get her routine to stop. She pushed forward into his space, even with her heels she had to stand on her toes a little to meet his lips, holding his face in her hands as he deepened their contact.

They broke apart and she kept her face close to his, “Now can I have my mirror back, Sir Pendragon?” She teased with another name of a known knight and ex heir to the throne. She gave him a little pout but still he responded in the negative. “Mmm.” She huffed, making him laugh in his throat and tug away from her, heading over to the diner.

Aleah rolled her eyes and trotted in his direction and he quickened his stride in turn. “Deeean.” She whined, laughing at him. She soon caught up, leaping onto his back and startling him but he caught her anyways, his arm hooking behind him when her arms looped around his neck. She stuck one hand out around his body and in front of him, looking over his shoulder, “Gimme.” She demanded and when he didn’t hand it over as quickly as she wanted, she shoved her hand down into his pocket to hunt for it herself as she dropped back to her feet.

Dean spun around immediately and his fingers tickled her sides, coaxing her to stop. She squealed and fell into a fit of laughter, withdrawing her hand instantly, “Okay. Okay! You can have it for the trip.” She giggled out, raising her hands in defeat and soon pushing his own off of her frame. The hunter was laughing, like she hadn’t heard before, a whole hearted, actually was enjoying himself kind of laugh, making her grin. She liked the sound especially knowing that she had caused it in part, she tugged him into another quick kiss before they trekked the remainder of the way to the diner, taking seats in a booth towards the corner only this time she tugged him to sit next to her rather than across from her.

The waitress came over and this time she said nothing about Dean ordering for her, appreciating that he got her an egg white breakfast sandwich as well as wheat toast, so maybe she had taken in part to his ways but not entirely. The fact that he knew to what level he could push her without going too far, made her grin; he still tried to put her out of her comfort zone, get her to ease up a bit but he knew how much he could do and what he couldn’t. “And an extra side of bacon, please.” She requested when he was finished, earning a smirk from him, “What? I learn from the best. Protein is important.”

Their food was brought not long after they got their coffee and Aleah chowed down, humming pleasingly at the mixed tastes of her sandwich. She laughed when Dean finished his and snatched a piece of her bacon from the small plate at her side, she shook her head and with how close they were sitting, she felt like they were bordering on being a real couple not simply an experiment. Every part of this was new to her, she’d been in school most of her adult life, always pushed herself to the brink of complete exhaustion, working herself sick from time to time and she rarely had time for a relationship in those days. She absently wondered what was on her hunters mind… that was to say if he really was hers.

Dean waved down the heavy set waitress and asked if they served pie here and if he could get a slice. “It’s…” Aleah started, looking at her watch on her wrist and checking the time, “Like 7:30 in the morning, sweetie, you’re going to have pie to finish off your breakfast?” She chuckled, shaking her head at him when he insisted any time was pie time. “You’re an odd one.” She muttered, waving her hand and insisting she didn’t want any when he asked her. It was too early for her taste. His treat was brought and he licked his lips, taking in the scent of the warm pie topped with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Dean took a bite happily and picked up one more, offering the fork over to the brunette and telling her he knew she wanted some. She made a face, anticipating his disappointment when she told him this, “I don’t like apple pie. I hate cinnamon and the mushy feeling of the apples. They’re not meant to be cooked like that.” She stated and he looked completely heart broken to find out she wasn’t the biggest pie fan like he was. He scoffed and tugged his plate away, stuffing the fork into his mouth again and licking it clean, telling her she could leave this booth with her nonsense. She laughed at him, “The plus side of it is that… I will gladly let you eat my slice.” She smiled, pressing her finger into his side.

Aleah picked up her unused spoon and reached around his arm, stealing a scoop of his ice cream, “I will however eat your icecream or whipped cream should you get it.” She hummed, eating her spoonful and he laughed, letting her take as much of the ice cream as she wanted, “You’re a horrible influence, Dean Winchester… making me eat ice cream for breakfast.” 

The pair left the small town behind shortly after their breakfast, making few stops along the way till they finally reached their destination. It was far warmer and more humid along the Florida coast and Dean made a noise of aggravation at the feeling of the air sticking to him when he got out of the car to pump some gas.

The sun was starting to set over the wharf town, Dean did a quick search on his phone for a cheap motel and grimaced at the result that came up as the least expensive option. Aleah came around the Impala to see what he'd found and he gave her a sideways look. "How do you feel about boats?" He asked, showing her that the rates for a local pontoon that had been converted into a floating motel of sorts with four rooms for rent.

They drove out to the harbor the pontoon was permanently docked at. They arrived and peered up at the dive of a boat through the car windows and Aleah gave him an incredulous look. He shrugged, he and Sammy had bunked in far worse places, and she was the one who'd insisted on coming along. Dean was able to talk the dirty former fisherman who owned the boat into giving them a lower rate since the hunter could see plain as day that this place hardly saw any business and the man was probably just gonna drink away whatever money they gave him anyway.

He carried Aleah's bag into their room for her, it was tiny, little more than two hammocks hanging one above the other on one wall and a sink with a mirror on the other, the toilet was in a tiny closet just off that and there was no shower. Dean chuckled, very amused at his companion's reaction to their quarters, getting a fair amount of pleasure from showing her the true 'Hunter Experience' she'd previously been so keen for before she really understood what it meant.

Aleah complained that he couldn't honestly expect her to stay here, and couldn't help but laugh as he spoke, "Come on, it's not all bad." He set her suitcase down and opened the metal sliding door to let in the ocean breeze, it was at least a little more comfortable now that the air was cooling with the sun going down. It really was a nice view of the ocean and the Hunter leaned his forearm against the doorframe, taking a deep breath of the salty air.

The brunette came to stand beside him and he put his other arm around her shoulders. "Tomorrow we start doing some digging, see if we can find any leads on our own before we hear from Sammy. Cas should be here first thing tomorrow too. For now just.... Try to enjoy the view." He told her, his hand brushing up and down her arm. 

Aleah walked into the room in which she and Dean were staying for the night, feeling a little wobbly from the light motion of the waves against the boat house. She put down her purse, wrinkling her nose at the line of dust along the mirrors edge. “You can not expect me to stay here, Dean. It’s… gross. I can’t do it, I’m sorry.” She whined, hating the way she sounded but she simply couldn’t see how this was appealing even if money was tight for hunters. This was ridiculous, she would rather sign a fake name on a fraudulant check and hand it over to the managers of a decent motel than have to do this.

She hugged her arms around herself and walked up to where he stood in the opened doorway looking out at the open water. He slipped his arm around her and told her it wouldn’t be such a bad thing but she disagreed with a tiny groan of distaste. She relaxed at his touch and laid her head against his broad chest, unfolding her arms and laying one on his abdomen instead as she leaned into him. She sighed heavily, breathing in his scent, “I’ll try but I can’t make any promises.” She mumbled, nuzzling further into his warmth.

His hand on her arm gave her goosebumps from his soft touch, driving up her desires like she hadn’t expected. Every second she was around him he managed some how to get her going… maybe because she knew what he could do to her body; she was only discovering the likes and dislikes of herself and him and having someone as good looking as he was as her teacher it was no wonder she wanted another lesson. She absently reached with her hand to caress his scruffy cheek and jaw. She kissed his chest then neck, coaxing him to turn and leaning up to press her lips to his.

Dean grinned at her and started to pull back but she slid her hands up his shirt, touching his bare skin and lingering at the hem of his jeans. He chuckled and questioned what she was doing, “Enjoying the view.” She answered, staring up at him and sealing their lips again. She kissed him with everything she had, her tongue delving into his opened mouth, sliding along his own, humming at his taste. Dean growled and nipped at her lip, forcefully turning their bodies and pinning her to the edge of the door. “Too bad we didn’t find a real place to stay… I’d have let you throw me down on the bed again.” She said with a breathy giggle.

The hunter laughed and she hitched a leg around his waist, drawing him closer to her and when his hand took hold of her thigh she hooked the other around his hip, locking herself around his frame. Her forehead pressed to his, their breathing ragged and heavy with need for the other. She smiled at him, pecking him sweetly and playfully nipping his lip until she earned a little moan from him. She decided she wanted more, testing his tolerence she bit a little more roughly at his lip, tugging it with her teeth. Her mouth trailed to his neck, fingers carding through his hair as she nipped and bit at his thick skin, tongue flicking out and licking over every spot to soothe, his grip on her tightening and he started grinding against her center, making her moan in response. 

Dean laughed at her comment. "Well as fun as throwing you down on a bed is Princess, it's not the only way to have fun." He said in a suggestive tone, he could think of a dozen different ways to take her in the small space just off the top of his head, and none of them required a big soft bed like she was accustomed to.

Aleah wrapped herself around him and he easily supported her weight, her rougher kisses and bites driving him crazy with want. The hunter liked things rough but he hadn't wanted to push his inexperienced partner too far until she was more comfortable with sex, but apparently she was plenty comfortable already. His grip on her tightened as she bit down on his neck, laving her tongue over his flesh where she'd marked him. He carried her back into the center of the room, setting her down and capturing her lips with his again as he yanked off his over shirt.

Aleah eagerly followed suit, shedding her own top and leaving him to unhook her bra while she worked on his belt and jeans. After a moment they stood bare before each other, the only light in the small room coming from the moon shining in through the still open slider door. The brunette didn't seem to notice and Dean wasn't worried about it, especially when he had far better things on his mind like the beautiful woman standing in his space.

Dean sat down into the bottom hammock, grabbing Aleah's hips and guiding her to stand between his legs, feathering kisses over her lower belly and thighs. He swept his hand up between her legs and the brunette widened her stance a bit to allow him better access, bracing her hands on his broad shoulders and humming with want as he dipped his middle finger into her. Dean pumped in and out of her body, adding his ring finger and looking up to admire the woman standing over him.

She stood with her head hung forward, her hair tumbling over her shoulders in loose waves. Her eyes had slipped closed as she lost herself in the way he was touching her and it made him even harder for her to see how her rosy peaks had stiffened with arousal. Aleah's lips parted and little groans fell from her lips as she started instinctively riding his hand. Dean made a rapid come hither motion inside her to hit her most sensitive areas and leaned forward to start teasing her clit with his tongue. Aleah's nails dug into his shoulders and he growled against her, treating her little button of nerves more roughly with his mouth in response and relishing the loud cry he won from her.

He kept up his pace until her knees started to wobble and eased off, making her whimper at the lose of sensation but he smiled up at her, licking her nectar from his lips. "Come here." He murmured, leaning back and shifting to lie in the hammock, tugging her down to straddle his lap, hissing with want when her slick center rubbed against his throbbing shaft. He wanted to take her so bad without a condom but he knew in the back of his head that risk wasn't worth it.

He reached down and rummaged in his duffle as Aleah got settled atop him, giggling as the hammock swayed gently with their movements. Dean smiled up at her and handed her the condom, letting her open it up and get him ready for her, mostly because he liked the feel of her hands on him. He knew she was already close to her peak with the way she was quivering above him, and it was a good thing because having her on top of him like this was turning him on beyond belief. 

Aleah’s grip on Dean’s shoulders tightened, her nails biting into his flesh as he stroked her walls and leaned forward to tease her clit with his mouth. She cried out to him, her legs getting weak and her hips rolling into his hand and face, starting to slump as she walked the edge of her peak. She felt the loss of contact when he pulled off of her, whimpering at him for teasing her like he was but then he requested her to join him.

He laid back and she gladly followed him down, moaning as she felt him hard as steel beneath her. It took everything in her to be patient and wait for him to search for a condom, making her giggle as she braced her hands against his abs keeping herself hovering above him, the hammock swaying with his movements. Dean shifted and handed her the tiny package, making her bite her lip as she glanced at him, tearing open the wrapper and moving off him a little. She reached between their frames, taking hold of his hardened length and grinning at him as she pumped his shaft a few times, kissing at his chest, the more they did this, the more comfy she got and he never made her feel silly for not knowing all of what she was doing, he seemed perfectly happy to show her and let her learn on her own terms.

Dean groaned, his hand reaching up and cupping her face, drawing her down for a kiss as she slid on the protection. Her breathing was heavy with want, sliding back up his frame once more, finding she kind of liked that he was relinquishing control to her like this. She broke their kiss, a ragged cry breaking from her parted lips as she lined up their bodies and took him to the hilt. This was new… every part of this was new, she swiveled her hips and gasped as he hit just the right spot and this time she had control over their motions.

Aleah pulled her curtain of espresso curls off her front and swept her hair back over her shoulders, snatching his hands that lingered on her hips, guiding her above him. She dragged his large hands up and moaned as he took her cues and cupped either breast in his hands, fondling her and tweaking her nipples as she moved against him. Every time their hips joined and she slammed down onto him she could feel the pressure of him against her clit beneath her, gasping with every thrust of her hips. He tensed and she could feel him throbbing inside her body, nearing his own peak of pleasure in a matter of a few moments. He growled for her to come for him, “Almost there, sweetie… Ahh… Oh God you feel so good, Dean.” She moaned.

He instructed her to lean back a little and she did as he asked, her hands bracing against his legs spread out behind her and as he pushed up into her she realized exactly why he had told her to do so. “Ahh… Ahh… Harder.” She demanded, her fingers curling around his limbs, their motions matching and she gasped harshly, the moan that left her lips cracking and forcing her silent as she trembled above him, coming hard around him, her inner most muscles flexing and clamping around him, drawing him in deep inside her body. He cursed and followed behind her, gripping her hips again and forcing her motions faster and harsher above him, making her slam down onto him and drawing out her pleasure as long as he could. She rode out her orgasm above him until she was shaking and utterly spent, panting and desperate for air.

Dean’s body relaxed and his fingers digging into her waist let up, taking to caressing her thighs as she leaned forward somewhat lazily, her vision still blurry around the edges as she leaned into him and sealed their lips in a deep slow kiss, her hands pressing his warm broad chest. “I like when you take me but… I think I like being on top.” She hummed, her cheeks flushing when he growled out an agreement and capturing her lips once more, ravishing her mouth. She giggled and slid off of him, the increasingly familiar ache she felt in her core and the pit of her stomach, returning. She shifted so he could discard the condom he wore, rolling back into the hammock and causing her to tumble towards him. She laughed as she followed through and snuggled up into his chest, letting her leg slip over his frame so she could rest more comfortably in his space.

“Is it stupid of me to like this?” Aleah questioned, looking from the opened doorway back up at him and letting her thumb ghost over his lips and jawline as he questioned if she meant sex. She smiled, “I like that too—“ She started, giggling when he shifted to kiss her hungrily, groaning his approval to know she was enjoying herself. She pushed lightly at his chest, “Dean, I mean like this… lying with you and hunting with you, making the best of a crappy motel or in this case house boat.” She muttered quietly. “I wish it was under different circumstances… because I feel like I’m risking you.” 

Dean sighed heavily at her quiet admission, brushing his hand over her skin still dewy with sweat. He knew what she was getting at, but she didn't know his whole history either. "Don't worry about it Princess." He told her, placing a light kiss on the top of her head. "Really. Honestly, being involved with you isn't the riskiest thing I've done. The longer you kick around with us, the more you'll realize that our life isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows. The way I see it, if I'm gonna have to face all this crap anyway... Might as well do it with someone I... Care about." Dean finished awkwardly, giving the brunette a crooked smile when she looked up at his face.

Aleah gently brushed his face with her finger tips, quietly accepting his words and telling him that she cared for him too. It made Dean's alarm bells go off to hear her talk like that, but he wanted to hear them so desperately from her that he ignored them and tipped her chin up to kiss her deeply again.

The pair spent the rest of the night lying skin to skin, neither one wanting to make use of the second hammock they had. The alarm on Dean's watch went off early in the morning and the hunter fumbled to silence it, it was amazing how much less willing he was to get up and going with Aleah sprawled naked atop him. She stretched and groaned sleepily as she awoke as well, grinning and scooting up his frame to kiss his lips softly.

"Don't start something you're not willing to finish Princess." Dean murmured against her lips, his hand sweeping down her back to grip her firm rear and press her harder against him. Aleah hummed with want but moved to clamber out of the hammock, wriggling into her skinny jeans while Dean enjoyed the view of her full chest bouncing with her movements. She chided him for ogling her and he shrugged, a devilish grin flashing across his face.

He got up and dressed, washing his face as best he could in the little sink, checking his thickening scruff in the tiny mirror but the little room didn't even have a plug for him to hook his shaver into so he just decided to embrace the woodsman look for now. The pair left their less than stellar accommodations and a familiar face was waiting for them on the dock.

Castiel stood straight and still as always, only now he sported the long black trench coat Aleah had bought him to replace his tattered tan one. Dean looked his friend over as he loaded their stuff up in the Impala. He had rented the houseboat space for three nights but he did not trust leaving their bags there for one second. "Aren't you a little hot in that thing Cas?" Dean asked, not really sure now that he was running on replacement mojo how much stuff like temperature affected the angel.

Cas responded that he was fine, immediately getting down to business informing Dean of the information Sam had dug up about Eris and her golden apple, hardly stopping for breath. "Whoa whoa, slow down Feathers. Let's talk shop after I get coffee in my system." Dean cut his friend off roughly, getting into the car without waiting for a response and Aleah quickly joined him in the front seat while Cas climbed in the back, wedged up against the woman's suitcases.

They drove into the seaside town, finding a small family owned diner and taking one of the few booths. Aleah and Dean ordered breakfast and Cas sat as patiently as he could on the bench by his 'niece' waiting for them to eat their meals. Dean set his nearly empty mug down and finally caved, giving up for the moment on the hope that his winged friend might try to adopt some more human-like sensibilities if he forced them on him.

"All right." He prompted, waving his fork at Cas across the table, "What've you got?" He asked, continuing to eat his pancakes and bacon.

Castiel gave them a short version of the history on Eris and how Sam had deduced that she was using some kind of magic spell to carry on in this world for thousands of years despite the fact that she had passed into legend over time. While her power was greatly diminished, she was still able to enact a powerful spell that tied her lifeforce to her bloodline, enabling her to possess a woman from each generation descended from her and do what she loved best, cause trouble. Maybe not on a cosmic or even global scale anymore, but still she would pose a considerable threat compared to simple acolytes of hers like they had guessed they might come up against. 

Aleah asked if Sam had learned anything more about the Apple, and Castiel shook his head, informing them that they still weren't exactly sure what to look for but that it was definitely the source of Eris' power on earth and the thing that let her disrupt the natural order and continue to live on in her parade of human hosts.

"Great. So it's a Goddess-hunt. Love those." Dean commented wryly over the brim of his mug, shaking his head in the negative when Aleah looked at him to see if he was being serious or not. 

Aleah listened to Castiel and Dean converse, the tension in the angel’s body finally easing out when he confessed all he knew to them both. “Her powers might not be to the extent they were decades ago and each year… she grows weaker but she is still powerful none the less.” Cas explained, “She takes on a new vessel when hers grow weak, as an angel or demon might though hers must be directly related to her… part of her bloodline. She is determined to continue on, to keep her name.”

The male angel told them all of what he learned through Sam’s research, telling them that she remained a threat even years after her ‘death’. “And what about the Apple? Did Sam find anything more on that bit?” Aleah questioned and Cas shook his head, telling them his suspicions and concerns in regards to Eris’ abilities. He hardly seemed confident that this job would be easy and she knew in the back of her mind it wouldn’t likely be. So far it hadn’t been.

Dean mentioned around the edge of his cup his ‘love’ of hunting goddesses and she stared at him uncertainly, not knowing if he was being sarcastic or not. He shook his head and she nodded her understanding, “So I take it this is going to be really fun then?” She sighed.

“It will not. There will be a fight I am almost certain. She hasn’t been found, not for years, the information we received is through myth and legends passed on from hunter to hunter, small things that others have noted. There is no knowing what we might be dropping into.” Castiel stated in his usual serious tone though there was a tinge of concern now when his eyes flickered up to Dean and Aleah knew both of them wondered if it had been good for her to tag along after all.

“We don’t know that for sure, Cas.” Aleah muttered, trying to reassure them all, “For all we know she could simply be retired out here on some house boat or something. We haven’t read up on any trouble in the area so far… hoping it stays that way.” She said, giving a smile, “We’ll manage.”

They finished up their meal and Dean drove them the short distance into the center of the town, his phone ringing and Aleah stuck her hand out, not letting him pick up while he was driving. He rolled his eyes but reached into his pocket and handed the phone over willingly and she picked up knowing that it was Sam based on the number, “Hi Sammy.” She chirped into the speaker of Dean’s cell, hearing the smile in his voice when he returned the greeting kindly.

He went right into telling her he had a suggestion, “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.” She scolded, hearing him sigh and apologize, had it been Dean riding him about resting up she knew he would have fought but because it was her she assumed, he took her words to heart and said he knew that but he had one more idea when he was reading up with Cas hovering over his shoulder. “Okay. So you think that it’s worth the time though? I mean I know it’s not like we have anything else to do but that seems kind of… I don’t know, easy?” Aleah stated, feeling Dean’s eyes on her and knowing he was dying to know what they were talking about. He didn’t exactly like not having that control and it was obvious. She smiled at him as she waited for his brother’s response, nodding her head even though he couldn’t see her. “Alright. We’ll check it out at least. Email me a link to their site then get some rest. Please?” She requested, grinning with satisfaction when he agreed to take a break for a bit, asking if she would call him or have Dean call him with an update should they find anything. “Sure. We’ll keep you posted.”

Aleah clicked off the line and shut Dean’s cell, handing over the phone to him and laughing when he said that Sam only listened to her because she buttered him up and bat her lashes at him, that he could do that too if he was a chick and held that power. “No he listens to me because I don’t treat him like he’s five. He knows what he’s doing, Dean. Give him some credit. The whole profit thing was only to help with the tablet… anyways that’s not the point. He called to tell us about a lead he thought he might have, said there’s some museum downtown, houses a bunch of artifacts and such that tie to Tarpon’s history.” She shrugged.

Dean stared at her, waiting for more explanation, “And… Because the city has so much Greek ancestory here…” She urged, hoping he would catch on to what she was getting at and he did, nodding and finishing her thought. He questioned on if he knew what kind of Greek related pots and pans or fishing poles that might be there and she shook her head uncertainly. “I don’t know… he’s sending me the link to the site now.” She told him, her phone beeping in a matter of moments. She leafed through her emails and found Sam’s clicking the link and the page pulled up, “They don’t have much listed… as far as attractions go but it does sound like a lot of Greek American history stuff is taught there. There’s an entire section with stuff that was brought over here when they migrated to Florida.” She shrugged once more. “It’s worth checking out… Sammy thinks so at least. We don’t have any other leads, it’s a shot in the dark but we might come up with something.” 

Dean came around to look over Aleah's shoulder so he could see what she had pulled up on her phone, his brow furrowing at the less than detailed website. "Well we've gone on less before. Seems like as good a place as any to start poking around, maybe we can get more details on the apple there." He shrugged, pulling into a vacant space in the town square.

The little museum had 'tourist trap' painted all over it, right down to the cheesy mosaic sign displaying the name and fake olive trees in pots on either side of the front door. The three of them went inside, making a brass bell ring as the door swung. The front of house was and over-cluttered gift shop with a vast array of cheap knickknacks and knockoffs, a few glass display cases holding semi-valuable items like jewelry and glazed pottery.

Seeing nobody manning the till they ventured further inside, to the museum which consisted of three large rooms with low ceilings and several dusty items in glass boxes on pedestals made to look like pillars from an ancient Greek temple. After a silent nod they split apart, Dean taking the far left, Aleah staying in the center and Castiel going to the far right room.

Dean glanced over a few of the items, skimming over the little placards and dismissing most of the 'artifacts' out of hand as being of no use as far as finding out more about their doom-fruit. Towards the back of the room something did catch his eye. It was a small crackled fresco said to have been handed down for centuries, depicting a great banquet attended by all the Greek Gods save one, the daughter of Ares, Eris. It showed a fair skinned woman wearing a deep blue cowl placing a gold apple on the feasting table; a wicked grin on her face as she watched the Goddesses around her scramble for the fruit she declared belonged to the fairest among them.

Dean peered closely at the apple in the picture, were they actually looking for a damn gold apple, in the literal sense? And what did they do with it, assuming they did find it? He sighed roughly, staring the fresco down as if he could glare the inanimate object into submission and get it to tell him what he wanted to know.

"Can I... Help you?" A soft, deep feminine voice called behind him. Dean turned and smiled in pleasant surprise at the beautiful girl who judging by her question and the little name tag on her little black tank top worked here. She stepped closer and Dean quickly realized this girl wasn't just beautiful, she was drop dead freakin' hot. She was lean but had more than generous curves, her skin a deep golden bronze from her life by the sea. Her long dark chocolate hair hung down her back in loose waves, swaying gently with her movements almost begging him to run his fingers through it. Her bright jade green eyes gazed up at him expectantly, clearly amused by his lack of response to her question due to him being distracted by her appearance. Obviously, she was used to evoking this kind of reaction in men.

He cleared his throat to buy himself time to gather his thoughts, reaching into his wallet and pulling out his false Chicago press badge. The hunter flashed it at her and smiled wide as he extended his hand in greeting. "Jeremy Coolidge, Chicago Sun Times. I'm here doing a story with my research assistant and my intern. We just got into town, heard this was the best place to get information on Greek culture in the U.S. and the different artifacts that were brought over from the motherland itself." He explained in as charming a tone as he could muster, holding onto the woman's hand slightly longer than was necessary.

"Well Tarpon Springs is home to the largest Greek population in America, so I'd say your sources are reliable." The woman responded with a coy wink, taking a step further into his space. "My name is Katerina Themistocles, I'm the curator here so please..." She spoke just above a whisper so Dean had to lean closer to catch what she said. Her hand brushed up and back down his toned arm before dropping back down to her side, "Don't hesitate to ask me for anything you need." She finished with a playful, sultry smile and Dean swallowed hard, trying to rein in the various fantasies that popped into his head at her words. 

Dean, Cas and Aleah all parted ways to take on separate rooms of the museum. The space Aleah took was over crowded with items that had… no meaning to her once so ever. She walked the floor, her heels clicking lightly on the old tattered tiles as she moved from shelf to shelf. Her eyes tracked every over loaded area filled with supposed artifacts though a lot of it looked like junk in her eyes, trying to find something that resembled an apple. She wondered if maybe it was a symbol… sure Eris actually used an apple but maybe it stood for something else. But what she wasn’t so sure.

They were barely a few minutes in when she heard Dean’s voice bellow out the room he was in and bounce down the halls to her own. Her brow furrowed and she heard him telling someone the excuse he must have thought up on the drive or something, shaking her head and grinning to herself. She padded out of the space, recalling what he said about playing their parts, that the job often called for lies. She could manage that, or so she hoped, rounding the corner and seeing him standing there as a tall lean gorgeous brunette stroked his arm. Her frame tensed and her fists clenched, trying to keep her anger in check for what she saw, maybe he was just playing his part? Though she hardly saw how that made sense, the job wasn’t to get into the pants of some stupid museum employee.

Dean’s eyes raked over the woman’s frame and Aleah cleared her throat to grab both of their attention, walking with purpose towards them, barely managing to maintain the professional little smile she had smacked across her face. The much taller woman greeted her with a well played sweet smile of her own, “Miss Thermalcoils…” Aleah smiled as though she hadn’t realized she got the woman’s last name wrong, feeling more than a little territorial over her hunter. “I’m Virginia Klien. Intern to Mister Coolidge. We had a few questions for you actually.” She started, ignoring Dean when he made the attempt to repeatedly correct Aleah for getting the gorgeous lady’s name wrong.

Katerina nodded, saying she could help them gladly with anything they needed and offered to give them a tour and just as Aleah was about to reject the offer, wanting to get right down to business and only such, Dean accepted. Aleah’s mouth snapped shut, going tight with annoyance and hurt. Castiel entered sometime during Dean’s conversation and questioning towards Katerina and the man seemed to completely be forgetting the task at hand. “Umm… Mr. Coolidge don’t forget that we’re on a tight schedule.” She emphasized her words with a look and he waved her off.

“Who is that?” Castiel questioned as he approached Aleah’s side who explained in a clipped tone that she was the curator of the place.

“Something’s up though… Dean’s never brushed me off like that, not since the first…” She started, turning and seeing Cas wasn’t at her side, he had turned and followed like an obedient little puppy towards the other two. “Cas? Where are you going?!” She called for him and he turned around, a perculiar gleam in his eyes as he licked his lips and told her was dying for a tour anyways, claiming the place was too large to find anything alone anyhow, that a guide would benefit them. “What? The Bunker is like eight times this size and you manage just fine.” She grumbled, her brow raising and not understanding what had gotten into either of them.

Aleah rolled her eyes and trotted up towards them, hugging her arms around herself tightly to keep warm and out of anger as well. Katerina started off with an explanation of the basics of Greek culture, how they migrated here and in Florida of all places. She spoke of the ancient lore, Gods and Goddesses and Aleah took the bait when neither of the other two seemed to be remembering why they were even there, too busy ogling their tour guide to retain any of the info she handed them. “Can you tell us about the Trojan War, did that have anything to do with Greeks departure? Just curious if it affected their choices in homes… Eris, as I recall her name to be, caused quite the uproar among her own people.” She commented. 

Katerina's dark brow arched at the intern's charged question, smirking a little at the woman's obvious chagrin at the attention she was receiving from her companions. "Very good, you are familiar with Greek history Miss Klein. Eris was indeed a Goddess well known for causing... Trouble." She replied in a patronizing tone.

"The origins of the Trojan War can indeed be traced back to Eris. She started the feud between her petty immortal peers, which led to the mortal Paris judging their beauty and being given Helen of Troy as a prize which he took by force. The tale tells Eris did it out of spite for not being invited to a Wedding Ceremony of the Gods, but really... She would have done it for a bit of fun anyway." Katerina shrugged, tucking her rich chocolatey hair behind one ear and smiling again when the intern noticed the reporter staring at her openly.

Well, he said he was a reporter anyway. But she found it highly unlikely considering that the man was a hunter laced with supernatural scars fresh and old and was trucking around with an Angel of the Christian God and a half-angel from the same club. Eris was diminished in her host body Katerina, but she was still a Goddess. She had sensed their arrival the moment they rolled into her seaside city, and she was only just starting to have her fun with them. There was only one reason they could be here with her in tow, considering the current celestial circumstances. 

She led them around the rest of the museum, internally laughing gleefully at the way her little nephilim was all but losing her mind with anger and jealousy over her ensnarement of the two men. The taller mortal in particular. Eris could read the swirling auras between the pair, see the emotions and energies between them almost like mortals saw color. 

There was a deep bond between them, but it was new, fragile... Untested. The perfect playground for her little games and she'd been so dreadfully bored lately. She couldn't wait for the moment to arrive when they would put all the pieces together and she'd get to see the look on the hunter's face when she killed the half-angel abomination before his eyes. They weren't taking her power, and she would enjoy toying with them until she ended them. She quite enjoyed watching all the in Vogue powers-that-be scramble in the chaos vacuum created by Heaven's gates being sealed shut.

They got to the end of the tour and Katerina turned at the threshold that divided the museum display area from the gift shop. "Is there anything else I can help you with? We won't be open much longer but, if you need more information for your article, I have an extensive private collection of my own at my family estate, if you'd like to come by, Mr. Coolidge..." She spoke in a soft sultry tone, scrawling down her address on the back of her business card and handing it to Dean.

"My cell number is on the card. Call me. There are many entertaining clubs I'm sure your companions would enjoy, if you'd like to get more work done at my place, tonight." She suggested, though really she was suggesting something else entirely, relishing the shorter woman's barely contained seething jealousy out of the corner of her eye.

“Yea I am.” Aleah stated bitterly, hating the girl for being sweet to her when she was trying to be mad about her ogling Dean and stealing the attention from her. She crossed her arms tight over her chest feeling a little inadequate when her eyes tracked over the woman’s volumptuous figure… Katerina was a walking set of frigging boobs with an ass to follow. She only half listened to what the woman was telling them about Eris, growing bored the longer they hung around and the longer she let the boys fawn over her.

Something was definitely off with the way they were both acting, Castiel included though every so often the man seemed to regain control and look like he forgot where he even was only to be dragged right back into her spell she seemed to have over them both. Katerina finished up their tour and offered to answer more questions as needed, giving her card to Dean and only Dean for him to follow up… at her place. Aleah stared them both down, “I think we have enough information to write an article on your establishment and the history, thanks.” She snipped, forcing herself to give her a smile.

“We appreciate your assistance but a follow up visit won’t be necessary.” She finished, turning on her heel and grabbing her ‘uncle’ by the front of his coat to force at least him to walk with her. Cas spun around, giving the biggest of smiles to Katerina and waving at her, thanking her for her time and claiming he might have to come back. “What the hell is wrong with you?” The brunette grumbled, turning and realizing that Dean was still lingering saying that his intern didn’t make the calls and he had a couple other questions to ask. Aleah scoffed, heading to the car with Castiel in tow.

“I… haven’t any idea what came about me in her presence. My vessel… Jimmy seemed to surface, regain partial control. That woman… Katerina was very… alluring and there are many things I would very much like to do to her, things I have not—“ Castiel confessed.

“Okay, stop. Gross.” Aleah cut him off, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for Dean to come out of the building, the man had an overly pleased grin on his face as he exited and bounded over to them both. He looked to Aleah and gave a little chuckle starting to say something but clearly the look on her face was enough to make him ask what was wrong. “Nothing. I just wanna go before she comes back and asks me to help her wipe up the puddle of friggin’ drool you two left behind. Unlock the door, please.” She requested, trying to keep her eyes from watering. She knew something was going on, though maybe Dean really just was like any other guy and liked to have someone new as often as he could.

Dean did as she asked, his brow furrowed with concern but he also seemed a little angry with her for the way she was talking to him. He unlocked the drivers side and soon reached around to open her door for her, letting her and which she did with a huff. They drove in awkward silence for awhile but it was clear that Dean was still suffering from the effects Katerina had on him, either that or he was choosing to be an ass, saying he thought it might not be a bad idea for him to go to her place, get in a little closer and find out all he could about the Greek lore. “Of course you wanna go to her place.” Aleah muttered, her eyes welling with hurt and angry tears, only growing worse when she heard Cas in the back seat eagerly agreeing with his companion.

They pulled back up to the location of the boat house and slowly but surely Dean and Cas seemed to fall out of their love struck puppy states. Aleah darted inside the rented out space, forcing the door opened and taking to one of the hammocks until the hunter followed. He asked her what the hell her deal was all the sudden and she shot him a warning glare. “You’re telling me I shouldn’t be upset by that? Okay then.” She muttered, feeling Dean’s eyes on her.

“Dean our reactions were strange… I feel nothing in regards to Katerina now that she is no longer lingering. She has an affect on us… Or on my vessel rather.” Castiel stated. 

Dean put aside his bewilderment and annoyance with Aleah's sudden anger for the moment, focusing on what Cas was saying about their tour guide. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest and shrugged.

"Well we've come across this kind of thing before. She could be a witch, a siren, a succubus... If Eris is still kicking around here it's possible she could have a mixed bag of supernatural douchebags under her command. I think the fact that Katerina was working some knid of mojo on us is a good sign that we're close to the bitch, and hopefully her apple." The hunter mused, noticing that Aleah had turned to face them again to listen but not looking directly at her.

"I'll call Sammy, see if he can find any warding spells or hex bags that can keep her from messing with us. Like it or not we've gotta get closer to Katerina, she's our best bet to find Eris and the doom-fruit." He continued as he rummaged in his pocket for his cell phone.

Aleah piped up from her spot on the hammock in a clipped tone that she could just go, since she had been the only one not to be affected by Katerina's voodoo. Dean finally looked up at her, forgetting for a moment that they had an audience and angrily cut her off.

"Oh is that so Princess? She didn't get to you, huh? So you normally go into psycho-jealous mode if your man so much as interacts with another woman for more than a few seconds? Good to know!" He yelled, angry at her for writing him off as not being able to handle himself with this enemy, Katerina had caught him off guard sure but he was one of the best damn hunters in the world dammit. He told himself he was only angry for that reason, but he knew he was just as mad at himself for getting played and that his behavior hurt Aleah. He could hardly digest that himself though, let alone admit it.

The short-haired hunter looked from Aleah to Cas and back to the brunette, grumbling that he was going to go and find them some grub and stormed out after telling Cas to go stealth mode and see if he could observe anything else about Katerina from a safe distance.

\---  
Sam was sitting with his head in his hands, trying to will away the throbbing migraine that seemed to crop up every time he used the spell from Crowley to translate snippets from the tablet. He took deep breaths and the tension in his shoulders started to relax as the pain finally began to ebb.

His cell phone ringing beside him made him wince, but when he saw it was Aleah calling he knew it wasn't something he could ignore. The tall hunter picked up the device and answered, completely caught off guard by the fact that his friend was crying on the other end of the line before she even got a chance to say anything.

"Aleah? Are you okay? Did something happen?" He asked urgently, his muscles tightening with alarm, his pounding headache forgotten for the moment. 

Aleah tensed at Dean’s words, not liking the way he spoke to her again when she pointed out that the woman didn’t have an effect on her like she did the guys. “A few seconds! I hardly think that was interacting, Dean! You were fucking her with your mind… you know what forget it.” She shook her head at him, forcing her emotions down until he addressed Castiel, feeling him look at her every now and again but she refused to acknowledge it right now.

Castiel agreed to be their little spy of sorts for the evening to find out more about the woman, Katerina who as far as they knew might not be a woman at all. Or at least that wasn’t all she was. Aleah waited for Cas to vanish, ignored Dean when he looked at her from the doorway and left without another word. She opted for talking to the only person she felt comfortable with, the only friend she really had nowadays. She dialed out for him and as the phone rang she was already breaking down into a fit of sobs.

She barely heard the line pick up until Sam said her name, she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie, curled up on one of the hammocks on her own. “Yes. Your jackass of a brother happened.” She snipped through a gasp of breath, her chest wrecking with her crying and she tried desperately to get her breathing to even out. Sam soothed her to calm down and tell him what she meant, asking if Dean was hurt or something along those lines. She shook her head almost forgetting that he wasn’t sitting there for her to lean against like she might normally. She loved Sam, whatever it was about the man he was gentle with her and easy to talk to, like the big brother she never had and hadn’t really realized that she wanted at all.

“No he’s not hurt.” Aleah muttered in a soft voice, her crying starting to subside for the time being when she finally voiced her answer to his question. “I’m sorry, Sammy I know I told you to rest up and I shouldn’t be bugging you but you always know what to say to me and I wish you could be here with us.” She whispered into the mic on her cell. He told her it was fine, that he didn’t mind her calling him.

“We went to the museum that you told me about and there was this girl… drop dead gorgeous and—“ She started to explain and Sam cut in with a heavy sigh, saying something about Dean being a guy. “Yes. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her… like I wasn’t even there with them.” She said in a broken voice, tears spilling down her rosy cheeks and staining her pullover jacket. Sam muttered something about he hadn’t realized how serious her feelings were towards Dean and she fidgeted quietly with the pull strings of her jacket. “I hadn’t either.” She stated in return.

“He just… made me feel inadequate. She was beautiful Sammy and she wasn’t even trying and I… do everything I can in regards to upkeep. They both seemed to think that this woman… Katerina… God her name is even sexy…” She whined, knowing Sam was rolling his eyes on the other end as he told her to continue with her first point. “Katerina… they think she might have been a siren or something because she affected Cas too but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less. Which probably makes me sound really stupid.”

“The worst part is that he yelled at me after I commented on it… the way he used to when I first came around and I guess that… it made me feel like maybe we were back to that point. I don’t know, maybe I pushed him too far and forced him into something he doesn’t want from me.” She mumbled to the man on the other line, stopping when he started up on a speech about how Dean was an ass but he wasn’t stupid… not all the time anyways. Sam promised her that she was worth something to him and he had never seen his brother so protective or determined to fight for someone like he was with her… even more so than he was with Lisa. Aleah bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling as he spoke, sniffling lightly every now and again as she listened. She didn’t know about Lisa but she knew that it was the woman Dean loved before and it set a feeling of guilt over her suddenly that perhaps she was over reacting.

She waited for him to finish talking, telling her she was stunning and Dean saw that but he knew deep down the man also struggled with hearing about her insecurities and the trust she was lacking that he was a good man. "I know he is... you're right. I just really don't want to share him that's all." She laughed lightly, making Sam chuckle at her on the other end. "I'm just as scared as he is... not for me but for losing him and if... something does happen to me... I can't leave him behind, Sammy. I know he has you and Cas and he's dealt with not having me before but... I don't know if that even makes sense. I want everything to be okay." 

Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes, torn between wanting to comfort her further and not giving her any false impressions about the lives hunters lived. The possibility that their lives could be snuffed out at any given moment wasn't exactly unlikely considering the kinds of circumstances they regularly threw themselves into.

"Look, everything's going to work out, okay? We're on the right track here. I know doesn't seem to be much hope, but we'll find a way to get this done. We're gonna come out on the other side of this, all of us." He told her, firm in his resolve to do whatever it took to set things right without sacrificing Aleah's life. She had come to mean so much to him, she was like a younger sister and he was going to make this happen for her. Somehow.

They talked awhile longer, until Sam was reasonably sure Aleah had calmed down and was feeling better about her fight with Dean at least. She didn't need Dean's inability to not act like a dick to women weighing on her in addition to the bigger game they were playing. They hung up and Sam sighed, he had been about to call it a night but now he was filled with new resolve to keep working, so he hit the books again.

Dean was out far longer than was really necessary to get him and Aleah something to eat, but he needed time to just drive around and clear his head before he went back to the boat. He was driving along an old road that ran on the top of a ridge adjacent to the shoreline below, it was a breathtaking view that was totally wasted on the hunter who was too absorbed in his thoughts to really notice it.

He didn't know how to make things up to Aleah, he knew he'd been a jerk but at the same time he wasn't going to accept letting her go in and face that Katerina bitch alone, especially when they hardly knew anything about her other than she apparently had some kind of sex-kitten hoodoo. But her being here and going on about Eris back in the museum had to mean something, all his instincts told him they were on the right track. But how could he just ask Aleah to trust him to get the job done after how he'd acted?

Dean growled in frustration, smacking his steering wheel, his mind racing. Suddenly a loud popping sound made him yelp in surprise and he quickly had to yank on the wheel to keep his car under control as it swerved violently from a tire blowing at high speed. He got pulled over to the shoulder, a stream of curses falling from his lips as he got out and inspected the damage.

The front right tire was completely shot. "Oh that's great!" He yelled to the open air, walking around to the trunk to get his tire jack kit and the spare. "I'm sorry baby, must've been a nail on the road or something." He absently murmured to the Impala under his breath as he lugged all his tools to the front of the car. He decided he better call Aleah to let her know at least that he'd be late getting back, but his phone had no service. Great. What else could go wrong today?

He had only just started to work on loosening the lug nuts when a torrential rain came up out of nowhere, soaking him to the skin in seconds and making it almost impossible to see what he was doing with the wind whipping the rain around. He tried to continue his work but stopped at the sound of a short car horn beep.

The hunter poked his head up from behind the Impala and tried to make out who was driving the black sedan that had pulled up alongside his car, but it was useless in this rain. He hurried over to the vehicle and leaned in the passenger window as it unrolled, hoping this person had stopped to help, maybe he could use their phone to call a tow truck and take care of this when the rain let up.

The driver of the car was about the last person he expected, but he was filled with sudden excitement when he realized it was Katerina, the museum curator. The insanely hot museum curator.

"Looks like you're having a bad evening." She commented with a little laugh, taking in his soaked visage but not seeming to care in the least that he was dripping rainwater onto her black leather car seats.

"Yeah, you could say that." Dean responded with a sly smile of his own, licking his lips unconsciously as he looked her curvaceous figure up and down, she had changed since being at work and was now dressed in a perilously tight little black dress that showed off criminal amounts of cleavage and leg.

"Well maybe I can make it better for you. Get in." She prompted, unlocking the door so the soaked man could climb into her car. He quickly did so and started to babble about how he needed a tow truck and to let his companions know he was running late, but he was having a hard time staying focused on forming coherent sentences. 

Katerina laughed seductively, reaching out to swipe away the rainwater from Dean's scruffy jawline. "I'm afraid I left my cell at home. I'll take you back to my place, it's just outside of town up this highway. You can call for a tow truck there, and let your friends know you're going to be busy for the night." She told him, letting her fingernail skid down his throat and over his muscled chest. Dean growled a little in his throat at her touch, not saying anything more as they drove off in the pouring rain. 

Castiel had made his way easily to Katerina’s place, every part of his human and… not so human senses were heightened, something was off about this woman but what it was he couldn’t pinpoint quite yet. Her place felt different… The feeling of magic and the paranormal was much stronger to him and that only further confirmed that she was something inhuman like himself. He walked the perimeter of her place and stepped inside, or at least made it to the front part of the house, as far as he could get. She had the place marked, covered in sigils and perhaps hex bags that prevented him from exploring as much as he might like.

His brow furrowed and he thought to himself for a moment, the effect she had on both men, perhaps unwillingly for the most part was a sign of a Goddess or siren… something of the sort. Perhaps she was directly linked to Eris in some form, it made sense even if only from the same bloodline the relation might cause her to have some sort of abilities. Somehow this woman knew an extensive amount about Eris and for one reason or another that struck Castiel as a bit odd.

He was about to venture further when car lights flashed, catching his attention and he looked up, a car was pulling into the driveway of the ocean side home. His blue eyes flickered up and instantly he flashed himself out to the side yard again, walking the tiny gravel pathway as quietly as he could. He stood hidden by the half fence and shrubbery around her home, keeping in the shadows and watching her climb out of the car with… Dean in tow? His brow knitted together and an involuntary groan escaped his lips at the sight of her climbing out of the car in a tight black number, hugging her curves in all the right places. He forced his eyes closed, refusing to let himself ogle her. The angel part of him still managed to fight his vessels urges, his eyes reopening and he was standing in the center of the floating motel room of sorts that Aleah and Dean rented.

Aleah was curled up in one of the hammocks, dozing off until she heard the sound of Castiel’s voice behind her, making her jump suddenly and come to full wakefulness. “Jesus, Cas. I know I’m part angel too but I’m not honed into the whole sensing your presence thing quite yet.” She scolded him, her eyes still red from crying like she had been.

Castiel stared down at her, not giving an apology but simply nodded sensing she was upset, “You’ve been crying.” He commented and Aleah brushed him off with a harsh ‘no’. He ignored it, not pressing her any further when she asked what he had found, “Nothing yet. But she is with Dean.”

“Excuse me?” Aleah questioned, getting up quickly to her feet and looking like she just might throw a punch at her uncle that was meant for Dean. Her fists clenched and Cas took a step back.

“Katerina… she is—“ Cas started to repeat himself, stopping when she told him to. She asked why he hadn’t stopped him from going inside, why he hadn’t grabbed Dean and angel-poofed them back to their temporary base camp. “I feared I would fall under her charms again had I gotten too close. He is not harmed if that’s any comfort to you.”

“Not really a comfort no!” Aleah quipped, not really liking knowing that Dean wasn’t kidnapped he had willingly gone home with this Greek bitch. “Okay take me there. If you can’t do it then I’ll go get him.” She ordered, searching Dean’s duffle for the gun he and Sam had given her, it hardly got used of course but now she had intentions of changing that. She rifled through for extra ammo, stuffing the pistol in the back of her jeans and pushing up the sleeves of her hoodie. She straightened out and stepped close to Cas, “Go on. Flash me there.” She instructed and Castiel nodded, sticking his index and middle finger to her forehead in the same fashion he would anyone else.

There was a flash of light and they reappeared on location at the woman’s home. Aleah’s body was tensed with anger and that was only heightened by the sight of Dean sitting happily on Katerina’s sofa in the living room. He had definitely come willingly, the jackass was drinking a beer and the further the brunette stepped onto the property the stronger her rage towards them both got. She wasn’t sure whose throat she was going to rip out first, the urge to steal Dean away and make him remember just who he belonged to was heightened. Part of her knew it was only whatever mojo this bitch had in her but she was too overwhelmed with emotions to really pay much mind to it.

She started forward and Cas grabbed her by the wrist, telling her that while she might not be drawn to her in the same sense, she still needed to be careful with her reactions to Katerina. “I got it, Cas!” She hissed, snatching her arm away from him and starting towards the building. “You gonna help or not?” She questioned harshly and Castiel shook his head, reaching into his black trench coat and pulling the angel blade he had from his hip, turning it over to her.

She stared at it, “Not all creatures are affected by bullets. This… gives you a higher chance should something go wrong. I cannot come with you, the home is lined with sigils that keep me from entering too far.” Castiel explained, nodding when she took the blade from him and hid it as best she could in her own sleeve.

“What if they affect me too? I’m an angel like you Castiel.” Aleah pointed out and Cas nodded.

“I had hoped that because you are also human, the effect might not be quite as strong on you. You may feel resistance, like a magnet pulling you in the opposite direction but it will not banish you like it does me. I will stay here but I’m afraid I’m of no use.” Cas responded and Aleah nodded, hurrying to the front of the house. 

Katerina, or rather Eris, handed her soaked companion a beer, strutting over to the massive fireplace in her mansion's formal living room and setting it ablaze with a click of her fingers. She could feel the hunter's eyes on her as she moved, smiling at the feebleness of mortals and especially of men who were so easily manipulated by their baser desires.

"I'm so sorry about your car, you see I had to make sure you paid me a visit, and I just couldn't help but cause a little mayhem. It's what I do." She murmured, slinking back over to the couch the hunter sat on, folding her legs gracefully beneath her and absently brushing her long fingernails over the man's sculpted chest and arms.

Here in her home, her influence was stronger than ever and so the man remained completely unperturbed, his gaze raking over her figure as she scooted closer to him. "My name is Eris. Goddess of chaos and discord. You have come seeking me and my treasure, dear hunter, but you shall have neither." She pressed a polished fingertip to his full lips when he started to speak, obediently giving her his real name and intentions without blinking an eye. 

"Who you really are or how you came to find me is of no consequence. What I really want is that little Nephilim bitch you've got tagging along with you. Once I kill her, I'll eliminate any possibility of undoing the delicious chaos that grows every day the gates of Heaven remain sealed. You're bait, plain and simple honey." Eris chuckled, leaning in to kiss the hunter deeply, relishing his desperate groan of want at the contact before pulling away from him, leaving him nearly blind with desire and no way to diffuse it.

As if on cue, the Goddess sensed the presence of the angel and half-angel appearing on her property. It was their energies that had tipped her off in the first place, and she had prepared well for this moment. The sigils she placed would keep the angel at bay, leaving the Nephilim who had barely scratched the surface of her full potential to face her alone. Eris was fully confident she could bend the little girl to her whim, snuffing out her life quickly before she attracted any more of her obnoxious winged relatives.

She sent one of her human servants who was little more than a mindless drone to open the door for the little half-angel, not wanting her to have to go to the trouble of breaking in. She was the guest of honor here after all.

The slender brunette woman was escorted into the large opulent room and Eris began idly running her hand up and down the hunter's chest, making him growl and shift uncomfortably on the couch, his arousal for her nearly to the point of pain. As expected the half-angel's aura blazed with fury in response and the Goddess didn't hold back her amused chuckle. She loved stringing her puppets up and watching them dance.

"I suppose you came here to retrieve this... Man." She inquired, glancing at Dean as she uttered the last word in a thoroughly unimpressed tone. "But that isn't all you came to get, is it? Little angel girl..." She added as she stood up from the couch, smirking when the girl's blue eyes flew open wide in shock.

"Come now, sweet pea. Did you really think you could pull the fleece over my eyes? I'm one of the only pagan Gods left on this rock for a reason. The secret to success is the ability to... Adapt." She explained, walking a slow circle around her guest, the velvety smooth tone of her voice weaving greater and greater spells of influence over the young woman before her, compelling her to reveal the angel blade she had hidden in her jacket. She reached out and ran her finger along the length of the shining weapon.

"I'm afraid your fancy poker won't do me in sweetheart. Points for ingenuity though." She said in a charming tone, taking the angel blade and tossing it to the marble floor with a loud clatter. "You really shouldn't have come here you know. Not that I lack confidence but really, no matter how this all plays out, you lose. Don't you know that even if your pitiful scheme somehow prevailed and you took my Golden Apple, you have to die horribly anyway? Do you even know what it is you're getting into?" She asked, coming back around to stand facing the girl. 

Aleah was let into the space by some unknown worker, someone that Katerina likely had manipulated into playing their part in her psychotic little game. Her eyes flew open wider at the sight of the woman who now hovered above Dean, her fingers dancing along his skin and the more she touched him the more possessive Aleah got. She wasn’t normally the overly jealous type but Dean… her bound with him was strong and the sight of him with another drove her more insane than it might had she not stepped foot on these grounds.

Her brow furrowed as the woman spoke in her alluring tone even to her as she asked if there was more she came for. Aleah’s mind reeled and things started to click into place, “Eris.” She said when the woman started to speak of being a pagan god. Her muscles were tense at first but the closer the woman got the more her body eased only this was out of force, her fingers letting go of the edge of her sleeve to let the angel blade slip from her jacket, curling her digits just around the edge of the handle as she revealed it willingly to Eris.

She tried to fight the woman’s hold on her, the way she made her do things she might not normally, handing over her weapon without question. “Maybe… But I figured it was worth the shot. It isn’t like many would miss you anyways, now would they? Take a manipulative bitch down with me at least… better than dying without purpose.” Aleah stated, her gaze remaining forward, locking eyes with Eris and hardly blinking. “Everyone seems to think I’m incapable of handling my own… like I’m some weak little girl. I might not be a Goddess but I’m a hell of a lot better than you, honey.” She snipped and Eris surged forward, grabbing her face and drawing near to her.

Aleah started, her hand reaching for the other’s wrist, trying to keep her hold on her from tightening and pulling her face away from her. Eris didn’t let up, tsking in her throat and reaching around the brunettes slender frame for the pistol in the back of her jeans, drawing it out and scolding her for playing her as a fool. Aleah’s breathing was heavy, her heart racing from both adrenaline and nervousness as Eris pressed the loaded gun to her stomach and smirked, “You are only half angel… far easier to kill. Not that it matters, I could take you as I pleased, sweet pea.” Eris purred with satisfaction at the fear in Aleah’s gaze, her eyes darting over to Dean who stayed obediently on the couch.

“Oh no… Did I steal your hero?” Eris burst with laughter, a frightening sound in the half-archangels ears. The goddess gave a mock pout, “How horrible. Things can’t possibly get any worse can they?”

“What use do you have with me? You live on… without the help of Heaven or the angels. There’s no reason for you to want to reopen the gates.” Aleah pointed out, worming her way out of the goddesses tight grasp.

“You want the Golden Apple. Something that’s mine. That is my motivation… in part. Mostly you angels are just… fun to play with.” Eris smirked, clicking the release on the side of the gun and letting the mag drop out, tossing both parts aside angrily. 

"You see you're right about one thing my dear, I will live on, Heaven or no Heaven. But I don't want to open the gates, quite the opposite. If they stay shut eventually this whole mortal plane will be swallowed up by it's own imbalance. And I'll be free to gloat about it in the Nether. That's why I'm going to kill you, because you're the only thing that can possibly open the gates up again." Eris purred, walking another circle around Aleah and debating just how long she could play with her toys.

Aleah's delicate brow furrowed in confusion and the Goddess shook her head. "You poor little girl. They haven't told you a thing, have they? You're lucky I'm the one killing you, I'll do it quick and clean." She made a little mock pout, gesturing back at the prone man on the couch with a toss of her head. "This one and your angel friend, what they'll put you through to open the gates is a far worse end." The half-angel blanched at her words asking her what she meant.

"You see, my Golden Apple is one of the Six Great Catalysts. When a spell as powerful as the one keeping Heaven locked down is enacted, it takes the force of two of the Six colliding to break it. You my dear, the product of an Archangel and a mortal, are another one of the Six. No matter what your little menfolk told you, they plan to plant my apple in your heart, letting it sprout and tear you apart from the inside out. The resulting ethereal energy spike would shatter both Catalysts, and the spell." Eris smiled, her voice dripping with malevolent superiority, even the idea of the hunter carrying out his plan amused her, considering how much his betrayal would hurt the half angel.

\---  
Sam was pouring over his stack of ancient Greek research materials, when suddenly Castiel appeared across the table from him, startling him and making his already aching head throb when he flinched. He swallowed his irritation quickly when he saw the look of alarm on his friend's face.

"Cas, what's going on?" He asked, listening as the angel related all the events leading up to the current moment when he decided since he couldn't access the compound, maybe he could take Sam back with him to find the anti-angel sigils and deface them so he could enter Eris' domain and help Dean and Aleah. 

Sam wanted nothing more than to storm the gates, but he was basically useless in a fight for a few hours after reading the tablet and Cas had already told him Eris had plenty of enthralled humans guarding her place that she was simply choosing not to call in because she knew she had the situation under control. 

"I don't think that's gonna work, Cas. But get this, I've been going over these parchments on the rituals of the Priestesses of Harmonia, the Greek Goddess of Harmony, Eris' polar opposite. Apparently they had a powerful chant that could negate and ward against the chaotic energies of Eris. If I can communicate with Dean, I think this chant will break Eris' hold on him." He explained hurriedly, reaching for his cell phone. 

Aleah was too wrapped up in Eris’ words, more than she might need to be. She was coaxing her into her little trap, getting her riled, ruffling her… feathers. She stared at the goddess as she spoke, her eyes darting over the other’s shoulder to Dean who was planted happily on the couch. She had him wrapped around her finger and there was hardly any chance that even Aleah could break it. She saw him suddenly begin rifling in his pocket, pulling out his phone and examining it uncertainly, so she made sure to hold Eris’ attention thinking that there were only a handful of people that knew his direct line.

“You think I believe you? Please.” She scoffed, the irritation getting the better of her, or maybe she simply wanted to push the goddesses buttons a little further before she tore her eyes right out of her skull. Her fingers flexed with anger but she managed to maintain her focus for the time being, trying to keep her expression neutral when she saw Dean move, his eyes flickering over to them and this time he seemed to register that she was in danger. He got up from the couch and dropped his phone down, picking up the angel blade as silently as he could and just as Eris opened her mouth again he drove the sword through her middle, just missing Aleah on the other side.

She jolted and moved back from the tumbling body and the frustration with this woman still lingered, hearing her scream, saying she would kill her man as well. Eris’s words about taking Dean as her own, killing Castiel for kicks and finding any others that she might be attached to. The thoughts pushed her over the edge, Aleah lunged forward towards the fallen goddess, grasping her side and settled herself above her, driving a blow to her face and yelling angry nothing’s about how Dean wasn’t hers to take. She snatched at her wrist when a charm on her bracelet caught her blue eyes, roughly grabbing it and pulling it towards her. “Is this your trick?” She asked, seeing the change on Eris’ face.

Aleah broken the charm off her dainty hand and eyed the tiny apple charm, yelping when she felt Dean’s arms around her, tugging her up. “Let me go! She can’t touch you… take you from me and expect me to sit here. Is this it?! Is this the friggin’ seed? The stupid thing you want me to eat?” She yelled, fighting Dean’s hold. She wasn’t through with Eris, not in the least bit. “No! I’m tired of everyone thinking so little of me! Let me do it!” She screamed at him, but he made her look at him, holding her wrists and telling her to chill out a bit. Her breathing was heavy and for a second she thought she had caused something, the entire building shaking like the start of an earthquake.

Dean took the bracelet from her hands and pulled her with him, telling her they needed to go. Aleah nodded a hurried agreement, still feeling her anger for Dean and how he had treated her most recently but the larger part of her still cared for him, trusted that he would protect her as promised and he took her hand, lacing their fingers and pulling her with him. 

Sam's words through the phone broke the thrall Eris had over him immediately, their clarifying effect like a bucket of ice water being dumped on him. Dean crept over and grabbed Castiel's angel blade, rushing the Goddess from behind and burying the weapon in her back. Of course it didn't kill her, that would be too easy, and one look at Aleah told him the move had done nothing to diminish Eris' influence over the half-angel either.

Aleah pounced on the prone and bleeding Goddess, landing a few wild blows and screaming at her about how he wasn't Eris' to take and a little corner of his mind grinned a bit at that. He knew most of this bluster was coming from the spell though, so he quickly moved to pull Aleah off of the Goddess before more harm could be done.

He tried to reason with her a bit but not much seemed to be processing rationally in the young woman's mind at the moment, at least she had snatched the Goddess' charm bracelet and judging by the way Eris' face contorted with rage and fear Aleah's deduction was right on the money. The bitch's power was definitely tied up in the apple charm on her bracelet, but it wasn't like they could just destroy it when it was their ticket to undoing the spell on Heaven.

He didn't have much more time to mull over the issue however. The ground began to quake and large cracks ran up the walls around them, the building was going to fall in on them any second. Eris began to scream and wail at them to give her the seed back, her voice twisting and growing more shrill as her power crumbled around her, quite literally.

Aleah was still yelling and he shook her a bit to get her to focus. "Yeah yeah, we'll sort everything out later, right now we gotta go Princess!" He shouted over the noise of the house coming down, yanking Aleah along with him outside the structure.

Castiel was poised at the edge of the grounds, watching the pair intently as Dean half dragged Aleah along with him across the yard. Even the ground surrounding the manor itself began to tear itself apart beneath them. Dean looked back in amazement at the sheer amount of destruction happening around them.

"Cas! What the hell is happening?" He yelled over the noise, still holding Aleah to him who was crying and thumping at his chest to let her go, to let her go back and finish the job. The angel shook his head, informing the hunter in his typical monotone that there wasn't time to explain, they had to leave before the whole ridge supporting the mansion fell into the ocean below. He touched his fingers to Dean and Aleah's foreheads, and in an instant they were all back in the bunker, a little worse for wear, but alive and in possession of the Golden Apple of Eris.

Sam was waiting for them to return, standing but leaning heavily on the back of a chair for support. Normally he had to pass out for a few hours after reading the tablet, but he had to maintain long enough to make sure Cas got them back like he instructed.

The second they appeared, Sam immediately repeated the same chant he'd used on Dean, and in a few seconds Aleah calmed and took a shaky step back when Dean finally released her from his grip. Sam wasn't exactly sure what all had gone down, but she looked shaken, to say the least.

"Sammy, what the hell happened? How did you undo that bitch's magic? And why did taking this-" He held up the bracelet for his brother to see, "Make every last domino Eris set up fall down?" He asked, suddenly becoming aware for the first time that he was soaked through and freezing in his wet clothes.

Sam briefly explained how he'd found the chant to undo the influence Eris had on them, then held up a parchment he'd found with more information on the apple itself. "The apple was the key to all of Eris' power. That's why I had Cas go back and get you, all we had to do was sever the connection she had to the apple. Maybe if we'd had to face her a few thousand years ago, it wouldn't have done so much harm, but she's been recycling herself for so long that she had none of her own power left. The only thing keeping her and all her spells together, is that little charm." Sam pointed at the bracelet Dean held, setting down the parchment and taking a weary step forward, nearly falling in the process.

Aleah was at his side immediately, helping to prop him up and guide him back to the couch to sit. She chided him for pushing himself so hard, but thanked him too since he found the way to free them from Eris' spell. Dean watched her focusing on his little brother, knowing she was deliberately avoiding interacting with him, and he couldn't really blame her. Their little adventure had really put all of them through the wringer, and he honestly wasn't sure if... Whatever it was that was between him and Aleah had survived.

Dean looked at his brother and Sam nodded, their silent practice of making sure the other was okay, or at least okay enough. He nodded in response and took a last look at Aleah who pointedly wasn't looking at him, and sighed. He thanked Cas for getting them out and shuffled off to find his bed, wanting to forget the world and everything he'd screwed up for a few hours. 

Sam explained rather hurriedly what the deal was with the bracelet they just took and why when it was suddenly detached from Eris’ wrist did everything around her start to crumble. By the end of it he looked like he might drop to his knees and immediately when he stumbled, Aleah was at his side before Dean or Cas could even react. “I told you to rest up, Sammy. You promised me you would… but I guess if you hadn’t kept to it, we’d still be stuck more or less or… I wouldn’t be here. So thank you.” She muttered, keeping her attention to Sam, her eyes on him as she brushed his hair away from his face but her mind was entirely sucked into Dean.

She pretended not to notice him staring at her, waiting for her to respond to him or acknowledge him but she simply couldn’t right now for fear of what she might see on his face or what might slip from her lips. Instead of saying something he took off, ran away and went into hiding and Aleah fought her watering eyes as her hand brushed Sam’s warmed forehead, checking for a fever. “It’s good to know he doesn’t even think I’m worth fighting for… Wish he’d have given up on me weeks ago so I could’ve done the same.” She murmured, knowing full well Sam didn’t need the additive at the moment but he seemed to understand her need to talk about it a bit more.

Sam shifted to face her, shaking his head at her misunderstanding his brothers actions. He told her that he wasn’t giving up, not intentionally did he mean it like that but he was letting her go because he knows he screwed things up and he isn’t the type to just come around and ask you to let him fix it. “He sure has a funny way of showing he cares by…. Well by pretending not to care. He probably thinks I’m some super obsessive maniac type now, anyhow.” She sighed and Sam laughed though he had no idea what all had happened. When he asked for clarification she told him how she got the charm, how she threw a few hits to Eris’ stupid face before Dean pried her off the other.

Through his laughter, Sam managed to tell her Dean knew her well enough to know that it was the mojo doing the talking for the most part. He told her that the choice was being left up to her on if she was going to still chance it with him or let him turtle in on himself like he has in the past. She nodded her head, understanding the encouragement he was trying to offer her, his head tossing towards the direction in which Dean departed, telling her it was up to her but his tone and the look in his eyes told her that he wanted them to straighten things out and approaching Dean might be the best way to reboot that. “Thank you, Sammy.” She muttered, pressing her lips to his cheek and then his warm temple as she started to get back to her feet. “Now you need some sleep, okay? I’ll check on you in the morning. We want you back in commission for the battle field.” She smiled, waving him a good night to which he returned tiredly.

She took Sam’s advice, biting her lower lip out of nervousness and heading down the hall to Dean’s room. She tried his door and much to her surprise it was left unlock and she couldn’t help but wonder if that meant he was hoping for her to come and find him. Without a word she turned the handle and pushed the door open, seeing him sitting propped on his bed in the process of taking off his boots and shedding his soaked through clothes. He was taking off his over shirt, leaving him in an already tight around the chest black t-shirt but with how drenched he had gotten, it clung to him like a second skin and she fought back a whimper until he noticed she was there.

Dean’s gaze didn’t meet hers when he addressed her presence, “I know that talking isn’t really your thing but… it kinda feels like we should.” Aleah muttered, hesitantly taking a few steps towards his mattress, “Can I sit with you?” She asked him while he busied himself with his opposite boot and gave a gentle nod. She dropped down slowly at his side, keeping her hands in her lap and waiting for him to say something but he didn’t. “I know it wasn’t all you but… I guess that seeing you so easily lured away from me made me—“ She started but he cut her off with a throaty chuckle as he called her possessive and murderous.

Aleah’s cheeks flushed red, “That’s not funny. Dean I… really like you. I’m not the overly jealous type normally but she was mojoing me too and I guess it kinda heightened it. Seeing you with her… I mean if I’m not good enough then I’d want you to tell me because most importantly I want to see you happy. You had to feel some sort of attraction to her for her abilities to work on you, right?” She swallowed hard as she rambled on, clearing her throat so she could keep talking when he still stayed quiet. “She was gorgeous and had a lot more than I could offer you and I know she was only using you and me but I mean… if that’s what you’re looking for then I can’t fix me—“ She stopped when Dean interrupted again and told her to be quiet. “O-okay. I’m sorry. Dean I really am…” She stammered, trying to keep him from yelling at her, her eyes already starting to well and her bottom lip trembling.

The look in his eye told her that she had upset him in some form, his tone was stern but he spoke slow to ensure she really heard him. He looked straight at her and accused her of not giving him enough credit… sure he was attracted to the vessel Eris had taken on but that didn’t mean he thought any less of Aleah. He told her he loved her body, her big blue eyes, her smile, the way she looked in the mornings dolled up or not, he didn’t care, confessing to liking every part of her whether she believed him or not. She let him take her hand, the other cupping her face as he told her she was what he wanted for the real thing… and she knew what he meant, tears slipping past her lashes and down her cheek but she was crying for an entirely different reason. He gently guided her forward and kissed her lips sweetly, wiping her tears when she nodded her understanding.

She kissed him again a little deeper this time and could feel the smirk on his lips, pulling back and he spoke once more, bringing up her claiming him like she had. “Shut up.” She muttered, embarrassingly and pushing at his chest. “Like it or not I care about you and… I’m not entirely keen on sharing you.” She admitted shyly, making him chuckle and she smiled, hooking her fingers into his shirt and he laughed again at her eagerness. “I’m just trying to warm you up Dean, I’m concerned.” She hummed, smiling into their kisses. 

Dean's brows raised in mock concern at her comment. "Warm me up huh? Seems to me like you're more interested in getting me hot, Princess." He countered with a sly grin, kissing her deeply and gripping the back of her head to keep her close. Her hands began to wander over his muscled frame, her fingertips slipping under the hem of the cold wet t-shirt clinging to him.

He followed her prompting and tugged the garment off, his breathing getting ragged as her warm hands swept over his cool skin. She might no longer be under the influence of that Eris bitch, but still Aleah seemed a little more assertive than before, pushing him back onto his mattress and licking and biting a trail down his corded neck and over his taught chest as she moved to straddle him.

Dean pulled her top up and off of her, his green eyes devouring her bare frame hovering over him as she hastily removed her bra as well. He reached up to fondle her full breasts, the combination of his cold hands and her desire making her hiss and her rosy peaks stiffen under his touch. He tweaked her sensitive nipples making her mewl and lean into the contact, her hips beginning to rock against his unconsciously despite the layers of clothing still between them.

Aleah continued on her bold streak, curving down to kiss him roughly, the feel of her bare flesh pressed up against his making Dean harder for her. He ground up against her, matching her movements and nipping at her soft lower lip to spur her further. The brunette broke their kiss and moved to put her lips to his ear, speaking in a breathless voice that she really did want to claim him for herself. Dean chuckled in his throat, "And just how do you plan on doing that?" He asked, making himself lay prone and let his lover go at her own pace and call the shots.

Aleah leaned up and searched his face for a moment, her blue eyes nearly black with desire. A little smile crossed her lips and she told him she would make him feel so good he'd never dream of being with another woman, her confident tone was enough to make him crazy with anticipation.

The hunter's fists flexed with excess energy as he watched the beautiful woman above him slowly slip down the mattress and work on unfastening his belt and jeans. He did help her get his pants off his hips since the wet denim was a bit of a pain to maneuver but after that he folded his hands behind his head, eager to let Aleah do as she pleased. Most of the time Dean preferred to be the one in charge, but after what they'd been through and the fiery look in the brunette's eyes he knew he needed to let her have control this time.

Aleah smiled dangerously at her lover, kissing and biting down his muscled front. Her eyes nearly black with desire, this be found confidence bubbling over. She wanted to stake her claim and she did when her teeth sunk into his heated flesh just along his hip making him jolt suddenly. She kissed the spot and he grinned down at her, keeping his hands to himself and giving her control.

This was new to her but then again all of it was, taking his thick arousal in her hand and stroking him from base to tip. She didnt shy away from him, not this time, listening to him groan at her touch only encouraged her further. She increased the pace of her hands, working him harder, "Relax. Im gonna make you feel real good, sir." She winked at him, recalling the words he said to her when he first ate her out. She wondered if she could have the same affect.

Aleah lowered her face to him, tongue flicking out over his tip and he took a shaky breath. She smirked and took his head in her full pout, working him with her hands as she pressed her tongue to his tip. She lowered her head at his pleading and took more of him in her mouth, accommodating what she could and using her hands to stroke what she couldn't. Her tongue pressed tight to his shaft, starting to bob up and down along his length, her lips sealed around him.

Dean tensed and she knew he was struggling to keep his hands to himself as promised, but he did encourage her, instruct her gently with his voice until she found a pace he liked. She sucked him hard, humming in her throat while she worked him and the sensation was enough to make him groan harshly. He warned her in a heavy voice that he was nearing his peak but she refused to let off, staring up at him from where she was propped and swallowing him down further.

The hunter moaned her name and thrust against her slightly, his thighs flexing as he lost it and came against the back of her throat. She jolted slightly at the feeling, pulling off him and swallowing down his seed with a satisfied grin. Knowing she pleasures him got her going, her chest heaving as she licked her lips and climbed back up his body, her mouth colliding with his in a deep hungry kiss. "Hmm... I like getting you off." She purred. 

Dean's hands slid up and down her figure as she settled atop him again, trying to gather his scattered thoughts from the intense orgasm she'd given him. He hummed against her lips and smiled at her when they broke apart for air. "You're not the only one. Where did my innocent little Princess learn to do that so well?" He asked jokingly, smirking when she replied that she was a quick study and had a good teacher.

"Well I guess if I was qualified to teach any subject it'd be hunting or..." His voice trailed off, looking over her body and smirking. Aleah started gearing up to protest him having other students in that subject and he cut her off with a deep kiss. "I'm only interested in private lessons with one student. And I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can afford my fee." He told her, his grin widening when she asked him what his fee was.

He kissed her again before answering. "Putting up with my sorry ass." He chuckled, shifting beneath her to cup her face in his hands, frankly a little amazed that she was actually willing to pay that price himself. Aleah's eyes grew moist as she looked down at him, till she turned her head in his hands to kiss his palm. She assured him that even though he was an awful lot of trouble, it was nothing she couldn't or wasn't willing to handle.

"You're really something Princess." He commented, tugging her face down and sealing her lips to his again. His hands migrated down her smooth back and around her hips, his deft fingers unfastening her jeans. He pushed his right hand beneath the thin fabric of her panties, stroking her soaked center and teasing her clit. Aleah moaned into his mouth as he dipped into her, crooking his fingers and stroking her walls at a steady pace. She started to ride his hand, the zipper of her jeans biting into the back of his hand but he didn't care, he was entirely focused on getting the gorgeous creature he truly had no right to care for riled up past the point of rational thought.

He increased his pace with his fingers, pressing the heel of his hand to her clit and rubbing her most sensitive spot till she was shaking and moaning desperately above him. "God you're beautiful..." He muttered, his arousal quickly returning as he relished her feel and sounds and the way she held nothing back in her expression about how good he was making her feel. He wanted to make sure after what they'd been through that there was no one he put above her, nothing in the world more attractive to him than seeing her come unraveled by his hand.

Aleah smiled down at him, gasping his name and bucking her hips down to deepen his contact, tensing as her pleasure built when he drew her slickness up to rapidly flick back and forth over her sensitive clit. The brunette's eyes slipped closed as she lost herself to the sensations he was causing in her, pleading with him not to stop and he craned his head up to bite at the soft flesh of her neck while his hand continued to work her.

"Are you close, beautiful?" He murmured roughly into her ear, smiling as she shuddered and gasped out that she was. "I want to make you come on my tongue Princess. Over and over." He growled, making her whimper with want at the thought and she eagerly shimmied out of her bottoms when he withdrew his hand from her. She stayed poised hesitantly above him, flushed and eager but unsure what to do and he took her hands, tugging her forward.

"Climb on up, first ride's free." He chuckled, making her feel less on edge and guiding her up to straddle his face. She looked down at him and adjusted her legs to kneel comfortably, bracing her hands on the wall at the head of his bed. Dean was aching to be inside her but first he wanted to enjoy her scent and sweetness and make good on his words. He craned his head up, delving his tongue into her slick folds and lapping at her nectar, taking her apart with his clever mouth.

Aleah moaned loudly as he ate her out, tipping over the edge he had brought her to with his hand and quaking with the force of her release. But instead of easing his pace he increased it, keeping her up on that level of mind-blowing pleasure and pushing her even farther as he tipped his head up to focus his attention on her swollen clit. He alternated soft and hard motions with his dexterous tongue, sucking her flesh and growling with satisfaction as she cursed and started bucking against his face without even seeming to realize it. He held the flat of his tongue firm for her so she could ride his face, reaching down to pump his weeping shaft and give himself some much needed relief as she rode out another orgasm.

He still didn't let up, gripping her firm ass with his free hand and holding her in place, working her clit with his tongue and lips, her nectar soaking his chin. She cried out brokenly from the intensity of her pleasure and he followed after her on the crest of her third orgasm, coming hard against his own toned abs as she panted and trembled above him.

Dean finally eased his head back down onto the pillow, helping her move and collapse bonelessly against his frame, her skin and hair damp with sweat from her pleasure. He wiped off his mouth and chin then reached for some tissue to clean himself up quickly, discarding the paper and turning back to his lover who was staring at him with a glassy look to her blue eyes and a thoroughly spent smile on her face.

Aleah’s fingers curled against the wall, her hips bucking and her body jolting as Dean kept up his attention to her center for much longer than she expected. She was shaking from the spasms of pleasure her lover caused in her, orgasm after orgasm like he promised. His hand gripped her rear and forced her to stay put above him until he seemed satisfied. She came again with a broken cry of his name, hearing him growl against her center, licking up her center a final time and his head lulled back into the pillows.

Dean helped her off of him, her body trembling from her pleasure as she slumped down against him, panting heavily and trying to steady her breathing. He cleaned himself up and she smirked a little at the thought that him eating her out had gotten him going enough to need his own release of some sort. She gave him a pleased but tired smile, humming lightly as she settled with her hand over his abdomen. “Mmm now that’s a ride I could get on all night.” She giggled, leaning up and tugging him down in turn so she could kiss him.

She shifted, laying with half her weight over top of him, shivering a little at the cold air against her sweat dampened skin. “You’re not doing a good job of keeping me quiet, baby.” Aleah berated him, her chin on his chest, staring up at him as he chuckled and said he didn’t care one bit because he liked hearing the effect on her that he had.

She shook her head, closing her eyes as she rested against his frame, her cheek pressed into his chest until he hunched and feathered kisses over the top of her head, dragging her up his frame enough that he could continue his affections to her cheeks. She giggled at him, tickled by his slight scruff and warm breath and finally she caved, kissing him deeply, with everything that she had. She pulled back, holding his face in her hands and making him look at her, “So we understand each other then? You’re my man.” She laughed, giving him a cheesy grin and making him chuckle at her but he nodded claiming he was. “Good.” She smiled, so maybe she wasn’t quite possessive but the confirmation that he belonged to her on a deeper level and she to him, was nice to have, it eased her mind more than she thought it might.

Aleah laid down once more and they both in turn wrapped their arms around each other, her eyes welling with emotion, the love she had for this man was something she had never felt before. She had put her trust in few before him, expected them to come out on top and be her… knight in shining armor, ask for her hand, support her, love her in the same way she loved them but things always fell through the cracks. Making up with Dean was a step she had never taken before, not in regards to their sex life but the fact that he wanted another chance as much as she did, the desire towards the other was mutual and not one sided like she had before.

She drifted off in his arms, like she had the past few nights, rousing to the sound of his wrist watch on the bedside table. She was lying against his side, the man only half covered by the sheets over his waist, his hand tossed over his face while the other arm was securely around her frame, snoring lightly and unbothered by the beeping of his watch. Aleah yawned and rolled over, sprawled across him as she reached for the watch, clicking the side button and shutting it off, the movement must have been enough to wake Dean.

He said his good morning, to her chest no less, realizing she wasn’t exactly keeping herself covered up at the moment as she leaned over his frame. “Well good morning.” She returned with a giggle, swinging her leg over his hip and straddling his waist as she sat firmly on his abs. “Enjoying the view are we?” She teased when he didn’t look up at her face right away. “Didn’t you get your fix last night?” She questioned, rolling her eyes when he responded in the negative.

Aleah leaned down to kiss him sweetly, her arm stretching out to snatch one of his few shirts off the bedpost. She wrapped it around herself and slipped her arms into the sleeves, buttoning the middle few buttons so he would keep focus. “I think Sammy needs a break. Which means I think you and me should handle the research bit too, cut him some slack a bit and we can figure out the other few...” She trailed off, trembling a little when Dean’s fingers ghosted up her thighs on either side. She snatched at his fingers and stared down at him, her breathing heavy but she forced herself to refocus. “Dean we have work to do. We kinda need to reopen Heaven here, or have you forgotten?” She smiled, arching a brow at him. “I think I’m probably our best bet at keeping Sam from working himself to death.”

Aleah continued her thought, absently tracing the tattoo on Dean’s chest and biting her lip curiously. The hunter asked her what was wrong and she shrugged, “Just was thinking. Maybe we all need a break after the whole Eris thing…” She admitted, thinking about the morning Dean dragged her out to get her own protection tattoos. She knew it wasn’t possible to do that, to take a vacation or anything of the sort and that wasn’t what she was expecting him to offer at all but she did want time with him. “Can we go shooting or something? Or I don’t know take a lazy day? Is that even possible for hunters?” She asked with a little laugh. 

Dean's mind wandered to the very rare times he and Sam had taken a few moments or hours of downtime over the years, spending an extra night at the less ratty hotels they stopped in here and there, fighting in a mock battle with Charlie and her army of nerds, going a couple hours out of their way on a job to stop and see the Grand Canyon.

Mulling over their run in with Eris and considering that there was likely only worse to come before they managed to bust Heaven open, the hunter conceded that they ought to take one day to put their feet up, recharge. And while Aleah had been joking about Sammy, he was more than a little worried about how slowly his brother was recovering, because he kept playing prophet when he really wasn't built to read the tablet.

He sighed and refocused on the woman sitting atop him, smiling crookedly. "It' not, really. But everybody needs a little rest now and then. Even us." He responded, sitting up with a little groan and kissing Aleah sweetly on the lips. She purred into the contact and prolonged it, wrapping her arms around his neck and he chuckled. 

"I thought you said I was the one who needed a fix?" He teased, shifting her off of his lap and getting up. He crossed the room, totally comfortable walking around bare in front of her. He had many scars and old and new, she was going to have to accept him, imperfections and all. He tugged on a pair of rumpled jeans and a stained AC/DC t-shirt. It was ratty but still he didn't wear it out on jobs, he didn't want vamp blood or leviathan goo or something staining it.

Aleah had tugged her own pants back on but kept his shirt on, crossing the room to stand on her toes and kiss him. He held her close, liking the look of her wearing his worn old flannel. He bent his head to kiss her neck softly. "You should keep that shirt. Or another one, if there's one you like more." He told her, humming as she giggled and pressed herself more fully against him. He told her through a few more kisses that they should go make sure Sammy was alive and Cas wasn't bothering him.

Aleah laughed and nodded, telling him she was just going to go get ready for the day then she'd be right back out. Dean caught her wrist before she could escape. "Hold up." He chided, raising his other hand and pointing a finger at her, "Rule number one of taking a day off, staying relaxed. You can shower if you wanna but no makeup, no fancy hair stuff. And wear that shirt." He instructed, shooing her off with a grin.

The hunter shook his head as she scampered off, still not quite sure how she was willing to stick with him like she was. He wandered out into the kitchen and saw that Sam had already made the coffee like usual, but his tall younger brother was nowhere to be seen. 

"Sammy?" Dean called, pouring himself a cup expecting to hear his brother's voice from the other room where he was already researching when he should be resting. "Sammy!" He called a little louder when he got no response. His brow furrowed with concern and he went out into the library/sitting area where they spent most of their time, but Sam wasn't there either.

Now Dean was getting a little worried. There were books out on the table that hadn't been there last night, so Sam had just been in here this morning, but... Where was he? Then Dean looked closer at the table and saw the various pictures of the tablet spread out between the books. "Dammit." Dean growled, knowing now where his brother was. 

Aleah smiled as she skipped her way out of Dean’s bedroom, humming her understanding and heading back to the shower. She cleaned herself up and this time truly stuck to what Dean had asked of her, not putting on any make up at all for the first time in she didn’t know how long. It felt odd but knowing that Dean liked her this way just as much made her more comfortable. She padded out in her bra and panties, tugging on a fitted black tank she found in her drawer and wriggling into a clean pair of jeans. The most she did was blow dry her hair, leaving it full and loose and before she walked out of the room she pulled on Dean’s shirt like he asked her to, bunching up the sleeves as best she could considering she was a lot more petite than her lover.

She clicked her tongue and coaxed Manny up to the top of his tower, leaving him with a quick pat on the head and a smile on her face as she told him they had the day off. “Hey.” She said, expecting the boys to both be out in the living room already and probably disobeying the whole ‘no working’ rule. Her brow knitted together when she heard Dean grumbling to himself around the corner, darting down the hall suddenly and she chased after him. “Dean?” She questioned, finding his sudden departure weird.

Dean waved his hand and told her he was going to get Sam and for her to stay put. “What do you mean? Going where to get Sam? I thought we weren’t leaving the bunker?” She questioned, “Dean? Hold on…” She called but he pushed past her and into another corridor, ignoring her almost entirely. She took off bare footed towards him, following the same path whether he wanted her to or not, had she done something in such little time to make him not want to talk to her or was Sam in serious trouble? What kind of trouble could he even get into in the bunker?

Aleah went down a hall, one she didn’t think she had ever been through before and the deeper they went the more sigils that lined the walls and ceiling. She eyed them in curiosity, wondering what kind of shit Sam did on his free time to require all of these things… some she recognized as the ones Dean painted in their motel rooms others she had never seen before. Dean was much taller than her, faster on his feet and he managed to get into the room he was apparently hunting for, it was dark, the only light came from a tiny window. His voice was loud when he chewed out Sam suddenly for him having gone missing, saying something about a Crowley and then she heard a voice that wasn’t Sammy’s at all.

Her eyes went wide when she finally caught up to her lover, seeing a needle in Sam’s hand, the pointed tip pressed firmly into his arm still and a line of other syringes filled with his blood, one emptied here and there. A tiny trickle of blood seeped out from the dark haired gentleman’s neck. “W-what the hell is going on? Sam what is that?” She asked, her voice catching a little in her throat, eyes darting from Dean to Sam and the needle in his skin.

“Well well well if it isn’t our little angel food cake. I was wondering when I would be seeing you. Funny how willingly Sam talks about you when he’s here.” Crowley’s lips curled up into a rather pleased grin at the sight before him. “Taking a broken angel under his none existing wing, role reversal is it? Well don’t be shy, we’re all friends here, aren’t we, Squirrel?” He questioned, his head turning slowly to look at Dean.

Dean hurriedly tried to get Aleah out of sight, telling her she wasn’t supposed to be down here. “You said no lies, Dean.” Aleah cried, pushing his hands off her and he very easily let her go, clearly having been shaken up by her anger towards him from last night’s mistakes.

“Oh now Dean-o, you said no lies. Poor girl, locked away in a tower.” Crowley quipped, earning a glare from the short haired hunter.

Aleah’s eyes darted over the chains and cuffs around this man’s form, watching Sam pull the needle from his arm and set it aside, pressing his fingers to the tiny puncture wound to stop the bleeding. He looked like he was sick, worse than last night and her eyes watered, brushing Dean off when he repeated they didn’t need her seeing all this. “I want to talk to Sam.” She snipped at him, her lip trembling, “Explain to me how this is helping? Why are you doing… whatever the hell you’re doing?” She questioned again.

“Juicing me up, giving me adrenaline shots or something like that.” Crowley answered for him, “Did they not tell you? Your Moose here is no profit…. He needs me to read the Angel Tablet… or do you know nothing of that either? Poor naïve thing picked the wrong side.” He tsked. 

Sam gave Crowley a warning look to which the ambitious crossroads demon merely made a kissy face in response. The taller hunter turned and looked at his brother, and they silently confirmed with each other that as much as they would have liked to keep Aleah completely ignorant of Crowley for her own peace of mind, there was no point in trying to keep up with any song and dance now.

"Aleah..." Sam began, leaning against the edge of the table for support, he really had pushed himself too hard this time, not resting long enough between tablet reading sessions. "You remember when I told you about the tablets, and how I used a spell to be able to read them without technically being a prophet? Well, it's his spell." He tipped his head back at the bound demon king. Crowley wiggled his fingers at the half-angel and smiled, clearly loving every bit of this little show and enjoying that he was going to get to see the whole thing play out since Aleah would hardly accept leaving his presence to discuss matters further at the moment.

Aleah's blue eyes darted back to the seated, chained man then back up to Sam, and she questioned in a bit of a calmer voice who he was. Dean cleared his throat loudly before Crowley could start talking again, "He's the friggin' King of Hell, Aleah. I know I said no lies but we kept him secret for good reason. Every word out of his mouth is poison and you can't even imagine the sheer scope of all the evil shit he's done." Dean explained tersely, hating that she'd found out about Crowley at all, let alone like this when they were unprepared.

"Oh stop Dean, I'm blushing." Crowley quipped, his chains clinking slightly as he leaned forward in his seat as much as his bonds would allow. "Your little pussy cat found me ages ago, I've been wanting to thank you for the free information seeing this place through his eyes has been." The Demon chuckled when Aleah gasped with alarm, clearly frightened that he had or was able to harm her pet.

Dean growled and stormed around the table to solidly clock Crowley across the face, splitting open his lip and earning a dark little chuckle from the demon. "Don't you fucking talk to her you miserable excuse of a monster." The hunter hissed, shaking him by the lapels firmly once before releasing him after a quiet word from Sam reminded him that he had an audience.

"Don't worry, he's just trying to scare you for fun. With the bonds we have on him he can't do anything like that." Sam reassured his friend, getting her attention again. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you about him, but... I agreed with Dean that it was too dangerous. We didn't want you to have to be exposed to him, I didn't want you to have to see what I do to get information from the tablet. Honestly even Dean didn't know about that until recently." Sam looked back up at his brother, smiling weakly and then returned his focus back to Aleah who had unconsciously wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

"You're doing really well Aleah, and you're just starting to see how crappy this life, this work can get. But it gets so much worse, and sometimes we have to do things that are scary, and ugly, and wrong in order to do the right thing." The hunters eyes wandered down to the vials of his blood sitting on the table and he took another deep breath before continuing, "I guess we were just hoping you wouldn't have to get as deep into all the muck as we are." His voice grew thin again and he slumped forward, completely used up for the moment after his early morning tablet session and drawing a fair amount of his own blood on top of it.

"Sammy-" Dean jolted, hurrying forward with Aleah to catch him before he fell, his head snapping back to scowl fiercely at Crowley when the demon king laughed at their plight.

"Poor, poor Moose. I bet he didn't tell you the best part about the little spell we've been trading back and forth: it drains energy directly from his soul, what's left of the poor damaged thing anyway. That's why he doesn't quite wind back up again when you crank the gear on his back." Crowley mimed cranking up a wind-up toy with his hands, smiling knowingly at the elder hunter almost daring him to accuse him of lying. They both knew that in this case the truth was far worse than a falsification.

"I guess we'll finish up introductions later then!" Crowley called after them in an amused tone as the three of them left as quickly as they could manage with Sam hardly able to walk between them.

For the moment Dean and Aleah had to focus simply on helping Sam out of the room and back up to lie down on the long couch in the library since that was a lot closer than his bedroom. 

Aleah jumped when she saw Dean deck this man in the face… King of Hell? Her heart was racing and she didn’t know what to say or do at the moment, hugging her arms around herself more as Crowley eyed her with a little smirk despite the blood on his lip. Her gaze flickered nervously to Sam when he spoke up again and assured her she shouldn’t worry about him harming her he was only trying to get in her head. She stared at Sam as he spoke to her, trying not to look at his arm or the things of blood beside him.

She opened her mouth to respond but soon Sam doubled over, nearly falling to the ground and Aleah forgot her anger and hurt for the time being, rushing to the man’s aid in the same moment Dean did. She glanced over at Dean as they steadied his brother upright as best they could, trying her best to ignore the demon behind her saying something about eating up Sammy’s soul.

They brushed him off for the time being and Aleah stayed focused on keeping Sammy awake, nudging him a little as they supported his weight and took him back down the hall. She helped Dean get Sam situated on the sofa that was closer than his room, figuring they could move him later. “Don’t pass out on me, Sammy. I’ll get him some water.” She told Dean, though she didn’t think that it would help any considering this wasn’t any ordinary type of sickness. Dean said nothing in regards to her rather useless suggestion but nodded and let her leave.

She returned with a glass for him, sitting in his space and keeping her attention on the man, her eyes watering; Sammy was like a brother to her now. His forehead was damp with sweat, brushing back his hair away from his face. “You’re an idiot.” She stated, adoring the fact that in part his reasoning for reading the tablet in the first place was so he could find another way to open Heaven, straighten the world back right and keep them all safe. His heart was in the right place but the way he was going about it was stupid what he was doing.

“It’s not worth you killing yourself over reading that stupid thing.” She berated him gently, earning a look from Dean. “What?” She questioned and he shook his head, saying she didn’t get it, that him reading that ‘stupid thing’ was needed more than she might think. He said he didn’t like what it was doing to his brother either but as far as they knew it was the only way to go about it.

“So you just let him juice up a demon… not just any demon, the King of friggin’ Hell that you have housed in your basement?! Just so he can read some ancient script? Dean this is dangerous! Sam could die, he could be one of the souls that vanishes, do you want that? If something happens now… we don’t go anywhere and doesn’t that scare you?” Aleah questioned, keeping close to Sam partly for comfort for him but also for herself. 

"Aleah, it's all right." Sam interrupted her agitated outburst she was mostly directing at his older brother, gently placing his hand on her arm to get her attention since he could barely speak above a whisper at the moment. "I know the risk. Dean knows the risk. It's scary and it sucks, but we don't have any other choice. What's on that tablet is too important, not just for you but for every soul on the planet." Sam pleaded with her to understand, knowing it was a lot to ask her to accept but there was too much at stake for them to stop now.

Dean's heart bled for his little brother, it went against every fiber of him to let Sammy put himself through this but like Sam said, they had to see this through to the end, no matter what the cost. The short haired hunter looked back and forth from his pale, worn sibling and his worried lover, debating on if he should ask what he wanted to.

"Aleah. This is something we have to do, but you can help us." Dean began, sighing impatiently when Sam cut him off, anticipating what he was going to say.

"No Dean." Sam protested, his face contorting with pain and refusal to let the woman who had come to mean so much to both of them put herself at risk in order to spare him.

"Why the hell not, Sammy? It's not like the God Squad can sense her in here." Dean retorted harshly, but Sam just shook his head again.

"She can't use her powers, you know where that leads. It won't stop with just a few times here and there in the safety of the bunker. If she starts, she won't stop. She'll be tempted to use them outside the bunker and have only the best of intentions, but it's all or nothing with this stuff and you know it. I was the same way. We can't risk her like that!" He argued, trying to sit up but coughing with pain and letting Aleah gently urge him back down on the cushions.

The brunette finally seemed to understand what they were talking about, protesting that if what Dean wanted was for her to heal Sammy, then of course she would do her best to help. Dean gave his brother a hard look, knowing deep down that he was right, but he couldn't bear to see his brother suffering anymore and he wanted to put his trust in Aleah.

"We all have to take risks to make this work. All of us. We're a team now, aren't we?" Dean said quietly, looking back up to meet Aleah's watery blue eyes, giving her a crooked smile, hoping she knew he was finally willing to trust her completely. 

Aleah eased a little when Sam spoke to her, redirecting her attention to him for the time being. She bit her lower lip, listening to the back and forth that started up between the two brothers, her eyes darting from Sam to Dean and back, wondering what it was they were getting at. She kept herself from crying, her worry for Sam and the vanished souls that still were piling up in general.

It took her a moment or two to understand what it was they were both getting at, her powers, healing Sam to help him read the tablet. Maybe every time he gave Crowley a hit and took on the weight of his spell, he would get worn out but she could patch him up just as easily. She healed Dean after all but the terms and conditions of that situation were far different than now.

“If you want me to heal Sammy I can do it. Of course I would do it.” She chimed in. “I can try at least I mean I know I don’t have a grasp on my abilities yet but Cas says this is my focus, healing. I need the practice right?” She encouraged, looking to Sam with pleading eyes, wanting him to agree to it too.

She looked over at Dean and smiled, her cheeks turning pink at his words, a team… For whatever dumb reason hearing him say it full on like that made her feel like they really had come to accept her into their little family though not without some hazing it seemed. He trusted her, seemed confident that she could in fact succeed in this task. “Sammy, please? I won’t do it unless you give me your consent.” She stated, taking his hand in hers.

Sam still was pale and looked like he might pass out any second, his eyes darting up to Dean who hovered above them and back to Aleah. “I know you don’t like it and I appreciate your worry but I can’t sit here and watch you slowly slip away like you are. You’ll die and I—“ Her voice caught in her throat, squeezing his fingers and she could see in Dean’s own green eyes that he was fighting back his worry and emotions as well. “You’re like my big brother and you’d take care of me if the roles were reversed, I know that you would. So let me do this, please. I have to learn to cope outside the bunker and I will in time.” She stated in a voice just above a whisper, waiting for him to respond.

Sam sighed a little harshly, still not seeming to keen on the whole idea but he nodded, telling her that for now it was only one time until she adjusted because they weren’t so sure yet how much she could handle and how often. She nodded in turn, “Okay. Only once until we know.” She agreed, moving closer to him and keeping her fingers tight around his, their hands placed in her lap. “Are you ready? I don’t really know if it hurts but it might… Castiel said before that it depends on how much.. damage there is.” She warned and Sam told her he would manage because he had been through much worse.

Aleah shifted and her free hand reached out for Sam’s scruffy cheek, her heart racing a thousand beat s a minute. She could feel Dean’s eyes on her, waiting for something to happen while her own blue orbs fluttered closed. She had to channel it, to focus on only sensing his hurt, the effects the job had done to his body, she could see the wounds both mental and physical from years of being a hunter, the patch work of Castiel having healed him more than a few times. It broke her heart, everything that Sam had been through and he fought so hard to set things right, with the world, his brother, his family.

Dean muttered her name and she ignored it, letting her own mind search Sammy’s soul. It took a few moments before she managed, taking a shaky breath and light eliminated from her fingers and slowly but surely she healed Sam from the inside out. She wasn’t sure how long it had been but she could hear Sam groaning in pain while she worked, she tried to soothe him, her fingers laced with his giving them a squeeze of apology. It would get worse before it got better she told him without saying a word.

Finally she pulled away, opening her eyes to see Sam lying still and her heart clenched. “Sammy?” She questioned in nearly the same moment that Dean did, patting his chest lightly and his eyes shot opened, breathing heavily but the color was back in his face, the circles under his eyes completely gone. He stared at them both and she smiled, “Thank God.” She muttered, breathing a sigh of relief. “Better?” She asked. 

Sam nodded, a little chuckle escaping his lips as he sat up, shifting a bit so Aleah had a bit more room sitting on the couch next to him. He took a few deep breaths, the brunette gently ran her hand over his temple and down to touch his shoulder, almost as if she needed to confirm she had left him in one piece after working on him.

"Much better, thank you. I feel better than I've felt... Hell, I can't remember it's been so long since I've felt anywhere close to normal." Sam responded with a smile, sobering a bit after the initial rush of simply not being in excruciating pain and gripping Aleah's arm firmly. "But this is just a once in a while thing. Emergencies only, and only in the bunker, okay?" He reiterated, knowing deep down this wasn't a good idea but like Dean had said, they were all taking risks here to see this through.

The woman nodded, her blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Are you all right? It didn't... Hurt you to heal me, right? I thought it didn't work like that-" Sam asked quickly, but she cut him off by quietly reassuring him that she was unharmed, it had just been a little overwhelming to see up close all the hurts he'd endured. Sam's expression changed and softened as he comprehended what she meant, when she let her energy permeate him to heal him, he must have been like an open catalog of wounds both physical and mental to her. "Hey. It's all right. I'm all right." He patted her arm, trying to comfort her. He and Dean were both worn out patchworks of men at best with all that they'd gone through, but he liked to think that they were holding up fairly well all things considered.

Dean felt a surge of relief as he watched the color return to Sam's face and saw the visible improvement of his demeanor and state of being thanks to Aleah's healing. He sighed and clapped his little brother on the back before standing up. "Welcome back to the land of the living little brother. This calls for a celebratory beer." Dean said with a grin, ignoring Aleah's protest from the couch that it was barely eight in the morning and no time for drinking.

Sam laughed as Aleah sprang up off the couch to chase after his brother, still trying to tell him not to crack open a beer and he decided to be completely unhelpful by calling over his shoulder for Dean to bring him one too. He heard Aleah's outburst of annoyance and laughed harder, enjoying the simple feeling of being able to laugh at something frivolous like this. It had been a long time.

Dean grinned as he cracked open a bottle for himself and his brother, turning to face Aleah as she chastised him with a third unopened bottle in his hand for her as well. "You want one? 'Cuz if you don't I'm drinking yours Princess." He warned, opening the beer and taking a long pull from it, savoring the cold liquid going down his throat.

Aleah sighed and snatched the bottle from him, trying to stay mad but he could see the hints of a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "Come on. You deserve it. You're one of us now like it or not, and sometimes that means beer for breakfast." Dean chuckled, holding his own bottle out and waiting for her to clink hers against his. 

Aleah chased after Dean when he ignored her comment about it being eight in the morning and definitely too early for a beer. “Dean! Don’t open a beer right now, it’s way too early to be drinking.” She called after him, running up to catch up to him and hearing Sam call for him to bring him one too. “Sammy! What the hell? You’re not helping by encouraging. I just healed you and you want a beer to make you feel better? Not sure that’s how it works.” She grumbled in annoyance but then she heard Dean pop the top of one bottle.

She glared at him, “Sweetie, it’s not really healthy to start drinking before you’ve even had friggin’ breakfast. And Sam especially, I just got him back to feeling at least okay and I don’t want to spoil that.” She continued knowing he wasn’t really paying attention or listening to her but she voiced it anyways. He asked if she wanted on and she spotted he had grabbed a third from the fridge, drinking from the head of his own.

Aleah sighed and gave in, taking the other from his hand and trying to keep up her angry, irritated demeanor but her lips curled up at the edges when she met his gaze. “Can you believe that I like it?” She giggled, popping the top and tipping her bottle up to meet his, the glasses clattering together and her smile broadened as she took a pull from her own. She glanced at Dean and reached to tangle her hand in the front of his shirt, pulling him down for a quick kiss. “Thanks.” She muttered, hoping he understood that wasn’t just for the beer but in regards to all that he and Sam had done for her the past few months. He nodded and they kissed a final time before he took her wrist, gripping two bottles in how large hand so he could lace his fingers with hers.

The brunette gladly guided him back to the sofa with her and he passed off one beer to Sam who clinked his with Dean’s and she rolled her eyes waiting for Dean to sit down beside his brother. She joined them, her back pressed into the arm of the sofa, her legs slung over her lovers own, his hand absently massaging her calve while he spoke to Sam. It wasn’t long before they started arguing about Dean’s choice of show they would watch in the bunker, he wanted some old western type while Sam insisted they shouldn’t watch mindless television just because they were taking the day. She laughed, shaking her head, “Oh my God it’s like you’re five. If you don’t stop I’ll take your beers away and neither of you will watch tv.” She giggled out, nudging Sam on the other end of the couch with her foot and making him chuckle.

“Gimme that.” She said, sitting up and snatching the remote from Dean’s hands faster than he could process to catch her. Aleah flicked through the channels trying to keep the remote out of reach of her lover while keep from spilling her beer as he made the attempt to steal back his precious controller. She pushed at his chest as he told her to switch over to a certain channel, “Ew. Dean I’m not watching porn with you guys.” She berated him with a disgusted look but Sam came to his defense saying it wouldn’t be the first time Dean watched porn with an audience. She stared at him, shaking her head, “I changed my mind, I don't want to be one of you guys.” She teased, grinning at them both as she picked a channel to her liking, sitting back and drinking from her beer as she forced the boys to at least pretend they didn’t mind her decision. 

Dean laughed when Aleah jokingly chastised them, giving in and not commenting when his lover left the television on a 'Say Yes to the Dress' marathon. The trio relaxed for awhile drinking their beers and by the end of the second episode both brothers were leaning forward, arguing with the woman on the screen about which gown she was selecting.

"Oh come on, you're going for that, that what, that strapless puffy thing? The silk ivory gown looked so much better!" Dean protested, pointing an accusatory finger at the tv. 

Sam mimicked his brother's exasperated sigh and drained the last of his bottle, "I know right, the scoop-neck really flattered her neck line more." The long-haired hunter commented, shrugging when Dean nodded in agreement. Both men looked back over at Aleah when the brunette burst into a fit of laughter at their commentary and judgement of which dress was best.

"Well it's true. What's wrong with this chick if even we can tell satin bows are dated and she can't?" Dean scoffed, swigging down the rest of his beer as well and resting his hand back on Aleah's thigh. They finished out the episode and Dean stretched glancing around and seeming to realize for the first time that the final member of their mixed bag of a family wasn't around.

"Where's Cas by the way? Usually he would be patched up and after Aleah for an Angel lesson or something by now." The elder Winchester asked, experimentally calling his friend's name, all of them looking about to see where he'd pop up.

After a few seconds Castiel abruptly materialized in the middle of the floor, but he wasn't alone. The trench-coated angel was gently cradling Aleah's gray tabby Manny in one arm, petting the feline's back with the barest hint of a smile on his normally sober face.

"Hey Cas, what's with the fur ball?" Dean asked. The angel looked up at all three of them, and if Dean didn't know better he would swear the angel looked a little... Sheepish. He haltingly explained that he had been observing their little chat with Crowley and didn't want to make things more difficult by appearing, but that he had gone to find Aleah's cat just to make certain no tampering had been to the animal.

Sam smiled warmly at his friend, "Cas you know with those spells on him Crowley can't do anything unless you stand down there and let his voice influence you, and even then there's not much juice to that." He reiterated, pleased that their usually aloof friend cared enough about his niece and the well-being of her pet that he had double checked anyway.

Cas nodded, repeating that he knew Crowley couldn't harm the cat but that he had just wanted to make sure, mentioning that they had to be vigilant in maintaining the security of the bunker. But it was pretty clear from the gentle way he was holding the feline that he was more motivated out of pure concern for the animal.

"Well I'm glad he's all right. You wanna join us? We're taking a day to recharge our batteries." Dean offered, gesturing to one of the wing-back chairs by the couch. 

Aleah enjoyed her time with all of the boys, watching Castiel sit with Manny in his lap, the tabby seemed rather content with his presence for most the evening occasionally stirred by the boys loud voices directed towards the screen as the next episode finished up. Sam waited for it to finish before excusing himself to take a shower, deciding that because he actually felt good he was going to get cleaned up, do some stuff he had been wanting to for a while, like reorganize the papers that had piled up on his desk from weeks of research. The brunettes hand shot up quickly, her empty bottle wrapped in her fingers, smiling sweetly at Sam for him to take it in a silent gesture to put the recycling away. He chuckled and shook his head but gladly picked up the three empty beers to carry back.

Sam left them and Dean finally requested for the remote, trying to reach behind Aleah’s back to grab it until she leaned back against his arm, shaking her head. “What do I get out of the deal? Besides watching some silly sci-fi show, hmm?” she asked, arching her brow and laughing when Dean poked her side, making her squirm. He hunched to mutter a no where near clean secret in her ear and for a moment she nearly forgot all about Castiel just beside them.

“Cannibalism is frowned upon Dean and of all people I would expect you to wish Aleah to be well.” Castiel chimed in, his brow furrowing with concern at the thought of Dean devouring his niece like he suggested, not understanding why she seemed completely unoffended by his remark. Wasn’t she worried? Dean burst with laughter and Aleah flushed red as she stumbled over her words trying to decide if she should explain what he had meant or let him believe that Dean was going to really have her for dinner.

She opted for simply giving Dean the controls, focusing on that rather than the suddenly awkward conversation she had stumbled into. Castiel hardly noticed, letting the subject go unexplained and petting Manny instead. Dean changed the channel but she didn’t mind, relaxing back as they watch a Dirty Harry movie on television and the first one she managed to sit through just fine but when the second one was nearly half over she started to fade, perhaps the events of their past week or so as well as her night with Dean were making her more drowsy than she might have been. She nuzzled further into Dean, pressing her cheek to his chest and listening to the steady beating of his heart, something that soothed her more than she ever could have thought, his scent filling her nose and his hand slowly running up and down her leg and keeping her warm and it wasn’t long before she drifted into a light slumber.

She didn’t know when it happened or how long she had been out and how the hell she even managed to sleep through being moved but she woke to the sounds of the boys talking in the kitchen, she was sprawled on the sofa with one of the spare blankets wrapped around her shoulders. Aleah blinked, shifting and feeling Manny at her feet, the cat sighed at her movements, going back to his own napping as she moved to get up. She rubbed her eyes and padded into the kitchen, smelling whatever it was Sammy was currently cooking for them or rather… for himself considering Dean wouldn’t touch a single thing Sam created.

They were talking about the catalysts, what was next on the list, wondering if it was worth having Sam make attempts at reading the tablet again after Aleah only just patched him up. Cas was watching them both, his eyes narrow in focus as usual though he said little to nothing, “I thought we agreed no talking shop for the day?” She arched a brow, stepping into the doorway of the room and seeing them all turn towards the sound of her voice. “I’m asleep five minutes and you jump right back into it?” She crossed her arms over her chest, scolding them with her eyes and Dean laughed, shaking his head and telling her that ‘five minutes’ was little over two hours.

She rolled her eyes, “That’s beside the point, I suggested a break because we need one, I don’t want Sammy jumping right back into playing prophet, okay?” She requested, giving them both looks until they voiced their agreement. Aleah hopped up onto the counter top and her brow knitted together at the book that lay beside her, picking it up and searching the cover, “What’s this? The first testament or something? Original holy bible?” She teased at how tattered the thing was, starting to open it up curiously. 

Sam and Dean exchanged a heavy look, seeming to be debating who would be the first one to do any ice breaking with her about the details of how they became hunters. They had told Aleah some very basic stuff about their past, but it wasn't exactly a happy story they enjoyed rehashing over and over.

Dean cleared his throat and took the book from her hands, holding it with a great deal more reverence than the brunette had been but he didn't blame her since to an outsider the tome probably looked like it was past overdue for the trash heap.

The short haired hunter looked down at the beaten cover of the most valuable keepsake he had from his father. "This... This is our dad's journal. When our mom died and he became a hunter, he recorded everything he ever faced and researched in this book. It's saved our assess more than few times." He smiled crookedly, leafing through some of the tattered pages and handing it back to her to look at more closely.

The brunette seemed to understand how important the book was to them and held it more carefully, reading the page he had opened it up to and absently murmuring some of the words written there about Wendigos. 

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, that was a.... Real fun case dad sent us on." The younger sibling commented with a wry grin. Aleah looked up at him and he shook his head, flipping a few pages forward to show her his dad's notes on vampires. "We have all kinds of reference materials here that the Men of Letters compiled, but... This is our dad's first-hand account of things that go bump in the night. I never really got along with the man but, I'd trust his word on the supernatural above pretty much anyone else's. Well except maybe Bobby." Sam chuckled, looking up at Dean who nodded in agreement.

Aleah asked who Bobby was, and they had a much easier time telling her stories about the cranky old coot who had been a father to them in every way except by blood. It was well into the night before the stories slowed down, and both men seemed a little embarrassed that they so easily lost track of time when speaking of their old mentor and friend. 

Aleah looked over the pages of the book that Dean had given back to her, feeling bad for the way she man handled it at first but she had no idea, to her it looked like just about any of the other texts that were housed in the bunker only… more worn if that was even possible. Clearly they got good use out of it while they could manage. She smiled as they talked to her about their father, hearing in their tones that the man wasn’t really their favorite person ever but they both seemed to respect the man as a hunter at least.

Her eyes welled at the admiration in both their gazes as they told her more about Bobby than they did their own father. She could tell so easily that they cared about the man, that he was more of a dad than anything else. She giggled when they told her how he used to call them ‘idjits’ for just about everything they did under his watch and she felt an odd sort of connection to the old man they spoke of. He had raised the brothers well and she hoped that he knew how highly they thought of him despite, as Dean told her, that they had both been shitty about showing it at all.

Cas chimed in here or there confirming that Bobby was a good man, that he had cared for Castiel much to the same level simply because he helped the Winchester family the way he did. Sam told Aleah how Bobby died when Dean couldn’t manage to get the words out, still a little in disbelief that he couldn’t hang on like they thought he would but in the end his last breath saved their asses. Aleah had leapt off the counter to stand beside her lover, guiding his arm around her shoulders so she could cling to his side, listening to Sam’s story. By the end her tears had soaked the front of Dean’s shirt and his hand ran over her arm comfortingly, giving her a gentle smile to show that he was okay but she could see in his eyes it still hurt him when he thought about it.

It was long into the evening and their food was forgotten, Dean claimed he was no longer hungry and Aleah took his hint, pulling away from him and moving to Sam so she could wrap her arms around his frame and hug him, wishing him good night with a kiss on his cheek and thanking him for sharing his life with her. He smiled and gave her a nod and as the woman passed she pressed her lips to Cas’s cheek in turn, smiling at him and earning one herself as she padded away. They really were a family… albeit a little bit of a strange one at that but a family none the less.

She took Dean’s hand and led him back to his room and he hardly objected to her following him inside. He clutched the journal in his hands and she guided him to sit down on his mattress, bending to kiss him sweetly but he still seemed to be thinking, not even bothering to ogle her as she shed her bottoms and stood only in his shirt, prepped for sleep once more and climbing in bed beside him. “Tell me about him. Your dad.” She muttered. Dean leafed through a few pages as she kissed his shoulder and the back of his neck, waiting for him to talk. He shook his head and said there wasn’t much to tell really, making her nod, “I think you’re only seeing what he didn’t do for you, babe.” She whispered, shifting and brushing his longer tuffs of hair back into place. “Do you remember much about your mom?... I’m sorry to pry… I just kind of like feeling like I know you.” She confessed, hoping she wasn’t upsetting him. 

The hunter stayed quiet for a long time, his eyes glazed with vivid memories, some of them sweet, most of them bitter. He did have a precious handful of good, pure memories of his mother from when he was a small boy, though most of those were tinged with sadness now that he knew his mom had been carrying such a burden all that time having been raised a hunter and thinking she'd seen her father murdered.

He had a hard time talking about either of his parents, but he knew Aleah was waiting for an answer. "My mom... She was... She was awesome." Dean shrugged, flipping to the back of his dad's journal where one of the only remaining photos of his mother was tucked into the last few pages. It was old, worn on the edges and a bit discolored from time since it was an old one taken back when his parents had just started dating.

He handed it to Aleah and the young woman cooed, telling him how beautiful she thought she was and he nodded. "Yeah. Everything about her was beautiful... Perfect." He responded, his voice cracking a little with emotion. His lover softly asked him what happened to her, and his mind filled up with awful memories of smoke and fire. 

He looked at her square, closing the journal and hating that all the women who were important to him were wrapped up in some grand design beyond his control and doomed to a terrible fate by a bunch of angelic bastards. His mother and father's bloodlines carefully honed and filtered down, guided to ensure that John and Mary would meet and have him and Sammy. And now Aleah, somehow that crafty son of a bitch Gabriel had broken the rules to have her because he wanted to give the world a way out when the whole house of cards fell down.

The hunter blinked rapidly and shook his head, still not quite ready to go into detail so he simply responded, "She died. She died and there was nothing I could do to save her. I couldn't even save her soul after she died, she sacrificed herself to save us, Sammy and me." Dean set the tattered old book down on his bedside table and quickly rubbed away the moisture that had welled in his green eyes, taking a deep breath and looking back at Aleah again.

"I won't let it happen again. I'm gonna keep you safe, no matter what." Dean swore, cupping his lover's face in his hands and kissing her deeply. He felt the urge to come clean and tell her that he loved her, but the words clotted in his throat. He had to make good on his promise first, fix all this without letting her get hurt, then just maybe he might be worthy of loving her.

After a moment they broke apart, gasping for breath, but Dean was unwilling to relinquish his hold on her. Awakening the memories of his past and the events that had occurred because of that fateful day had filled him up with a desperate longing to affirm for himself that Aleah was really here, really his and come hell or high water he was going to protect her. 

Aleahs own eyes watered with sympathy for her lover, she never knew her dad and hell she hardly even knew her mom on any level other than she was a drunk. In her eyes that was easier, never having that family rather than losing something so special like Dean had. He wiped his eyes and she ran her hand over his leg soothingly and trying to find words to say to him to comfort him but she couldnt. She didnt know what it felt like or any of that, she accepted what he had to say without prying to know the details.

He turned and cupped her face promising he wouldn't let her get hurt like that. She trusted him, whole heartedly she trusted him, nodding slightly before he kissed her. She clung to him and for the first time she felt that true desire in his kiss, this wasn't a fling they meant something to the other. She knew what his kiss was saying and she returned it, hoping that he understood her too.

They broke apart gasping for breath and both refusing to let the other go. His eyes darted back and forth to both of hers, her gaze still filled with tears as his hands that held her in place gently coaxed her forward and she followed, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting her fingers card through his hair and rake over his skin. "Youre everything to me Dean." She murmured between kisses, laying back and he followed her down against the mattress, pecking her lips as their bodies shifted and he settled between her legs.

He kissed along her neck and down her chest, unbuttoning the front of his shirt she wore, his lips continuing further until she stopped him. "I want to see you..." she stated softly, not to say she didnt want his mouth on her but this time... things were different. "I'm yours. Take me." She murmured. "I need you, Dean. Please." 

Dean had been starting on the path down her sweet figure to devour her like he'd mentioned earlier that day, wanting to somehow show his affection and appreciation for his lover in one of the few ways he knew he was good at. But she stopped him from advancing lower and he couldn't help but smile at her pleading words, placing a sweet kiss on the soft skin between her breasts and lifting himself back up to meet her lips and kiss her deeply.

After a moment his lips left hers to trail over to her ear, his hand slid down her body and he began firmly stroking her center through the thin fabric of her panties as he spoke in a rough whisper, "Thank you Aleah. You're more than a guy like me could ever ask for. I want you..." He nibbled at her ear lobe, pushing her panties aside to slip his middle and ring fingers inside her slick heat, raising her desire to a fever pitch as he worked her.

Aleah began lifting her hips up off the mattress in rhythm with his hand, little sounds of want escaping her parted lips and she begged him to take her again. Hearing the raw need in her voice only made him harder, his jeans getting painfully tight. The hunter eased back and shrugged off his jeans and briefs, following with his shirt while Aleah sat up and removed his button up top, left in just her little black tank top and bra.

Dean knelt on the bed between her legs and helped her out of the rest of her clothes, immediately guiding her back into a reclining position and palming her full breasts, sampling her rosy peaks and making her writhe and gasp as he nipped at her sensitive flesh. The hunter leaned over and opened his nightstand drawer, rummaging for a condom and growling when he realized he was out. It had been awhile since he'd had to think about stocking up regularly, and now he was screwed out of getting screwed.

Aleah realized he was taking a bit too long and asked him what the matter was, her voice breathless with want. He moved back above her, bracing on his elbows and sighed raggedly. "I don't have any protection, Princess." He admitted, cursing himself and almost wanting to run down to Sammy's room to see if he happened to have any but he didn't really want to directly rub it in his little brother's face that he was regularly getting some and Sam wasn't. He had enjoyed doing that in the past but at least he was a tiny bit more mature now.

Aleah made a desperate little noise in her throat, stopping him from moving off of her when he tried. She tugged his face down to hers and kissed him ravenously, which was definitely not helping him stay motivated to be responsible. "Aleah..." He chided, trying to move again but he immediately halted when he felt her hand wrap around his throbbing shaft and begin stroking him, her thumb circling over his weeping tip and making him moan low in his chest.

The half-angel tipped her head up and told him not to worry, that she trusted him not to lose control at the wrong time, pleading with him that if she couldn't have him inside her tonight she would go crazy. Dean growled and nuzzled his face into her neck, what little resolve he had left crumbled with her last heated words and he nipped at her throat as he pushed inside her, groaning loudly at how much better it felt to bury himself inside her without the barrier between them.

Dean heard Aleah gasp and felt her shiver, encouraging him to continue by pressing her heels into his toned ass and he grinned, more than happy to oblige. "You feel so damn good Princess..." Dean panted as he thrust rapidly up into her, relishing her tight heat and lifting his head to watch her face contort with pleasure as he took her. Their gaze locked and he bent his head to kiss her, swallowing her moans and nipping at her lip when her nails dug into his shoulders.

The hunter braced up on his knees and pounded into her hard and deep, tensing every muscle to keep from exploding inside her as she writhed and cried out to him, coming around his hard shaft and igniting his every instinct to do the same deep within her. He maintained his pace as long as he could, making her orgasm last until she was hardly able to breathe before finally pulling out of her body at the last second and coming on her smooth belly.

Dean sighed her name roughly as he came, lingering in her arms for a moment and kissing her sweetly before shifting to grab some tissue to clean her up. He smiled and settled on his side next to her, absently running his hand over her curves as they wound down from their highs. 

Aleah begged Dean again to take her, "I trust you baby..." she purred, tugging him back down and guiding him to her core. He pushed into her with a ragged sigh and immediately started to move deep inside her body. She arched her back for a better angle, ravishing his mouth with hers. She gave a tiny grin at his words, her nails digging into his flesh knowing she would leave her mark. "You too, Dean." She moaned.

His pace increased and between his body merged with hers and his lips on her skin she could hardly stand it. She gasped and her walls clenched around him tight, coming hard around him and crying out his name as she rode out her pleasure. "Shit..." she cursed with a little giggle as he slipped from her body, already coming down from her high as he came against her belly.

She smiled at him adoringly as he willingly cleaned her up with some tissue. "Youre too good to me sweetie." She muttered pleasingly, sighing as they settled together. "Im glad you told me what you did... I wanna know all I can about you. Maybe that's dumb but I do." She muttered, snuggling up to him and absently kissing his chest as he held her. "We'll be okay, you know. No matter what." She sighed. 

Dean held her tight and chuckled a bit at her words, understanding the sentiment and appreciating it but also knowing there were a great many things the brunette was far better off not knowing about him. "It's not dumb. Just trust me when I say the phrase 'ignorance is bliss' definitely applies to Dean Winchester." He kissed the top of her head, grinning widely at her mutters that that wasn't true that were muffled by her face being mostly pressed into his chest.

The pair fell into a deep sleep soon after, tangled together skin to skin. Dean woke to the alarm on his watch, noting with a sleepy grin of satisfaction that Aleah seemed to have abandoned her old practice of waking at the crack of ass to turn herself into a runway model every morning, or at least the last several mornings. He was pleased that she was finally feeling more comfortable in her own skin around here.

Aleah mumbled incoherently, rousing from the sound of his alarm but not quite coming awake. She rolled to lie on her back, one arm flung up around her head while the other lay tucked against her side. He drank in the sight of her lovely bare form that his hands and mouth knew so well now, and decided to give his little Princess a proper wake up call. 

Dean shifted as gently on the bed as he could so as not to disturb her, his green eyes focused on her face as he lowered his head to lightly lick and suck at her soft breasts. Her fingers twitched a little and she made a tiny noise as she exhaled, but remained asleep even as her body responded to his touch, her rosy nipples hardening as he swirled his tongue around them. The hunter grinned as he kissed a light trail down her belly, making goosebumps rise over her flesh and by the time he had carefully slid down to her center her breathing had grown more rapid, even in slumber.

Dean gently tugged at her leg, still watching her carefully and pausing in his motions when he nearly disturbed her too much, holding in a chuckle at the sleepy way she smacked her lips and relaxed back into full slumber. He poised himself over one of her legs and braced his elbow on the mattress between them lightly stroking her inner thigh with the back of his knuckles and simply enjoying the rise and fall of her chest for a moment.

After waiting to make sure she was still really asleep, Dean craned his head down and used just the fingertips of his free hand to gently stroke her the sensitive little pearl of flesh hidden at the top of her entrance, watching with a predatory hunger as her body reacted instinctively and she became wet for him. Her sleeping cheeks flushed and he slowly increased the level of sensation so she wouldn't wake abruptly, he wanted her to slowly gain consciousness as her pleasure built, so she wouldn't quite know if she was dreaming until the last moment.

Dean increased his motions with his fingers until her lips parted and a breathy moan escaped her, turning him on and making him hungry to hear more. He bent his head and gently pulled back her delicate flesh so he could lightly flick his tongue over her clit, taking in her every shiver and twitch of pleasure.

He slowly increased the pressure with his tongue, swirling around the little bud and sucking at her flesh, dipping down now and then to delve his tongue into her slick center and taste her sweetness. Dean returned his attention to her clit, humming against it and sucking her harder, his own arousal getting more difficult to ignore as Aleah's sounds of pleasure were getting louder and more uncontrolled as he pushed her body to it's peak.

She was shaking beneath him, moaning loudly and he doubled his pace with his tongue over her clit, grinning against her as Aleah's blue eyes suddenly flew open and she became aware of what was happening just as her orgasm swept over her. Her whole body quaked and she lacked any small amount of reserve she might've had when he was doing this to her in a wakeful state, her eyes rolled back in her head and she cried out to him desperately as she lost herself fully in her climax. He pushed her further and further, devouring her sweetness and carrying her through at least three bone melting orgasms before finally easing up and lifting his face away from her soaked center, wiping his mouth and flashing a very satisfied grin.

He loved that he could make her come completely apart like that, loved that he could bring her to a place where she was so lost in her pleasure that nothing else existed outside of them and what he was doing to her body. 

Dean climbed up her body and settled between her legs, stroking her still sensitive clit with his throbbing arousal and moaning as she gathered herself enough to wrap her arms around his neck and seal her lips to his savoring her own taste on him. He pushed inside of her without a word, slowly pumping in and out of her slick core and tipping her back onto that plane of pure pleasure, relishing the way she wrapped herself around him and moaned his name as he thrust faster and faster into her.

She clenched and fluttered around him, coming again with a desperate noise that faded into nothing, her ability to produce sound temporarily robbed by the intensity of what she was experiencing and he pounded into her until he couldn't hold back any more, slipping from her heat and coming with a low groan on the sheets between her legs. He sighed heavily, resting his weight atop her for a moment as he collected himself, grinning widely at her response to his method of waking her. 

Aleah was in a deep sleep most of the evening, she always slept better with Dean at her side especially after the night they had, long conversation that perhaps was a little more draining mentally and emotionally then she realized. For a moment or two she thought she was dreaming, imagining the things that Dean so often did to her body, her muscles twitch with pleasure and suddenly she woke at the feeling of his tongue pressed firmly to her sensitive clit. Her eyes flew opened and she stared down at him from where he lay, seeing the look in his eyes as he ate her out.

She gasped brokenly with every peak he brought her to, sighing heavily as he licked her fairly clean before climbing up her body again. The brunette smiled at him, still a little dizzy from her pleasure as he rubbed his shaft against her still tingling center. They said nothing to the other, her arms wrapping around him and drawing him down to kiss him fervently, humming at her own taste on her lovers lips. He pushed inside her body easily with how wet she was; she clung to him, her nail lightly scratching over his heated flesh as he pumped in and out of her body, stroking her walls and bringing her over the edge for a fourth time that morning alone.

Aleah fluttered around him, coming hard and shaking beneath him from the intensity of her orgasm. She sighed at the loss of him inside her body, watching his expression contort as he moaned and came between them. He laid over her and she smiled, gladly wrapping her limbs around his muscled frame and enjoying the skin to skin contact for as long as she could. “Well if that’s how we say ‘good morning’ now I’m all for it.” She teased, running her hand up and down his back as he kissed at her bare flesh.

She nudged him to sit up so she could look at his face, cupping both her hands to either cheek and holding him in place above her. “We have to get back to it today….” She reminded him softly and he hummed his response. She hadn’t seen him look like this, not with her or anyone for that matter, pure adoration flickered in his green orbs; the recognition making her smile gently back at him. Aleah craned her head to seal their lips in a long and slow kiss, putting everything she felt for him into the contact again which he gladly returned.

She broke apart from him with a tiny gasp for air, “Which means we can’t lay here all day.” She pointed out, laughing as he stole another kiss before letting her push his weight up off her so she could sit forward again. “Come on.” She encouraged, nudging him to get up and he groaned at her seeming none too eager to leave the bed. “Suit yourself. I’ll shower alone, then.” She smiled, letting go of his hand as she stood up, swaying her hips to tempt him to follow her into his connecting bathroom. And just like she thought he might, he hurried up off the bed and chased after her, making her squeal with laughter as he caught up.

Dean scooped her up and plopped her back on her feet in less than a few seconds as they entered through the bathroom door. He flicked on the light and immediately had her pinned to the wall just beside the switch; she giggled at him, arching her body to press up against his front as he took her wrists and drew her arms above her head, his face hovering just near hers. “I don’t think we’ve made it the distance.” She teased, glancing at the shower with its curtain still pulled opened slightly from its last use.

She wriggled free of his grasp and ducked away before he could plant a kiss on her lips, hearing his groan of disappointment. Aleah grinned and took him by the wrist, turning on the water and stepping into the stream once it was to a temperature of her liking, coaxing him in with her. He gladly followed, her hands on his chest and abdomen as she leaned up to kiss him, her skin soaked with water from the down pour. For a moment or two they kissed sweetly like that and she enjoyed the warmth of him with her like this. She reached around him and grabbed the loofa she used, lathering it up with sweet smelling soap and he took her cues, reaching for the loofa and running it over her frame, letting his hands and lips follow as the water cleared the suds. She hummed happily, leaning into him and relaxing under his touch as his hand left the path the loofa created and traveled down her front.

She turned around, her rear pressed into his front, grinding against him. His hand nudged her thighs apart and she promptly followed his guidance and spread her legs, his fingers finding her center, massaging her clit while his other hand continued to lather her skin as he worked her up more and more. His lips on her throat sent shivers up her spine and she could feel his arousal forming once more against her backside, pressing firmly back against him, “Take me again, baby.” She encouraged, her hand reaching behind her to rake her nails over his frame where she could reach, hearing him groan. 

Dean pressed his growing arousal against Aleah's firm rear, his strong arm wrapped around her holding her close while his fingers worked her sensitive clit. He groaned with want when Aleah told him she wanted him to take her again, he grinned against her neck and nipped at her flesh as he adjusted his stance to guide his throbbing length to her center.

Aleah rocked back against him and he stood steady, pushing up into her slick heat and murmuring her name as he buried himself to the hilt. The hunter began moving inside her, continuing his motions with his hand on her clit and relishing her broken little moans as he drove them both nearer to the edge. Aleah arched back against him, her wet skin slippery against his and she craned her head back to meet his lips in a hungry kiss.

Aleah reached up behind her head to hook her hand around his neck, staring up at him and panting desperately as she murmured that she loved the way he felt inside her. Dean increased his pace with her encouragement, bucking up into her rapidly and growling as her walls clenched and fluttered around him. He rubbed his fingers rapidly over her most sensitive spot as he drove into her, making her quake and cry out desperately as she came.

He groaned as he slid out of her, coming between them as he kept her trapped close against his frame. The hot streaming water quickly rinsed away his seed on their skin and the little brunette turned in his arms, taking her loofah from him he'd completely forgotten he was clenching. They stood panting in each other's arms for a moment then Aleah grabbed the soap and added more of it to her loofah so she could give him a similar once over with the fresh smelling lather.

Once they were both clean and sated the pair left the shower and got ready for their day. Dean noted with a little grin when they met again in the hall that Aleah was wearing another one of his worn flannel shirts, the sleeves rolled and bunched up to her elbows. "So is this gonna be like a regular thing now? 'Cuz I don't have as many shirts as you Princess." He chuckled and she playfully nudged his chest.

They made their way out to the kitchen, their day had started a bit later than usual, but at least the coffee Sam had left for them was still hot. The younger Winchester was out in the library with his laptop open and stacks of dusty books nearly concealing him from view. Dean tipped his mug in greeting at his sibling when he looked up from his work.

"Mornin' little brother. Great day, huh?" He asked with a crooked grin, more than pleased with the way his day had started off and hoping he could get used to it. Sam quirked his brows at him, his head tipping a little to one side as he tried to digest his brother's chipper attitude. Dean just didn't do 'chipper.'

"Um, I guess so... Good morning Aleah." Sam brushed off his brother's out of character demeanor, he knew exactly why he was in such a good mood and didn't want to think about it too hard. He greeted their little half-angel as well when she entered the room, turning his laptop more towards her on the table when she approached and asked him what he was working on.

"Trying to dig up what I can on the Six Catalysts. It's been pretty slow going, seems like the big guys upstairs don't want us lowly mortals having knowledge about objects so powerful. But I did manage to find a lead when I was going over some of Bobby's old notes I scanned." Sam explained, clicking around the dozens of windows he had up till he found the right one.

"Leave it to that old coot to know a thing or two about stuff no one's supposed to know about." Dean quipped as he came to stand next to Aleah behind Sam so he could take a look at his brother's efforts as well.

"Well actually I don't think even Bobby knew exactly what he'd stumbled across, not the full extent of it anyway. Remember the story he told about when he and Rufus hunted that Werewolf Alpha before we were born? Well... I think that Alpha had one of the Six Catalysts." Sam clicked off the text file report of Bobby's fight with the wolf and pulled up an image file that was a photo of a photo Bobby had taken of the werewolf's severed clawed hand.

Aleah blanched at the photo of the dismembered hand but Dean leaned forward eagerly. "The ring on it's thumb? What makes you think it's a catalyst and not just some monster bling?" Dean asked, sipping his coffee over Sam's shoulder.

"Well Bobby made notes that he believed the ring was the Ring of Dispel, a token given to Lancelot by the Lady of Lake. It was said to be the most powerful warding object against magic ever created and was resistant to any magic spell, and had the power to break any enchantment." Sam pointed out the matching notes in Bobby's writing with the symbols on the ring.

"The research I've been doing on the Catalysts suggests that one of the objects was a ring, and I can't think of a more likely candidate than this. I mean you're not gonna find a more powerful ring outside of Mordor." Sam quipped, making Dean roll his eyes and call his brother a nerd. He smiled and scrolled through the rest of the file.

"I remember Bobby telling us about that case, they couldn't actually kill the Alpha so they had to encase him in pure molten silver and put a whole crap ton of seals and bonds on him. Are you saying if we follow his notes and go break the thumb off the doggie statue, that's the game? We've got what we need to open Heaven?" Dean asked with a healthy dose of skepticism.

"Well not exactly. Taking the ring will be difficult, and there's no way to get to it in the first place without undoing most of the wards Bobby and Rufus put on him. But I mean... I think we could take him. You guys did kill a Goddess this week after all." Sam smiled crookedly at Aleah before continuing. "We're still gonna need some of Aleah's blood to trigger the seed, at least if I understand Eris' explanation of how the Golden Apple's powers are accessed. But what's a few drops of blood on an old ring and seed compared to her life?" He asked, knowing it was clearly no contest in any of their minds.


	2. Chapter 2

“Mornin’ Sammy.” Aleah hummed, giggling at the little waggle of his brow Dean gave to her. She padded past him and stood beside her friend, “What’re you working on?” She questioned, furrowing her brow to read through the title of the page he brought up. He explained himself, flicking over to another page then another as he spoke of what he found. “Werewolf Alpha?” She repeated but the boys hardly seemed to notice her tone of surprise.

She sipped from her coffee mug, wrapping her fingers around the warm glass as she listened to the boys converse. Sam clicked over to a picture without warning of its content and she nearly spit up her coffee at the sight, “Ugh.” She mumbled disgustedly at the sight, turning her head away but still peeking at it from the corner of her eye. She turned back as he started pointing out the similarities of the object and its scripture to the notes Bobby had scribbled out.

So that was it then, one last piece of the puzzle? She thought anyways… It seemed too easy to think that they didn’t require the other four chunks but Sam did say that this ring was one of the most powerful objects in existence. “So what do we do? Cut off it’s thumb…” She chimed in with Dean, seeming a little in disbelief herself.

 

“That tells me that you two know where he put this werewolf at? Is it… still alive then?” Aleah questioned a little worriedly having never come face to face with much of any supernatural creatures. Her lip twitched into a smile when Sam looked at her reminding them they had taken down a goddess already. She shyly tucked her hair behind her ear, “Well technically I just decked her in the face for…” She looked at Dean and shifted her weight, the smirk on his face as he clearly recalled her actions for another woman trying to steal him from her. “Umm—and stole her jewelry. If anything the death was accidental at least at the time.” She shrugged and Sam still grinned.

Her eyes went wide and she felt a little nauseous at the mention of needles alone, seeing Sam poke himself the other day was enough to almost make her pass out alone. She knew it was better than her having to die but, “Why’s it have to be blood? Can’t I just spit on it or something… that’s still my angel-y DNA.” She whined and both boys laughed at her. Sam promised it was only a little and she nodded, “Okay but… that’s later right. We can do that bit later. Way later.” She insisted, feeling Dean’s arm snake around her, squeezing her against him in a comforting manner, telling her a little prick was nothing in comparison to her being blown up.

“I still don’t like either option, quite frankly but okay.” She mumbled into his arm, the warmth of his frame already making her forget her worry for the time being. He had been there to hold her hand the whole time she got her tattoo, Dean knew her fear or… it was more of a distaste towards needles rather. “Where do we need to go? To get the super juiced were-freak and his hairy thumb…” She cringed as she glanced over the image again that Sam had posted. 

"Bobby and Rufus took him out by luring him to an old steel mill in rural Montana. It's incapacitated and it'll probably be in rough shape, but yeah it should still be alive. According to lore the only way to kill an alpha werewolf is to stab it through the heart with a diamond spike. Rufus tried loading a few diamonds off stolen engagement rings into a shot gun, but that just slowed it down. So in the end they cut off it's hand so the ring's power couldn't protect it any more, put an ancient Germanic curse of holding on the bastard and dumped a vat of molten steel they had thrown a few sets of silver cutlery and candlesticks in. Also stolen." Sam explained, smiling at Aleah's incredulous look.

"It was enough to incapacitate him. They set a few charges and took the building out, the town was dying out anyway so they never even bothered to rebuild it. It'll still be there, at the abandoned mill site." The younger Winchester pointed to the location he'd gotten on google maps based on the coordinates Bobby had left.

"So I'm guessing every ward we disable will make it that much easier for Scooby to break free." Dean surmised, downing the rest of his coffee and sighing when Sam confirmed his suspicion.

"Yeah. I mean this guy is the real deal. I'm not really sure what will happen when we start poking around. And we won't be able to pull the same stunt Bobby did since the mill isn't operating anymore. We need that ring, but we can't just walk in there unprepared." Sam shrugged, leaning back in his chair and running his hands through his hair. "Any ideas?" He asked.

Dean and Aleah exchanged a sideways glance, none of them exactly had a diamond spear lying around to take with them just in case the alpha became a threat. After a moment Aleah cleared her throat and edged her way past Sam to look something up on his laptop. Dean asked her what she was thinking and the brunette chuckled a bit.

She told the brothers that what they needed was a really big diamond as she typed, and Dean scoffed a bit at her for stating the obvious. "I know you like your accessories Princess but I seriously doubt you've got a rock big enough to put a dent in an alpha werewolf." He commented, but still leaned forward anyway to get a better look at what she was searching on Sam's laptop.

"The Sceptre With the Cross?" Sam questioned as he skimmed the first few lines of the article Aleah had pulled up. The brunette went on to explain that the item in question was topped with the second largest diamond known to man, and commented that it was even conveniently mounted on a spear-like object for easy werewolf extermination. Dean gave his lover a sideways look and she defended herself, saying that she had always wanted to go on a tour of London and see the crown jewels so she knew a lot about them.

"Well that's all well and good, but how are we supposed too..." Sam began, his voice trailing off and his eyes going wide as he realized where Aleah was going with showing them this. "You want to steal an item from the British Crown Jewels and use it to kill a werewolf?" Sam sputtered with a little laugh of disbelief.

Dean laughed when Aleah insisted it would just be borrowing it, and that she'd bring it right back. "Oh no, if anybody does this it's gotta be Cas, not you Al. If they get your face on camera it'll be bad, and if the God Squad sniffs you out using your powers to poof in and out it'll be a whole lot worse." Sam countered, smiling in spite of his concern just because such a crazy plan had occurred to Aleah in the first place. They were definitely not having a good influence on her. 

Aleah hunched over the desk to type on Sam’s laptop, pushing aside her coffee mug so she wouldn’t knock it over. She could feel both the boys looking at her, wondering what it was she was doing. She had an idea, feeling rather proud of herself for it considering the last idea she had given them involved their first real lead towards the Apple. “Hold on.” She stated flatly when Dean first asked what it was she had running in her head.

She typed faster, clicking quickly through to the page she needed, “We need a really big diamond… like really big…” She answered with a chuckle proud that it popped into her head when it did and this gave her an excuse to finally make her way somewhere she always wanted to go. She rolled her eyes when Dean scoffed in his throat at her and teased about her love of fashion, “Might not be my accessory… my rock… but I think it’ll do.” She pushed the laptop so they could both see the screen, smiling proudly as Sam acknowledged what it was on screen.

“Yep.” Aleah responded, nodding her head. “It’s not the biggest of them all but it’s close. Second in the running in fact. And funny enough it’s already mounted on a ‘spear’ for you gentlemen.” She smiled, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Dean expectantly for him to be stunned she thought this up but instead he looked surprised that she even thought about this being an item to kill. “What? I’ve always wanted to go to London… see the crown jewels… do some shopping and before you were around had ever anticipation of snatching up a brit for my own.” She teased, wrinkling her nose at him.

She shrugged her shoulders, “I know a lot about the jewels… and the museum in general so…” She started and it clicked in Sam’s head what it was she was implying. “No it’s not stealing. I plan to borrow it, drive it through Fido’s chest maybe pose for a few selfies with it…” She added with a little laugh. “then I’ll zap it back in the case and they’ll never know… with time differences and stuff we can time it to take it when they’re closed and I’ll bring it back. I promise to return it bloodless.”

The half-angel waited for them to take everything she said in and give her the okay but as she sort of anticipated both men had their reservations. “So I’ll do something about the cameras… wipe out the footage. They’ll never know the difference.” She argued but she knew he had a point about her using her powers. “You’re right… I know that I shouldn’t poof in and out of places but Sammy… I really want to go to London.” She pouted to him, squeezing his arm.

The long haired hunter shook his head at her as she instead took on a prayer position beside him, fingers laced and pleading for him to take her side. He stammered and looked to Dean for assistance, clearly not wanting to be the bad guy. Dean raised his hands as though he was completely tied and couldn’t assist, taking a step back. “What if I just went with Castiel? We already know his powers conceal mine from the others. With the sigil on my side they can’t find me and with Cas in tow he can flash me into the city at least. I can be his right hand… angel.” She continued.

Dean sighed and just as Sam spoke he did too, gently tugging her up and using the nickname he had branded her with. “You can come too… make sure I don’t get into trouble?” She defended herself further and he shook his head saying that he didn’t think it was such a good idea for her to do this job. Aleah sighed but nodded her understanding, “Okay but when this is over you owe me a trip to London. And I want to go with you guys to dig up the big bad wolf and all that. Deal?” She confirmed, looking at them both for objections. 

The brothers exchanged a glance and Sam nodded slightly, still uneasy about bringing Aleah to an alpha fight but she was one of them now after all. Dean turned to his lover and gave her his own nod of agreement. "Deal. But you need to spend today reading up on werewolves, looking at some photos and crap. It's not an alpha but you need to have at least some idea of what we're up against. If just a picture of a severed hand is enough to freak you out, you've gotta get used to the idea that what we find buried in that steel mill is gonna be a hell of a lot worse. Okay?" He instructed her in a sober tone, he was nothing but serious when it came to getting her as prepared as possible for this enemy, even if it turned out that the alpha didn't pose a significant threat.

Aleah agreed to his terms, pulling up a chair beside Sam so he could give her a compiled list of materials to study up on. Dean flipped through his dad's journal for most of the morning, deciding to go on a supply run in the afternoon, they were getting low on beer. And as much as he preferred not to, he needed to get more damn condoms. When the brunette asked to come along he shot her down, insisting that it was vital she keep hitting the books and she complied but he could tell she was disappointed.

The hunter arrived at the small grocery store in town and put together his basket of food and a few other essentials, stopping when something shiny caught his eye as he walked past an aisle end cap. He bent closer and his eyes narrowed as he inspected a set of silver colored angel wing hair pins. He plucked them off the display and turned them back and forth in his hand debating with himself what to do. He felt like an idiot, wanting her to like a silly little gift like this, to see her wear them. 

He walked to the checkout without them, arguing back and forth in his head till he almost reached the conveyor belt, finally growling with irritation and losing his place in line to go back and fetch them.

The hunter returned later that evening, pleased to see Sam and Aleah with their heads together at the table where he'd left them, pouring over books and talking, mostly it was Sam answering Aleah's questions as they occurred to her. He went to the kitchen to start putting things away and sorting what didn't belong in that space into separate bags to be taken elsewhere.

They had a less than fancy meal of the frozen pizzas Dean had purchased, Sam and Aleah also had the last of the salad Sammy had made the other day but Dean refused any 'rabbit food.' It was a fairly enjoyable meal together but still Dean could tell Aleah was acting more subdued around him than she had been in the library with Sammy and he figured she was still a little put out by him refusing to let her tag along to the grocery store. She had to know how important it was for her to play catch up on lore in the short amount of time they had, but then again he'd never been very good at handling women's feelings so he wasn't too surprised.

They finished eating and got back to work, putting together their trip to Montana and a rough plan of action. Once everything was sorted out Sam got up and headed to bed, seemingly more than eager to finally be able to go out on the job again. Dean gently gripped Aleah's shoulder, "Ready to turn in?" He prompted, hoping she'd come with him so he could give her his little gift. The brunette lightly shrugged his touch off and said she wanted to get some more reading done before bed, and his irritation with her hanging on to something he felt wasn't a big deal got the best of him. "Fine. Good night." He said in a clipped tone, turning and leaving her in the library.

He made it all the way to his door, stopping and leaning his arm against the wall with his opposite hand resting on the knob without turning it. He heard Sam's door click open and looked up, trying not to scowl at his brother when he asked him what he wanted.

"Dude. Would it kill you to just apologize? It's not even that big a deal." Sam said in a weary voice, Aleah hadn't really said much about how she felt while they worked but it was pretty obvious to him that she was disappointed in how Dean had treated her like a kid who needed to do her homework before play.

Dean growled in frustration, stepping back from his door and raising his hands in a mock gesture of defense. "All right, all right! I'm going!" He relented, turning and storming back down the hall towards the library. He didn't hear Sam's little chuckle as he retreated back into his room, and that was probably just as well. 

Aleah didn’t much appreciate the way that Dean turned her down and forced her to stick to studying up with Sammy at the bunker. If anything it made her more enthusiastic to learn as much as she could simply to proce herself yet again to her lover. Was it really that wong of her to want to spend time with her boyfriend outside of the bedroom and even outside of the bunker they called home in general?

Dinner together wasn’t so bad but she figured that was likely because she had Sam there. It wasn’t all that surprising to her to see that when Dean returned he refused to man up and talk about why it was she was even upset with him. Her and Sam got back to it and this time the eldest joined them with planning their trip but still Aleah said little. She left it to the boys since it was apparent how little her views on anything mattered. Dean didn’t seem to keen on her making decisions anyways.

It was getting late when Sam finally stood up and said he was going to turn in, not long after did Dean step over to her, touching the brunettes shoulder and offering sleep. She pulled away, brushing him off, “I want to get a little more done before bed. Like you asked me to.” She mumbled lowly and that seemed to set him off further. He was less than pleased that she didn’t simply jump at the chance to bed down with him. He snipped a ‘good night’ to her and she said nothing to him, keeping her attention on her reading and pretending not to notice him angrily leaving.

She stuck with her task, that was until the hunter returned not long after he left. Aleah sighed heavily when he stood in the door for more than a few moments, finally turning to look up at him, “What is it, Dean? Can’t sleep without getting to screw me first?” She questioned a little harshly. He glared at her reaction, clearly not loking her ignoring him like she had been. She refocused and he snatched her book from her hands, not roughly but enough to grab her attention. He nudged her chair to make her face him fully again and she shot up from her seat to grab her text back only to have him push her back.

“What’s your problem? I’m doing what you told me to do.” She growled, trying to keep her tears in check and avoid looking at him directly. He told her he was trying to talk to her, requesting she stop shutting him out. “Why? Isn’t that exactly what you do to me?” She shot back, trying to make her voice loud and stern like she felt but there was a part of her that feared fighting with him at all.

She forced her gaze up to meet his own when he asked her what the hell she meant, why it was such a big deal that he didn’t let her tag along with him to the grocery store. “It has nothing to do with where you were going. It isn’t anything like that… I can’t believe you really have to ask me all this.” She shook her head, feeling like maybe he would never grasp how she felt and consider it for a second or two.

“You treat me like—like I’m some fragile little flower that constantly needs your protection, that needs your okay. I can’t be sheltered my whole life. I—I feel like you are always second guessing me one way or another.” The brunette mumbled, wiping her eye with her sleeve before continuing. “Why can’t I just go with you? You think I’m going to get out of the bunker and just use my abilities. I’m not stupid Dean and sometimes I think you think I am… I know all of the terms and conditions and I’m trying really hard.” She sobbed in frustration with him, tucking her hands in her lap and feeling silly for even crying like she was.

“You say that we’re all equal here, you tell me I’m one of the team but all you do is want to keep me here. Isn’t that how you and Sammy learned? By going out, by trying to hunt these things and learning as you went?” Aleah shook her head, sniffling and taking a moment or two to gather herself. “I just want you to trust me… And our life together can’t just be about sleeping together and fooling around. I’m in this fight with you all the way, Dean because—“ She started swallowing hard and biting back those words because maybe he didn’t deserve to hear them just yet.

Aleah fidgeted, picking at one of the buttons on Dean’s flannel shirt she still wore, “I wanted to spend time with you today. I want to be involved, I want whatever domestic part of this relationship that we can get… because let’s face it our lives are screwed.” She laughed, “And you make mine a hell of a lot better somehow. I just want to be with you, Dean but I really need you to have some faith in me and know that I can get things done on my own without you giving me orders.” 

Dean stood before her with his arms crossed over his chest, listening to her words and hating that he was the reason she was so upset right now. Some of the things she said reminded him a bit of the issues he and Sammy had over the years, he knew he could trust his brother to hold his own but it had been so driven into him to protect him that he'd been unable or at least unwilling to step back and see him as his partner, not his kid brother that needed him to fight his battles.

She seemed to get everything that she wanted to say out, sitting stiffly in her chair, her delicate shoulders shaking with the sobs she was resolutely holding in. Dean sighed and slowly sunk down into a crouch before her, resting one elbow on his knee and reaching out to gently rest his opposite hand on her thigh. He looked down at the floor and tried to gather his thoughts, pushing back the genuine fear he felt at the thought of admitting was he was about to.

Dean looked up and met her watery gaze, squeezing her leg reassuringly. "Okay. Okay, you're right. You're working really hard, made some good calls and I haven't been treating you like a real member of the team when you've earned that right. You know... My old man, pretty much the only way he knew how to talk to me was by giving me orders. He pushed me hard, but I was never good enough." Dean's voice cracked ever so slightly and he cleared his throat before continuing.

"I realize now that the reason he was so hard on me was because he wanted me to be strong. Strong enough to protect Sammy. That's... That's all I really know. I've been trying to ease up, he can tell you that I'm still not very good at treating him like a partner. An equal. I'm going to work on doing the same with you." The hunter took a deep breath, not wanting to continue speaking but knowing he needed to do it.

"I know I haven't been fair to you, but I- Just the thought of losing you it's..." He stammered, looking down again unable to meet her gaze because he knew he had no right to feel so strongly about this woman. She was better off without him, but he couldn't let her go now. Not ever. "I can't lose you, Aleah. I'm going to try and ease up, let you get some notches in your belt but just know that the reason I'm being so over protective of you... It's not because I think you're stupid, or because I don't trust you." He still didn't dare to raise his head and look her in the eye.

"It's because I can stand the thought of something happening to you. Because I love you." He finished roughly, his grip on her tightening as he forced himself to hold back the emotions threatening to swallow him up. 

Aleah watched him through her tear filled eyes, biting her lip in anticipation for him to get angry or fight back but he didn’t. He knelt to her level and put his hand on her leg, admitting something she wouldn’t have ever thought to hear from Dean Winchester, that he was wrong and someone else was right, namely her. She glanced up at him as he spoke about his dad, knowing that had to have been in part the reason he was riding her like he had been.

She did know he was trying, that he had been trying to let Sammy do his own thing and his brother had mentioned many times before that he and Dean butted heads more than a few hundred times. She nodded when he promised to do the same for her, work to treat her like a partner, an asset and not a burden like she sometimes felt. She waited, listening quietly to what he had to say and waiting for him to finish.

His words struck her deep when he admitted he couldn’t stand the thought of losing her or watching her get hurt. She chewed her lip, clutching her hand over his and thinking she might know what he was meaning behind his words. Her blue eyes went wide at his last proclamation, something she didn’t ever think he would actually say to her. “You—You what?” She questioned, thinking maybe she had made that up in her head, that maybe the words hadn’t really just flooded out of his mouth.

He didn’t repeat them, telling her she had heard him with the use of her nickname and she smiled, the tears welled in her eyes finally spilling over but for a different reason than they had formed originally. She reached up and cupped his face, tugging him forward and pressing her lips to his in a slow deep kiss. She broke away from him panting for breath and gently carded her fingers through his short hair, “I love you too, Dean.” She returned, meeting his green gaze and hearing him voice his approval.

Without even noticing the motion much she had pushed herself off her chair, kissing him again and feeling his hands keeping a firm hold on her hips. He guided her in part until she was positioned in his lap, her legs wrapped around his frame, sitting together, wrapped with one another. Her arms slid around his neck, keeping him close as he ravished her mouth with his only his assault was slow, full of affection and need for her just like hers was for him.

She instinctively started to grind her center down against him, feeling the form of his arousal in his jeans and he chuckled as he broke away from her. “What?” She questioned and he shook his head, teasing her for having just said that she didn’t think their relationship was all about sex when she was the one climbing him at the moment. Aleah rolled her eyes, “Shut up or you’re on your own, Lancelot.” She teased, pecking him again and slowly their bodies tumbled back to the floor with her above him.

She giggled at the sudden growl that came from Dean as he rotated their bodies, laying her down like she was delicate and staring at her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. She bit her lip and coaxed his body to settle over hers, pressing her down into the plush rug that lay beneath the desk and chair in which she previously sat. “Come here.” She encouraged, pulling him in for another kiss as her hands worked off his shirt and his jeans soon to follow.

It wasn’t long before he had her out of all but her panties, his attention on her full breasts as he ground down against her. “Mmm… Dean please, I need you.” She moaned lightly, her finger nails grazing his scalp, her eyes closed as she enjoyed his mouth on her sensitive flesh. 

Dean smiled against her soft skin at her words, leaning off to the left and rummaging in his pile of rumpled clothes beside him, snatching his wallet from his back pocket. He flipped the leather billfold open and extracted the condom he had placed there only a couple hours ago, smirking a bit to himself that he was already using it. He tore the foil open with his teeth and he heard Aleah cluck her tongue at him. She chided him for teasing her about having a one track mind when it came to sex when he was the one who was keeping a condom on his person at all times.

Dean chuckled as he rolled the condom on, shrugging his broad shoulders a bit before tugging her lacy panties off her hips and admiring the sight of her bare and open before him. She smiled and reached out for him, he craned down over her again and placed a light kiss on her lips. "Okay I admit I might think about having sex with you a lot... But can you blame me?" He teased, tipping his head down to kiss and nip at her throat, pressing his tip against her slick entrance just enough to make her moan impatiently.

The hunter pushed into her tight core with a growl, slipping one arm beneath her head to cushion her and using his free hand to roam over her curves. As he looked into her bright eyes he realized this was different now, it was always going to be different for them now that they had said those three little words out loud. He felt more tuned in to her, enjoyed the sensation of being joined with her to a deeper extent, like the act had more meaning. He realized to his own surprise that he had been craving this feeling, even more than wanting to make her lose her mind with pleasure the hunter wanted Aleah to understand that she made him feel more whole when they were together.

The realization hit him hard, he wasn't used to feeling like an actual human being. Dean swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and leaned down to kiss his lover again and again, deep and desperate contact that spoke more eloquently than his voice ever could. He moved within her body faster and faster, relishing the feeling of her wrapping all her limbs around him. She seemed to want to erase the line where she ended and he began, digging her nails into his flesh and pressing her legs into his sides and back, holding him as close as possible and whimpering brokenly as her pleasure mounted.

He drove into her hard and deep, coming with a whispered curse as her walls clenched around him in ecstasy. He drew her climax out as long as he could, slumping against her and sighing raggedly as he came down from his high. Dean lifted his head and kissed Aleah's parted lips, not missing the way her blue eyes had gone glassy with pleasure. Maybe he had made her come harder and longer before, but he could tell this time had been different for her as well.

"You okay Princess?" He asked with a crooked grin, easing up off of her for a moment to discard his full condom in the little wastebasket by the couch. He bent and scooped the brunette off the rug, her body still flushed and boneless in his arms. He carried her over to the couch and set her on it gently, pecking her lips and telling her to wait for him a moment in a hushed tone.

The hunter pulled on his jeans not bothering with anything else, quickly jogging back to his room to retrieve the small convenience store bag he'd left on his dresser. When he returned Aleah had stirred enough to tug on his black t-shirt and her panties, probably didn't want to take the chance of Sam or Cas stumbling upon her in the common area naked as a jaybird. Dean padded back over to the couch where she was lying on her side, sitting next to her when she hauled herself up to make room for him.

She asked him what he had, eyeing the bag and he grinned sheepishly. "Here." He said simply, handing her the sack, hoping she'd like the small gift he'd gotten for her. "It's nothing fancy, but I know you like all that accessory stuff, so. Yeah." He finished in a halting voice, waiting for her to open it. 

Aleah smiled at his questioned about her well-being, letting him up enough to throw out his protection. She managed a little nod but no words escaped her lips, hoping that he understood it was because of how he made her feel that she was at such a loss right now. She giggled when he picked her up and hauled her back to the couch completely bare thinking in the back of her mind that he probably was hoping for round two. She was about to ask him what he was up to when he kissed her sweetly and requested for her to wait on the couch.

She did as he asked only getting up to pull on her lacy pink panties and Dean’s black shirt that was far too big on her but his lingering warmth was something she couldn’t pass up and she would rather have the remainder of the bunker find her naked on the couch anyhow. The brunette laid down, waiting for her lovers return, glancing up when she heard the sound of his feet hitting the floor as he jogged back to her. She sat up to make room for him, “What did you get?” She questioned, looking at the bag in his hand.

Aleah sat up fully, her frame close to Dean’s own, leaning into him and waiting for him to show her what goods he got. She stared at him for a second when he handed the bag her way, gently taking it from his fingers. “Well yea but I thought you wanted me to cut back on all the ‘girly crap’.” She pointed out teasingly, knowing that’s not at all what he meant by it. She tucked her hair behind her ear and rifled into the knotted up baggie, seeing him staring at her and expecting some form of reaction towards whatever it was.

Her lips curled up into a wide grin, a pair of angel wing hair pins, the shiny material catching the low light of the room. She traced her thumb over the top of one, the accessory had many different meanings to her. Dean cleared his throat and started to say again that they weren’t a big deal or anything but she cut him off with her own voice. “They’re perfect. Dean I love them, thank you.” She insisted, reaching and squeezing his hand in her own. She rotated her body enough to press another kiss to his lips, her tongue flicking out to lightly brush his before she pulled away.

Aleah cupped his face in her free hand, her eyes watering a little and he asked her what was wrong. She shook her head, “It’s silly but it’s really nice to know that you thought of me…” She confessed and Dean pulled her chin up by his hooked finger, telling her that he always thought of her, every damn second of every day. They kissed once more sweetly, “You might not think you’re perfect, Dean or that you’re worth any of it but… to me you are. Really.” She muttered up to him, thanking him again as she pulled away. She brushed her fingers through her hair and slid the pins off their holster and into her medium length brown hair, pinning back the sides and turning her head from side to side for him to see.

Dean chuckled and muttered his approval, fixing one to make it lay straight and she smiled, moving over to wrap her arms around him and lie against his broad chest. She sighed contentedly, snuggling into him and feeling drowsy when she felt her lovers arm hook back around her legs, rotating their bodies and he lifted her up easily off the sofa making her laugh as he hauled her back towards his room. “Dean.” She mumbled, patting his chest and shifting in his arms when they were in his doorway. He stopped and asked her what was wrong. “Well if this is going to become a thing where I stay in here, I… feel bad for leaving Manny alone all the time.”

The hunter shook his head, saying the furball wasn’t going to step foot in his room again and she started to climb down from his grasp. He asked what she was doing, “Then I’m going to stay with Manny. I know he’s just a cat to you but he’s been there for me in Chicago and now here.” She wriggled to get away from him and Dean groaned, holding her tighter and taking her over to his mattress, gently setting her down and telling her to wait here again while he went and got the cat. She smiled with satisfaction, resting into his pillow and slipping her legs under the covers.

When Dean came back he had a wad of their balled up clothes in one hand and Manny purring sleepily in the other, tucked into his side. Aleah laughed, clicking her tongue to get the cat’s attention, his eyes went wide and he mewed a response, leaping from the man’s hands and darting up onto the mattress with her. She pet him behind the ears and down his back until he rested, looking up at her lover and shifting over so he could join them in bed. “He’s good, I promise.” She grinned as Dean changed to be in only his briefs, mumbling something about sleeping with fuzz in his face all night.

Manny’s eyes opened at the movement, getting up and crawling over to Dean when he put his arms around Aleah’s frame. The feline nudged at his hand to get him to pet him too, “You know animals are the best judges of character. He must see something in you… he’s always trying to sneak in here to see you.” She murmured, watching Dean as he caved and started gently massaging Manny’s head. Aleah smiled, leaning over to pull her lover in for a kiss, “Thank you for everything, Dean. The pins, watching out for me, and all that…” She whispered up to him, nuzzling in closer.

She sighed, breathing in his scent and her eyes falling closed as he kissed the top of her head, her hand tracing gently over his chest, liking lying mostly skin to skin together. “Good night, love.” 

It was probably the most restful sleep Dean had ever gotten, lying curved around his girlfriend and even the additional presence of her quietly purring feline did nothing to disturb him like he had previously insisted it would.

The next day the motley crew got ready for their road trip to Montana, Castiel wanted to go on ahead of them, but to the brothers' amusement Aleah insisted on her uncle joining them for the road trip, at least for one day then he could go scout ahead. He relented and piled into the back seat with her, Sam tried to make Aleah sit up front but she told him with his long legs he needed the space up front.

The group got on the highway and drove till late afternoon, pulling off on a small exit to stretch their legs and get some gas and lunch. Sam climbed out of the Impala and twisted his spine to loosen up his back muscles, grinning at the way Castiel was trying to process the feeling of his vessel being stiff after being stuck in the car for hours.

Aleah seemed to be unaffected, apparently she was so pleased to be out of the bunker the long ride wasn't getting to her as quick. She took Dean's hand and pointed across the road from the gas station, asking if they could have lunch at the little pizzeria on the corner. Sam chuckled when Dean agreed and the petite brunette stood on her toes to kiss him happily.

Dean seemed to sense his brother's eyes on them and gave him a dirty look. "What're you lookin' at?" He asked defensively, trying to look mad but chuckling a little bit as he watched his girlfriend tug her unwilling 'uncle' across the road towards the little restaurant.

"Oh nothing. Just seems like you and Al are doing pretty well." Sam commented as he bent to take a few empty cups and wrappers from their breakfast burritos earlier out of the car to pitch.

"Yeah. I think we are. I love her, Sam." Dean said quietly, uncharacteristically serious for a moment. Sam nodded, he had suspected it for awhile now but he was pleased to actually hear his brother voice it.

"You're good together. You really are. Don't screw it up." Sam responded, making both of them laugh. Dean nodded, mentioning he'd already screwed up a few times and likely would continue to do so. "You're a lucky bastard Dean." He added, waiting for Dean to finish pumping the gas and driving across the street to meet up with their other companions inside the little Italian eatery.

Dean laughed when he saw Aleah and Castiel at a booth towards the back, the brunette looking over a menu and pointing items out to the man beside her who was struggling to stay engaged. He felt bad for his friend, Cas cared about all of them and wanted to fit in, but things like driving across country seemed to wear on him when he knew he could travel anywhere the world over in a blink of an eye. Still, if he wanted to be one of them he'd have to forgive them for being merely human, or half-human in Aleah's case. 

Aleah wasn’t sure exactly how long they had been in the car but she didn’t care much, she was enjoying the ‘family’ time with the boys even though Castiel seemed none too pleased with the idea of having to travel by car when he could simply manifest wherever he pleased. She was determined to make him enjoy the road as much as she was, asking Dean if they could eat at the pizza place on the edge of the block. She kissed him when he agreed, tugging her uncle by the arm and pulling him with her past the Impala.

She looked both ways, talking to him about nothing in particular and maybe her bubbliness today was also in part because of the evening she had with Dean, the tiny angel wing pins in her hair a reminder as to everything that happened between them. The half angel led the other into the joint and back towards a booth in the back that would fit all four of them. She grinned when she saw the boys coming up to the table to join them, sitting close to Castiel and reading the menu to him. “I think Sammy will want the veggie pizza so maybe he and I will share that and you and Dean… He’ll want all meat.” She muttered even if he wasn’t paying much attention to her.

Castiel looked more than a little uncomfortable, trying to shift out of her space despite his forced smile as he nodded in agreement. Dean slid in before Sam, giving the brunette a smile as he took his seat, “Ordered you a coke, Dean and Sammy, tea.” She stated over her menu and both boys nodded their approval. A waitress came over, taking their order and while they waited Aleah decided she wanted to play a few of the arcade games, asking Sam for a quarter and nudging Cas to come with her but he claimed he had no interest. “Wow some road trip buds you are.” She sighed, snatching the couple dollars from Sam’s hand and padding over to the change machine for quarters.

Aleah retrieved her change and took on one of the pinball machines, spending a few minutes playing when she felt arms around her waist and lips on her exposed throat, her hair tied in a braid over her shoulder. She smiled, “You’re not making the game any easier.” She teased her lover, hearing him chuckle behind her. “Thought games were for kids?” She questioned him, laughing when he responded that he was lured over by her hip hugging jeans. She elbowed him lightly, “Stop, you’re making me miss the ball.”

Dean laughed and eased up but still he lingered in her space, watching her play and she enjoyed the quiet company, the normalcy of their surroundings until he challenged her to a pinball battle. “Oh you’re just begging for me to kick your ass, Winchester.” She stated, turning around to face him, “I should warn you I’m a pinball champ as a matter of fact. Don’t underestimate me.” She warned, taking another coin from her pocket and stuffing it in the machine that rebooted, lights flashing and her last score showing on the tiny screen.

Aleah nearly doubled her previous score, smirking to herself as she shot off her last ball, pressing the buttons on the side like mad until she finally ended her game. She pointed proudly to her number and slapped a coin in Dean’s hand, “Beat that, baby.” She purred, switching places with him and letting him start up his own game, watching him play for a moment or two before she put her arms around him in the same fashion he had before, tracing his toned sides and abdomen, humming her approval when she smacked his ass and made him flinch. He scolded her for it and she grinned, standing on her toes to take the shell of his ear between her teeth, nipping him lightly and hearing him groan but still he fought her off with a wave of his hand and somehow managed to beat her high score.

Dean laughed proudly at his accomplishment and faced her, asking what his prize was. “Satisfaction of the game.” She quipped, laughing when he grabbed her and squished her to him, stealing a kiss and she grinned at him, handing over the last of her quarters, “Fine you win another game.” She stated as Sam came to find them, telling them their pizza was out. “Awww one more game Sammy.” She whined playfully, making him arch a brow at her and shake his head as he turned back to head to their booth.

“Come on big guy, save the quarter for a rainy day. Invest it.” She smiled, lacing her fingers with his and letting him lead her back to the table where Castiel was awkwardly staring at his slice of pizza. He wasn’t one to eat really consistently and with the stress of having to drive not zap himself everywhere, it seemed to be getting to him. Aleah dropped hold of Dean’s hand and pushed back into her spot beside her uncle, grabbing his attention and she smiled at him, taking a slice of her own and enjoying her time with the boys before they had to get back on the road. 

The group stopped late at night for a few hours of sleep a little less than two thirds of the way to their destination. Castiel had held out as long as he could, mostly to humor Aleah but by the evening the angel had seemed to relax a bit. He left them in the hotel parking lot, saying he would go to the mill and find the alpha if he could, then report back first thing in the morning and travel with them the remaining distance.

Sam and Dean carried their overnight bags in, getting a room with two queens for cost's sake. The younger Winchester set his laptop and duffle on his bed and went into the bathroom to get cleaned up, tired after his driving shift. When he came back out dressed for bed he scoffed as he interrupted Dean and Aleah clinging to each other standing at the foot of their bed practically sucking each other's faces off.

"Is having one room going to be a... Problem?" Sam asked in a pained tone of voice, secretly amused by how deeply Aleah was blushing. Dean cleared his throat and grabbed his small toiletry kit to go and get cleaned up himself, shaking his head as he crossed the room.

"Nope. Won't be a problem at all as long as her highness can keep her hands to herself." Dean teased, chuckling at his girlfriend's exasperated outburst that she was fine it was himwho wasn't trustworthy. Sam rolled his eyes and sat on his mattress, pulling up his computer to get a little more work in before bed. He knew how hard it was especially at the beginning of a relationship to keep things from boiling over, but still they had to share a room for heaven's sake.

An hour or so later the lights were out and the three companions were trying to sleep. Well, Sam was trying to sleep anyway. Dean was far too busy being distracted by the woman lying next to him, in nothing but a little tank top and short sleep shorts and her soft warm body pressed against him. His hand kept wandering over her curves and she was only half-heartedly dissuading him. She knew they had to behave with Sam only a few feet away but it was obvious by her shallow breath and delayed rebuttals of his touch that she wanted him just as bad as he did her.

The short haired hunter grinned as he cupped and fondled Aleah's full breast, tweaking her stiffened nipple and feeling her twitch in response and her sharp intake of breath as she bit her lip to keep from gasping aloud. She nudged his chest with her elbow but it didn't stop him from gripping her tighter and grinding his growing arousal against her firm rear. "I want you..." Dean whispered so softly in her ear that it was barely discernible from an exhalation of breath, and Aleah shivered, arching back against him under the covers, echoing his sentiment.

"Put your training to use, Princess. Is the room across the hall empty? Or the one below us?" Dean asked in a hushed playful tone, kissing at her neck as she giggled when she comprehended just what he was suggesting. 

Aleah pushed at Dean again, her eyes darting over to Sam who was sleeping with his back facing their bed while she tried to keep her boyfriend off of her. “Dean…” She moaned quietly, knowing they needed to be good but the more his hands groped her the harder it was to keep her control. And he knew full well her resolve was starting to fade and fast, grinding her rear back against his growing arousal. He muttered in her ear and she returned the statement in a hushed tone.

She closed her eyes when he questioned if there were empty rooms around them, preferring one that might be a little further away. Both rooms beside them were occupied, she could hear the steady snoring of the man across the hall as though it was right in her ear, still feeling Dean’s lips on her skin. “Baby you’re distracting me…” She breathed and he chuckled, saying he was helping her by adding other aspects that she might have to work through. Internally she rolled her eyes at him, refocusing and feeling the emptiness of the room just to the left across the hall. “Winner, winner chicken dinner. Come on.” She giggled, pulling out of his arms and padding barefoot around the edge of their bed.

Dean smirked at her, taking her hand and letting her lead the way out of the room with her shushing him as he growled at the door. For wanting to avoid waking Sam, he wasn’t trying too hard. She pulled opened their motel room door, shivering at the change in the air even in the hallway of the motel. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and handed it to dean, taking out the elastic from her hair and running her fingers through it. “Here. Get to work.” She instructed but he pushed it away, telling her if she wanted any she would get the door opened. “Are you kidding me? That wasn’t in the contract. You’re the lock picking expert.” She murmured, still trying to keep quiet and he shook his head, despite being able to see in his sweats that he was more than a little turned on.

Aleah made a noise of disappointment, hunching down and feeling her lover standing behind her, kissing her neck and shoulder and muttering words of encouragement. She fidgeted with it and when she dropped the pin for the second time she sighed in defeat, “Dean I can’t. I’ve only done it with your lock pick before.” She stated and he assured her that she could and he was determined to have her do it on her own. He leaned over her and told her the things he was going to do to her if they made it inside and she shuttered, feeling weak in the knees at the thought alone. She pushed the pin back in and heard the satisfying click of it unlatching as she turned the handle.

The half angel smirked, taking her lover by the hands and pulling him inside. He followed obediently and they barely made it inside the door before Dean pinned her against the wall just near the entrance. She had gotten a lot more comfortable with their activities, her hand snaking down between their bodies, stroking him through the barriers of clothes and humming pleasingly. “Now I think you owe me for finding us an escape, don’t you?” She purred, arching into him as his hands pulled her top up and off her, his palms sliding over her full chest. She carded her nails through his hair, guiding him to her pert nipple and moaning as he took one between his teeth, his free hand sliding down her side and pushing beneath the fabric of her bottoms, gripping her bare ass firmly.

“Dean…” She gasped, pulling his head up and seeing the darkness in his eyes as he asked her if everything was okay. She nodded, nervously biting her lip, “Just… for a change maybe… you could take me here?” She requested shyly, “Not that I’m opposed to other surfaces.” She admitted. 

Dean's brows quirked with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction at his girlfriend's shy request. Her flush was equally adorable and sexy, and it turned him on beyond belief to know that she had thoughts of him taking her against the wall. He gave her ass a firm squeeze and nodding before kissing her hungrily.

"Right here huh?" Dean pressed her more firmly against the wall. "You want me to push you against this wall... And make you lose your mind baby?" Dean muttered, punctuating every couple words with a deep kiss. Aleah whimpered in response, wrapping her leg up around his hip and rocking her center against the bulge in his sweats. He ground against her firmly, stimulating her clit through the barrier of clothes between them and groaning as she nipped and sucked at his corded neck. 

Dean captured her lips with his again, pushing her shorts and panties down off her hips and sliding his hand between her legs to stroke her slick entrance and use her nectar to swirl around her clit in rapid circles. Aleah's head tipped back against the wall and she panted roughly as he drove her closer to her peak, his mouth wandering up and down her neck and down to her breasts to sample her sensitive flesh once more. He dipped his middle and ring fingers inside her, pumping in and out of her core and continuing to flick over her clit with his thumb till his hand was soaked with her juices and her ragged breathing had turned into loud moans.

Her hands carded through his hair and she pleaded with him to be inside her, so the hunter withdrew his hand and extracted the condom he'd pocketed, quickly shedding his sweat pants and rolling the protection on while still nipping at her throat and chest. Dean dragged Aleah's leg up to hook on his hip and she followed his prompting with her other leg naturally, locking around him and crying out as he forcefully joined their bodies.

The hunter gripped his lover tight, bracing her against the wall and thrusting up into her hard and fast, not letting her catch her breath from the initial sensation of their bodies merging at the new angle. He groaned roughly as her walls clenched around his throbbing length, drawing him deeper inside her and he kissed her roughly to muffle her loud cries of pleasure somewhat. He felt her coming hard around him, not letting up on his pace and readjusting his grip on her so he could pull her away from the wall. He held her in midair and slammed her down onto him, his muscles flexing and his skin getting damp with sweat.

The brunette clung to him for dear life, her eyes rolling back in her head and her voice cracking as he carried her through another bone melting orgasm, finally succumbing himself on the crest of her second wave. She sighed and slackened against his taut frame, her lips ghosting over his neck and shoulder as she struggled to keep ahold of him. Dean carried her over to the bed in the unused room and set her gently down, disposing of his used protection. He knelt heavily on the mattress and flopped down onto his back beside her, taking deep ragged breaths as he recovered from their lovemaking. 

Aleah cried out brokenly on the crest of her second orgasm, her back leaving the support of the wall and instead Dean took on all her weight, guiding her down onto him and thrusting roughly up into her heat. She came hard around him once more and her lips trailed over his bare skin, shaking in his arms as he hauled her back towards the freshly made bed. He slipped from her body and she groaned at the loss of him inside her body, giggling breathlessly as she ran a hand through her sweat dampened hair, hearing his ragged breathing beside her.

Her head lulled to one side, looking up at him with a satisfied smile. “The wall… definitely a new favorite.” She chuckled, rolling over at his prompting to wrap herself around his larger frame. “I don’t think I realized how strong you are… so you know that might mean me, having you carry me more often.” She teased lightly, kissing him and laying half sprawled over him, their legs entangled together.

They lay together for a while before Aleah spoke up while Dean was rubbing her back and putting her to sleep. “We shouldn’t stay here… Sam will wonder where we are…” She muttered, groaning lightly as he started to rub the back of her neck with his strong hand. “Baby… I’m serious we can’t be in here.” She argued and he hummed in response making her laugh at him.

It was another twenty minutes or so before she managed to convince her lover they needed to make a hasty exit and go back to the room they actually paid for. Dean stood and pulled his clothes back on, eyeing her and making a noise of disappointment when she pulled her shirt back on, booing for ending the show. She reached over and smacked his chest, “Later. We get this whole werewolf business dealt with and maybe on the trip home I’ll put on an ending act, huh?” She played, kissing him sweetly and starting to deepen the contact.

Aleah grinned against his lips and took his hands from her waist, pushing away from him and heading back to their quarters, pushing the door back opened and as far as she could tell Sam hadn’t been privy to their departure. They slept the rest of the late evening and into the morning in their queen sized bed together, Dean spooned up against her back, their bodies neatly tucked together for comfort and she jolted at the sound of Sam’s voice waking them up, telling them they had to get a move on to meet Cas. Dean grumbled a tired curse and Sam rolled his eyes, staring at Dean and making a comment about how if they had gone to bed when they said they actually were, they wouldn’t be quite so drained to which Dean responded that Sam was lucky he even managed to draw Aleah out of this room, ready to pin her down even in his presence.

The half angel flushed red, “Oh my God.” She muttered, getting out of bed and crossing her arms over her chest self consciously, “Sorry Sammy…” She whispered, ducking inside of the bathroom to get herself cleaned up and ready for the day. She was pleased when she came back out to Dean alone, breathing a sigh of relief and quickly chucking her wet towel at her lovers face. “Can you not talk about our sex life with your brother? It’s… weird.” She blushed again, shaking her head and her lips curled up when Dean apologized and said he couldn’t help but brag when he was banging someone like her.

“Well at least try not to spread it around to everyone okay?” She teased, turning around and smiling at him fully. “Where’s Sam anyways?” She questioned, nodding when Dean said he went to get them some real coffee and something for breakfast. “You trusted him to get you something you would actually consider eating?” The brunette laughed, taking her towel back from Dean and finishing drying her hair with it instead. Dean contemplated what she said and didn’t seem to have considered that he might not get him something appetizing to eat.

It was no surprise when Dean was disappointed that Sam came back with plain bagels and black coffee, the older hunter whining about how unless he could slap some peanut butter on this thing he couldn’t even consider forcing it down. Aleah rolled her eyes once more, thanking Sam for making the run so they could both get ready, kissing the taller hunters cheek when he hunched for her to do so. “I’ll gladly eat Dean’s bagel if he won’t. We can split it.” She decided, winking at him and holding the bag out which she already knew that because she was threatening to take his snack away, Dean would change his mind and decide that something was better than nothing.

The trio climbed back into the car and it was no surprise when Dean climbed into the front seat. Aleah let them go for a little before she leaned over into the front cab of the Impala, “You know maybe next trip you’ll let me take the wheel, hmm? Take ‘baby’ for a little joy ride?” She suggested, arching a brow at her lover. 

Sam laughed at Aleah's request, craning his head back to meet her gaze in the back seat. "Yeah. Good luck with that. He hardly even let's me drive his 'baby' even when he's falling asleep at the wheel." Sam shrugged at the brunette's pout, knowing she'd have to do a lot more than that to convince Dean to let her behind wheel.

Dean glanced at his girlfriend in the rear view mirror and smirked at her, shaking his head and patting the steering wheel of his most prized possession. "Sorry Princess... How I feel about letting other people drive Baby is like... How I would feel about another guy sleeping with my woman. I'm the only man for the job." He teased with a little wink to her in the glass, laughing at her sputter of mock disgust at his analogy. 

Sam laughed as well, looking from Aleah to Dean. He was truly happy for his brother, and the woman he had come to think of as his younger sister. They obviously wouldn't always have smooth sailing in their relationship but he could see how deeply they had fallen for each other in such a short time. The younger Winchester absently wondered if he'd ever be lucky enough to find someone, have a bond like what Dean and Aleah shared. It was certainly more than he deserved, so for now he would just content himself with being happy for them and doing anything and everything to keep them safe.

\---  
They arrived in the nearly abandoned town in rural Montana several hours later. The bleak and vacant landscape seemed to match the weary emptiness of what had once been a prosperous little working-class community. The main street through town was mostly lined with abandoned buildings, shops with boarded up windows and cracked sidewalks. There was still a working gas station and a sleezy looking bar, but not much else. The nearest town of any reasonable size was over an hour away, and it was barely had a thousand people.

Dean leaned against the Impala as he filled up her tank, bowing his head and subtly praying to Cas to call him to their location. In a heartbeat the trench-coated angel manifested on the other side of the vehicle, striding around it to inform his friend that he had searched the mill site and found the alpha's resting place.

Sam and Aleah hurried over from the gas station where they'd been getting some bottled water and a few other supplies for 'borrowing' one of the abandoned houses they'd passed on the edge of town, a concept that didn't sound very appealing to Aleah but the long haired hunter had informed her that squatting was something they had done on many occasions so she shouldn't be surprised if it happened again.

Cas told them all that he had found the wolf in a steel trough under the rubble of the old mill. It was impossible to access the small chamber that the debris fallen around it had created without him teleporting them in and out.

Dean nodded after Castiel finished giving them his intel, replacing the gas handle in it's slot and wiping his hands on his jeans. "All right, it's almost dark. What time is it in England?" Dean asked, looking at Sam expecting him to just know the answer off the top of his head.

The younger Winchester didn't disappoint, immediately responding that since it was 9:30 at night here it'd be 4:30 in the morning in London. Dean looked back at Cas and put a hand on his shoulder. "All right it'll take us about fifteen to drive out to the mill. Think you can poof across the pond, grab the... Werewolf spear and get back here in that time?" The hunter asked, giving his girlfriend a crooked grin at the mention of her idea for the most likely weapon that could be effective in killing the beast they might be about to awaken. 

Aleah kept her smile up towards Dean, expecting him to cave since it was her. She pouted when Sam gave her the news that it’d likely never happen, rolling her eyes when her lover caressed the steering wheel of his beloved car. He defended his reasoning that the impala was his and only his just like Aleah. “Dean!” She gasped, flushing red at his words, she knew Sam wasn’t stupid, he knew what they did but having Dean bring it up was another thing. She sat back and gave up, crossing her arms over her chest, realizing that she would get nowhere with getting to drive.

\---

“I don’t see why we can’t find another motel and just drive to the mill… why do we have to… squat?” The half angel whispered to Sam, carrying a couple of the bags out to the Impala for all of them. Sam seemed to find her distaste for the idea of squatting in an abandoned home in a nearly vacant town, rather amusing.

Castiel appeared at the front of the Imapla, taking the risk considering this place was virtually emptied of any living soul other than the mixed family of hunters and half breeds. “I found the wolf though it is half buried by rubble… You will not be able to get in and out without my assistance. I will have to take us inside… if this is going to work. I am uncertain of how many of us will fit in the small vicinity.” He told the others.

“I can. I will be waiting for you to arrive.” Castiel said and with that he vanished, straight to the location of the crown jewels. Aleah looked at them uncertainly, she thought or rather she hoped that Cas could make it in that time, so long as he didn’t run into any complications along the way.

“You think we’ll be done in time to return the thing before they open up? Unbloody and all that?” She questioned apprehensively and Dean wandered over, nudging her gently telling her to have a little faith in the self proclaimed ‘best hunters around.’ She rolled her blue eyes again, “I do, I’m just thinking ahead about all the possibilities… not to say he couldn’t hold on to it awhile and they’d never know who it was but if he’s seen on camera… or something that could change things. We don’t want it to catch up with us.” She pointed out.

Dean pushed at her hips to get her to the Impala again, pausing to capture her lips in a deep kiss when they got to the door, quieting her doubts. She hummed pleasingly until she heard Sam call out the window that they needed to get a move on to beat Cas there. Aleah blushed and broke away from Dean, ducking her head as she climbed into the back seat. Sam grinned at her none the less as she re-settled and Dean started up the car, tearing off out of the gas station.

If Dean knew what a speed limit was, their estimated time given to Cas would have been accurate but considering he didn’t, they made it in little under ten minutes without worry. Aleah glanced up and Castiel was standing stiffly outside the mill alone, hands at his side and for a moment she wondered if maybe he was unsuccessful but as they pulled up she could see the lump in his coat, making her laugh when he extracted it to give to Dean as soon as they pulled up. “Dean, my assumption is that you or Sam will be accompanying me.” The angel stated.

Aleah hurried around to them, taking the sparkling diamond from her lovers grasp and eyeing it in amazement, “What makes you assume that? I did all that friggin’ research with Sam I’m not letting it go to waste! Can Dean and I both go? Or Sam and I… either way. I mean I don’t wanna be the one to drive this thing through the wolf or anything but I can be good back up.” She encouraged, looking at Dean hopefully for him to agree with her. 

Dean's instincts still railed against willingly letting Aleah get right into the thick of the danger, but he recalled their conversation and knew he had to give her a chance. His gaze slid over to Sam, he also knew his brother had been stuck in the bunker for far too long, putting himself through hell for their sake and now he was itching for some action even if he wouldn't admit it.

The short haired hunter sighed. "Are you sure there's not enough room for all of us Cas?" He asked, glowering when the angel assured them that while the space would accommodate them all, it put them at more of a risk because they wouldn't have enough room to move freely and get out of the way should the Alpha reawaken like they feared he might.

It took everything Dean had to make this choice, but he bowed his head and growled, "All right. Take Sammy and Aleah in, but if Sam says to get her out, you do it and you bring me in. No hesitation. Got it?" He instructed, addressing the angel but giving Aleah a weighted look so she understood that she needed to trust Sam to make the call if he thought things were going sideways. The brunette nodded, seeming to realize all at once just how dangerous what they were about to do was. He stepped forward and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, "Got your angel blade? Silver bullets in your gun?" He asked. They had already checked and double checked their gear but he just wanted her to get her head in the game. Aleah nodded, taking her gun from the thigh holster he had given her to use and giving him a little smile despite her nerves.

"You're gonna do great. Just follow Sammy's lead." He kissed her brow, looking past her to his brother, "Watch out for her." He instructed, and the taller hunter nodded solemnly, he knew exactly how hard this was for Dean to let his lover do this. Dean crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Castiel moved to stand between Aleah and Sam, taking the woman's hand and letting the hunter grip his shoulder, and in the next heartbeat they vanished inside the heaping pile of rubble. Dean uttered a curse, scuffing his boot on the ground and trying to wait patiently.

It was dark and dank smelling inside the cavern created by the fallen debris of the mill, Sam shined his flashlight around, taking in every detail and feeling the hairs on the back of his neck and arms stand up from the various wards Bobby and Rufus had left in place around the fallen Alpha. Aleah turned her flashlight on him, asking him what they needed to do first. She asked him where the wolf was, commenting that her eyes felt itchy all the sudden.

"Well like Cas said their aren't any wards to keep us from physically approaching, Bobby would have known that could cause potential problems if this place was ever restored. That itching sensation is because they put up a shroud. A spell to keep something visible to the naked eye." Sam knew their old mentor's handiwork well, searching till he found the edge of the barrier that had been set up and used his knife to scrape away the thin line of quick dry cement that had been put down to protect the line of goat's blood beneath that kept the shroud up.

Aleah gasped when a long dusty steel trough suddenly came into view, a gnarled, dusty figure inside it. The alpha werewolf was frozen in a pose of eternal feral rage, half lunging from the trough with it's one whole arm outstretched ending in a wickedly sharp clawed hand bigger than their heads. It was completely coated in hardened metal, now dull and coated in dust but here and there a ribbon of silver shone through in the dim light of their flashlights. 

Sam slowly approached, scanning the creature and peering down into the trough, making a little noise of acknowledgement as he found what he was looking for. He gingerly reached into the trough and pulled out the heavy, severed opposite hand of the alpha, also coated in metal. Aleah and Cas came a few steps closer, and the brunette asked why Bobby had left something so valuable like the ring behind.

"Well he might have risked it if he'd known what it really was, but as far as Bobby knew at the time, there wasn't a much safer place than here to store a ring that can dispel any magic. The problem they had was, when they fought him and cut his hand off, they didn't have time to get the ring before they had to douse him in white hot molten steel. One little crack in the seal could be enough to set him free." He explained, turning the clawed hand over inspecting it closely.

Aleah seemed a bit skeptical, asking how that could be when his hand was severed from his body. Sam shook his head, continuing to look at the ring fused to the wolf's finger as he spoke, "You'd think that would make it harmless, but don't forget this is an alpha. He's been around since... Well almost forever. Even if we took this hand across the world and cut it's thumb off, the crack in the silver would still trigger a reaction here. The only way to make sure that didn't happen was to leave any pieces of him here, so if anybody did try to go after the ring, they'd have one nasty guard dog to deal with for their trouble." Sam straightened as much as he could, still having to hunch a bit in the low clearance of the void in the rubble.

Castiel approached, holding the diamond topped scepter and reaching for the wolf's hand. Sam and the angel performed a quick swap, the taller hunter holding the weapon at the ready towards the alpha's main body while the angel made ready to break off the the monster's thumb, snapping the metal would be no problem for his angelic strength and precision. Aleah held her flashlight on them, and Sam looked back to her, "Ready?" He asked, giving her a small smile. "It's possible his power's been depleted enough by now that nothing will happen." He tried to reassure her, but there was really know way to know until they cracked this bad egg open.

Aleah responded in the affirmative, holding up the light with one hand and keeping her gun ready at her side with the other. Castiel snapped the creature's thumb off it's dismembered hand, and a deep, otherworldly roar reverberated from the frozen lupine figure in the steel trough. Sam tensed, holding the spear at the ready and they all waited for a tense breath. Nothing happened, at least not at first, but suddenly the light from Sam and Aleah's flashlights flickered and went out.

"Cas..." Sam spoke in a tense tone, as a cracking sound started and little fissures of blood red light began to spread over the alpha's form. "Get her out. Now!" He barked the order, moving to stand between the wolf and Aleah just as the shell of metal exploded off the creature with a flash of red light and an even louder blood curdling roar.

Sam heard Aleah scream his name but then it went silent, Cas had done as he'd asked and taken her and the ring out of the cavern. The tall hunter winced at the half dozen wounds he'd sustained from the shrapnel off the creature, crying out in response as he lunged to drive the diamond spike into the foul creature's heart.

Dean was yelling for Cas the second he heard the first roar from inside the rubble, cursing himself for letting Aleah and his brother go in his place. Only a few seconds later Cas and Aleah suddenly materialized before him, the full angel falling to his knees the second they appeared. "Cas! What the hell-" Dean yelled, rushing over and cursing loudly as he saw the large piece of twisted smoking metal sticking out of his friend's abdomen. The angel yanked the piece out and coughed brokenly reaching up with two bloody fingers extended and not speaking. Dean understood that he didn't have time to talk, he was just going to teleport Dean in to help Sam while he still could.

He knelt and Cas touched his fingers to his brow, sending him inside the cavern. Dean didn't see his friend collapse the rest of the way to the ground, clutching his bleeding gut or hear Aleah crying as she gathered her uncle to rest his head in her lap. 

Dean flashed his light around the darkened chamber, coughing from the thick dust and smell of blood in the air. His beam of light finally found what he sought, and his blood turned to ice in his veins. Sam was lying on the ground, mostly covered by the massive form of the now dead Alpha, the diamond scepter jutting through the creature's body and poking out it's back.

"SAMMY!" Dean yelled, rushing over and using all his strength to roll the dead wolf off his brother, cursing brokenly as the motion pulled the creature's two inch long claws from where they'd been buried in Sam's abdomen. "Shit. Shit, Sammy, can you hear me? Don't you dare die on me you son of a bitch, not when we're this close to opening the gates..." Dean muttered, checking Sam's neck for a pulse and getting the a faint heartbeat. His mind reeled, Sammy was going to die in seconds if he didn't get healed, but Castiel was in more than rough shape himself. He knew the risks of Aleah using her powers out in the open, knew he'd told her not to do it under any circumstances, but...

"ALEAH!" Dean yelled, hoping she could hear him and pressing his hands to his brother's wounds trying to stem the bleeding. He needed her to do this, he'd hold off every last fallen angel that came running at the sign of her powers activating, a whole army if he had to. 

Aleah barely had time to really adjust to her surroundings and try to get herself to relax, gun at the ready so she could fire if Sam needed her to. Castiel stood somewhere behind her while Sam was posed and at the ready for him to break off the thumb. She fought the urge she had to close her eyes , peeking out in the same moment she heard the harsh roar of the alpha pocketed away. Her whole person tensed, her hand trembling as she held onto the flashlight for Sam to see but then it flickered out and she screamed at the sounds around her, barely managing to hear Sam call for Cas to take her out.

The casing holding the beast back shattered, “Sam!” She yelled, feeling her uncles hand on her and suddenly she was back out in the gravel lot where her lover stood waiting. Aleah’s breathing caught in her throat, trying her best to reholster her gun but her hands shook, bending down to do her best to catch Cas before he stumbled. Castiel stuck his hand up, halting her from grabbing him and instead, pressed his fingers to Dean, sending him in to check on Sam and aid him as he could.

“Castiel.” Aleah whispered as the full angel fell forward, she gasped, helping him lie back, her hand hovering around the fresh wound as his head fell in her lap. “You can’t go, Cas…” She sobbed, cupping his cheek with her blood stained fingers and seeing the light leaving his eyes.

“Don’t—“ Cas coughed, keeping her hand from the sight and making her focus on him. He knew what she had a mind to do, what she wanted to do, “You cannot fix me. I made a vow to Dean as he did to me, you are not to use your powers and certainly not on me.” He gasped, his body tense against her, staring at her and waiting for her to give her understanding.

Aleah nodded, “Can’t you do something? I—I can take us back to the bunker. It’s safe there and I can help.” She muttered through her tears, knowing that wasn’t exactly a good idea either. She couldn’t even imagine leaving Dean here. “What do you want me to do?” She asked, clinging to him as best she could to keep him in place and then she heard her lovers loud voice, enough that it traveled up for her to hear only to her it sounded right beside her head, like she had honed in on him unintentionally.

“Help, Dean.” Castiel instructed, pushing her hand away and shifting off her to slump against the wheel of the impala. Her blue eyes welled with tears fearing leaving him here but also fearing ignoring Dean when he needed her just as well. Aleah pushed up off the ground when she got Cas settled on his own, pressing her lips to his temple and promising she would be back.

Aleah vanished and reappeared at her lovers side, a broken sob tearing its way out of her throat when she saw Sam lying there, blood staining his shirt and only the light of Dean’s flashlight to tell her the story. “Sammy.” She cried, hoping that the sound of her voice would bring him to full wakefulness when she bent to the dirt floor. Dean’s hands caught her face on either side, making her look at him and telling her she had to heal him, just one more time, only for emergencies like they agreed and this was certainly one. “But Castiel… I left him. He could be dying too, Dean…” She whispered feeling guilty for not insisting on helping him as well.

Dean pleaded with her and it didn’t take much before she nodded and put a hand over Sam’s bloody abdomen, crying as she tried to focus. Her body shook and she felt like she might pass out or throw up or even both if given the chance. She pulled back when after nearly a moment of sitting there getting nothing she grew frustrated, “I can’t… Baby I can’t.” She caved and Dean’s hand forced hers back onto Sam telling her to focus, that Castiel had always come out okay, promising they would see him again. He didn’t seem to doubt any of it but the tears in his eyes when he begged once more for her to try told her he feared some of the same things she did.

Aleah took a shaky breath and focused on the task at hand, light illuminated from her hand in seconds and she heard the gasp of breath from what had grown to be a big brother to her. Sam shot up from the ground and looked almost confused by his surroundings, staring at Aleah who’s hand remained on his waist slipping further around his frame and forcing him into a hug. Sam was slow to hug her in return and he scolded her for doing what he told her not to, to waste her powers on him. “You’re not a waste Sam, we need you.” She admitted, smiling softly at him and getting to her feet, feeling a little light headed herself. This was the most she had used her powers alone and it wore on her more than she would have guessed, the brothers climbed up and Dean asked about the ring. “Cas must have it.” She stated, her lip trembling again and she took both boys hands, focusing all her attention on getting them to the Impala. It was strange teleporting others besides herself, like holding the weight of two people on your shoulders and it was no wonder Cas didn’t want her doing it even in the safety of the bunker.

The half angel stumbled, feeling Sam and Dean both grab her a little tighter to keep her steady and the voices she sometimes still heard in her head grew louder, each time she used her abilities it drew attention. “They’re looking for me.” She told him, righting herself and seeing him fight back a twitch when she put her hand on the trunk of the Impala to keep standing. Maybe it was because she had for so long pushed her abilities down like they asked that the noises she heard were so much stronger and louder than ever or perhaps without the barrier of the bunker she could hear them. “I have to help Castiel..” She muttered, pushing around her lover to get to the front of the car where she had left the other angel despite Dean telling her she needed to sit down.

Aleah pushed him off her and insisted that she needed to, he could take them home easier than she could but when she rounded towards the front wheels, “Where’s Cas?” She questioned as though they might know, tears spilling over again when she saw in place where she left him was the severed hand with the thumb and ring lie in his place, a broken bit of the shard that must have been lodged inside his vessel was soaked in blood and tossed on the ground, sigils traced in the dirt and she wondered if he thought that might keep the others at bay. “Why would he leave like that?! We have to find him… I can’t hear him…” She whined though she never had been able to hear specific angels, not on purpose anyways. 

Dean and Sam exchanged a worried look as they came around the side of the car and saw for themselves that Castiel was gone. Dean knelt to inspect the sigils scraped into the dirt. Aleah wanted to look for her uncle but now wasn't the time after she'd been using her powers out in the open. They needed to go to ground and quick.

"Look, this isn't the first time he's pulled a Houdini on us, right now we need to focus on the immediate issue." Dean told her, his voice still rough as he struggled to pull himself together after almost losing his brother forever and forcing his girlfriend to expose herself to a bunch of winged bloodthirsty robots. He lightly touched a symbol, recognizing it as one of the Enochian symbols Cas had taught him to use to banish angels, but it was subtly different. 

"I think Cas left this behind as a cover, maybe to make any of those angel dickheads that come sniffing around here think he figured out how to banish a Nephilim, throw them off the trail. We gotta get moving." Dean continued, gathering himself a bit and pushing down his worry for Castiel for now to focus entirely on getting Aleah, Sam and the ring they needed someplace safe.

Sam was still a little banged up but he quickly grabbed the ring and dropped it into a small leather pouch with seals of concealment branded into it, hopefully cancelling out any magical energy that might be detectable to beings like angels that were now on their tail.

Dean gently helped Aleah back up, kissing her temple lightly and hushing her when she murmured again that she wanted to help Castiel. "He's doing everything he can to help keep you safe right now, the last thing he needs is for you to panic and send out more signal fires to the God Squad trying to find him. Come on, we need to go baby." The hunter said softly, helping her get settled in the back seat, laying her down since she was completely drained from having to use her power so suddenly and in a way she hadn't yet done.

He and Sam piled into the Impala and the sleek black car roared out of the abandoned mill lot, Dean only hoped they could get holed up and put some wards up in time. Aleah was definitely not going to be able to flash them back to the safety of the bunker in her condition. They drove back into the outskirts of town, to the abandoned house they'd scouted out earlier and the brothers quickly got to work. 

Dean scooped Aleah up from the backseat and carried her into the house, getting her settled while Sam removed his still blood soaked shirt and used it to start drawing anti-angel sigils on every flat surface of the house. Dean soon came to join him, giving his brother a sideways look to which Sam responded, "What? Might as well not let it go to waste." With a crooked grin. Dean shrugged and helped his sibling finish angel-proofing the house.

By the time they were finished and went back to the empty living room space, Aleah was out cold on the sleeping bag Dean had left her on. Sam smiled gently and took one of the gallon jugs of water they'd bought into the bathroom to try and clean himself up a bit. Dean crouched by Aleah's prone form, reaching out to softly brush her dark wavy hair off her neck and shoulder, smiling absently at the little angel wing pin glinting in the dim light from their camping lantern.

He unzipped his own sleeping bag and laid it over top of her, opting to simply stretch out on the carpeted floor with his hands laced behind his head. His mind was too full to sleep yet, but it was nice to just be at rest after what they'd just went through. Sam came back into the room after awhile and sat heavily on his own sleeping bag.

"You okay?" Dean asked, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. I'll be all right. Thanks to Aleah." Sam responded softly, rummaging in his duffle for a power bar and holding up a second one. "You want one?" He offered, grinning at the disgusted noise his older brother made but handing it over when he grudgingly accepted it.

"You know we left the scepter with the cross back at the mill. I'm sure they Brits are losing their minds over where it got off to by now." Sam said with a tired chuckle, trying to lighten the heavy mood they were both in. 

Dean chuckled, but there was no mirth to it. "Yeah. Too risky to go back for it now. Once Cas comes back, he can go and get it, assuming those other dicks don't take it. But if they really were 'good' angels they'd return it anyway." He responded, tearing off a big bite of his power bar and making himself choke it down despite how bad it tasted.

"Do you think he's..." Sam began, but Dean cut him off around his mouthful of food.

"He always comes back Sammy. Sometimes it takes the bastard awhile, but he does." Dean insisted, not wanting to consider any other alternatives. 

Aleah curled up on the sleeping bag Dean laid out for her, feeling worn and ready for bed though it was rather early on ‘hunter’ time. Her eyelids fluttered as Dean touched her skin and brushed aside her hair, feeling him but not quite rousing enough to acknowledge his touch. She sighed and slowly drifted in and out of sleep, listening in part to the boy’s conversation. Cas always came back, Dean said he did but that only meant to her if he didn’t she was to blame for leaving him like she had.

She inched over to Dean when she heard Sam rest back, each Winchester saying their good night and her eyes watered still as she waited until he dozed off. She wanted to avoid the conversation but still she craved his comfort, shifting and laying her head on his chest, rousing him but he said nothing, sighing when she settled with is arm around her.

The half angel wasn’t sure what time it was but clearly the boys had no intention of waking at a specific hour to get a move on, both still asleep as she extracted herself from Dean’s gentle grasp. It felt strange being in the home that they were, like intruding on someone’s space though she knew no one actually lived here now. She wandered around the near empty space, running her hands over her arms to keep herself warm, she still felt weak, not near as bad as last night but she knew she wasn’t anywhere close to a hundred percent, not enough that Dean would risk letting her zap them home.

She traced her fingers over the banister of the staircase, absently wondering what kind of family lived here, who they were. It was strange to consider that she knew a life before all of this, before Dean, Sam and Castiel, maybe she had been naïve and didn’t want to see what all there was out there or perhaps people like the trio she loved now kept that knowledge to themselves to avoid risk. It was better that way she guessed.

Aleah glanced over her shoulder at the sound of Dean turning over on the floor groaning as he resettled. The top floor was boarded, like the people who ran these town had done to many of the homes now, likely to keep people like them, squatters, nomads, wanderers… out but that didn’t keep them from trying. She half laughed at how thorough the boys had been on their little sigil painting spree she missed apparently while she was out cold, every room was covered well and in an odd way it melted her heart to know that they put so much effort in to protecting her like they were.

She pushed opened one door to what looked to be the main suite of the small home, the window was blocked in part by a piece of rotted ply wood, something that likely had been in place for years. The brunette tore it off, feeling splitters prick her hand but a large part of her missed the outdoors, wanted to watch the sunrise completely and she dropped down onto the ledge, folding her legs beneath her in a meditative pose and stared through the glass escape. She took a deep breath and while this place smelt old and worn like the rest of the town it was still a change, a step that she hoped was in the right direction.

Aleah watched the sun for awhile, slowly her eyes slipped closed again but this time she sat simply listening, waiting for that sign she hoped might come, that Cas had been seen by another or maybe he would speak to her. She jolted at the foot steps in the doorway, her eyes flying opened when Dean’s gruff voice asked her what she was doing. She ducked her head shyly and avoided the question by saying she wanted to watch the sun which in part was true. Dean sighed and walked over to her, rubbing his eyes and he climbed up beside her in the window seat, shifting so she was tucked between his legs, leaning back against his broad chest as he told her she needed to rest. “I know…” She muttered as he kissed the back of her head.

“I was looking for Cas… I guess I thought… I don’t know maybe he’d leave us a message on angel radio at least but—“ Aleah started, her voice cracking, “Dean I think he’s gone. We’ve talked in code before ‘online’… I know he can talk to me but he’s not letting me get to him or something.” She whispered and Dean was quiet for a long while, maybe wondering the same thing about what Cas was up to.

“Can we drive home? Do you think it’s safe for us to go home?” She questioned, turning her head to look at him where he sat with his back against the side of the window sill. “We have what we need now right? At least we can do the whole ritual thing, get it done and if Cas—Maybe there’s still hope that we’ll make it in time to give him a place to go at least?” 

Dean held his lover tight against him, brushing his hands over her arms and hushing her. "He doesn't need anything like that. He'll be back, I promise. He likes making us worry and say all kinds of nice things about him before he comes back." He joked, trying to encourage her but he was worried as well. "We need to haul ass back to the bunker as fast as we can, but according to what Sammy's gotten off the tablet it's not gonna be as simple as performing the ritual. We have to do it in the right place, or it won't take." He explained, though he wasn't really sure how it all worked himself.

Aleah asked where they had to do it, and he shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know. But we'll figure it out. Well, Sammy will probably figure it out." He chuckled, squeezing her tight again and tipping his head down to kiss her shoulder. "Thank you. For saving him." He whispered, his voice rough with sudden emotion. He would've thought that after all the shit he and Sam had been through, he might get numb to the experience of losing or nearly losing his little brother, but it shook him to his foundation every time.

Aleah reached up and gently stroked his hair, speaking to him softly, her own voice wobbly as she admitted that nothing frightened her more than seeing Sam all torn up and on death's door. That the thought of losing either of them was enough to make her want to break down.

Dean's lips grazed up her neck to kiss her cheek and temple, hushing her gently as she allowed herself to weep softly against him. He held her for awhile longer, till it was well into the morning and he knew they needed to get moving.

They got everything packed up, piling back into the Impala and putting the tiny dried up town in their rearview mirror. Sam and Aleah were still pretty worn down, both of them slept most of the drive so Dean pushed himself to go longer without stopping, letting them get as much uninterrupted rest as possible. When they were finally redlining on gas he pulled off the highway at a small town near the border of Wyoming and Colorado. 

Sam roused when the car came to a stop, groaning and stretching as he checked his watch, realizing how long they'd been driving and he'd been sleeping. His brother was already leaning against the Impala outside as the gas pumped, and he exited the car as well to stretch his legs. 

"You holding up okay? Want me to take a shift?" Sam asked, trying to get an answer from his brother before Aleah stirred and got out of the car as well. Dean looked at his sibling, sighing and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Nah. I'm good." Dean dismissed his brother's offer, wanting the distraction of driving and even the pain of being stiff from it to help keep his mind off of Cas. 

Aleah woke and stirred, getting out of the back seat to join the boys outside the Impala while Dean pumped it full of gas once more. She heard him deny Sammy the chance to drive and she came up beside him, wrapping her arm around his waist, “Baby maybe you should take a break, just a couple hours, let Sam take over and you can sit in the back with me?” She suggested but the look in his eyes told her he wasn’t going to allow that at all.

She bit her lip, nodding in understanding and cupping his neck, tugging him down to her level so he could hug her fully. She pressed her lips to his ear muttering her love for him out of comfort. They broke apart and he kissed her, promising that he could make it without killing them. “Okay buuuut I wouldn’t mind taking ‘baby’ for a spin.” She nudged him teasingly, stealing a kiss and once they stretched their legs they got back on the road.

Dean explained away his needing to drive and get them home for wanting to get Aleah back to a place he knew to be confirmed safe but Aleah and Sam both knew he also wanted the distraction, the focus on something other than what was currently happening around them and their ‘family’. They drove until they pulled up to the familiar surroundings and Dean parked the Impala a little more lazily than he might, seeming like he was on the verge of passing out any second as he climbed out of the car and started unpacking until Sam took everything from him, telling a rather grumpy Dean to go hit the hay and he could handle the unpacking and all that.

Aleah came to Sam’s aid, tugging her lover away despite his slight attitude; she said her good night to Sam, turning back to run and hug him around the middle, making him laugh. “Love you, Sammy.” She whispered, her eyes tearing and she could see there was moisture in Dean’s own gaze when he looked over at them with tired eyes. The brunette padded back and laced her fingers with her lovers, smiling over to Sam as they exited for sleep.

Dean was muttering about needing to help Sam, that he didn’t need to sleep right now when they had stuff to do. “Stop.” Aleah laughed, pushing him back to his mattress and watching with a smile as he fell onto his bed face first. She picked up his feet and guided them up onto the bed completely, unlacing his boots and gently tugging them off his feet while he kept tiredly talking to her. She pulled off his other boot and he rolled over, sitting up when she prompted him to and she helped him out of his shirt, kissing his lips sweetly and laughing at the tired way he promised to rock her world.

The brunette pushed his chest back and he easily tumbled against the comforter, “Yea pretty sure I’d be doing all the work and you’d be sleeping beneath me.” She pointed out with a laugh, rolling her eyes when he said that didn’t sound like a bad deal to him. “Sleep. Stop being a pain. You can blow my mind another time, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere.” She assured him, undressing and climbing in beside him in just the tank top she had worn from the day, scooting up close to him under the covers and pressing up against his warm frame.

\---

It was days since they’d been home, no leads on where they needed to go for reopening the gates but Sam seemed to have a few possible ideas and Dean and Aleah both had faith in the fact that he would find it one way or another, no matter how long it took. Though they might have been wearing themselves a little thin each night it seemed worth it in the long run.

The trio were hunched over their own laptops and books, talking about the ritual, Aleah with her feet tucked beneath Dean’s leg, laughing when he scolded her again for wiggling her toes against his ass. “Sorry.” She smirked, moving her feet again and he reached over and slapped her book closed in punishment and Aleah could hear Sam laugh in his throat as he watched them both and said they were no help in hunting for what they needed.

Aleah was about to respond when she heard a popping sound, the flutter of wings and Cas appeared before them, bloodied and beaten. Dean was the first to address him and both men jumped from their seats, rushing to his aid before he could crash to the ground, hurriedly asking him what the hell happened. “I had to return the scepter… eventually and the angels… they followed my trail…” He answered, slumping again and Sam caught his arm, pulling him towards the couch to sit next to Aleah. 

They got their battered friend settled on the couch, giving no care to the stains his filthy, bloody clothes were leaving behind on the cushions. "The angels got you? What happened? How did you get away?" Dean asked, smiling despite his concern out of simple relief that his friend was alive and at least mostly whole.

Castiel explained that he was captured by a garrison led by a former general of Heaven, they tortured him for information on the nephilim's whereabouts. He assured them that he gave away nothing, quieting Aleah's obvious distress with a few gentle words that nothing that had happened to him was her fault in any way. He then explained that the only reason he was able to escape was because a rival angel faction somehow got wind that he'd been captured and struck, trying to get the information he had before the rival group could. He was able to get away in the ensuing chaos.

Sam smiled, relieved that Cas had gotten away as well but still keeping in mind their pressing objective. "Well that's good that the angel groups haven't been able to organize. I don't suppose you got anything useful while you were in captivity?" He asked hesitantly, knowing the angel had gotten better at playing both sides of the game and hoping their friend's suffering hadn't been for nothing.

Cas managed a little smile despite his discomfort, nodding and telling the trio that he had managed to get something very valuable without his interrogator even being aware of it. He had learned the location of a Heavenly Rift, a place on earth where the veil between mortal and heavenly was extremely thin. Being the largest rift in the United States, it would make an ideal location for the Winchesters to enact their ritual to blow the hinges off the closed gates of Heaven.

Dean's face transformed with shock and then approval, gripping his friend's shoulder tight. "You sneaky son of a bitch. I knew you were picking up some skills." He praised the angel, getting eager to finally be able to get this job done and sleep easier knowing that the departed souls of this world would no longer be vanishing into nothing like smoke in a breeze.

Aleah asked Castiel where they had to go, and he informed them that the Rift was along the top of a place called Upper Yosemite Falls, and that it was being heavily guarded by their Garrison. 

"Numbers?" Dean asked for a rough estimate, to which Castiel had no answer, but planned on investigating once he was stronger. Aleah offered to heal him and he accepted the help for his physical wounds, but explained with as little detail as possible to spare her that the angels had done things to him she simply wouldn't be able to fix. He'd need a bit of time to recover his strength.

"So we'll get a headcount as soon as we can, but seems like it's a pretty safe bet we'll need help." Dean reasoned, looking to Sam who suggested calling up Garth. Aleah asked who that was and Sam laughed at Dean's exasperated expression. "He's a good man, does a kind of... Networking for us hunters now that Bobby's gone. But he's... Well, he's Garth." Dean responded with a sigh.

"I'll call him tonight, let him know what's on the docket and hopefully he can give us an idea of how many hunters he can round up for the job, once we know how many we need." Sam offered, growing solemn again when Aleah asked what would happen if they couldn't get enough hunters to help them.

"Well... Then we might need more angels." Sam proposed after a moment, earning strange looks from all three of his companions. "Think about it, Castiel was a vital source of information, and he got away because those bastards were too busy killing each other to keep track of him. No offense, but angels are pretty one track-minded. If push comes to shove, it might help more than hurt to call in a few of this factions rivals down on their heads while we get the job done." Sam explained his suggestion, getting agreement from Cas and Dean but Aleah still seemed worried. “Garth? Who’s Garth?” Aleah asked, looking over at both brothers, lingering beside her uncle while they converse. Her brow knitted together in curiosity as Dean explained to her in a semi annoyed tone. She couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Sammy was in the corner of the room laughing at the situation so something must have happened between him and Dean? “Kinda like what Bobby did for you guys.” She commented, earning a nod from Sam of confirmation.

“So what happens if we can’t gather together enough hunters to help us? We’ll be outnumbered… by a lot more than we might be anticipating.” Aleah muttered when he suggested having Garth call in a few for back up considering he might know of a lot more hunters open and available to work the job. Then he suggested something else entirely and it made her worry her lower lip with her teeth. Castiel seemed unoffended by him pointing out how ready and willing angels were to kill and get at each other’s throats over the entire situation and Dean didn’t seem to think much of his younger brother’s suggestion either. However Aleah felt it odd, to kill angels, watch them be killed when they used to be human, used to think and act and have nothing to do with the supernatural world.  
Dean asked her what the problem was, clearly seeing the concern and apprehension on her face. “I don’t know it’s just… we’re talking about killing here. I’m thinking about both sides, those people the angels use they don’t need to die… It just seems like a lot that’s all and you guys seem pretty okay with throwing out a few of our own as decoys.” Aleah murmured, brushing her hair aside and waiting for their rebuttal.  
Castiel reached over, gently taking her hand and making her turn at his touch and the sound of her name, “Aleah many of those vessels were empty before an angel took them on or they no longer exist with the angel because the stress of its presence. The angel themselves… well that is their choice to fight either side. It will be a battle whether you wish it to be or not. You have to understand that we will need all the help we can gather should things go awry.” The full angel understood where she was coming from but she needed to process where they were too and she seemed to a little more, be accepting of the idea that whether she liked it or not or wanted it or not, some might get hurt.  
Aleah squeezed Castiel’s fingers and nodded her head, “Okay. Only those who come willing will fight and in any situation we can fix them if we have to, right?” She said hopefully and no one seemed to want to be the one to tell her they might not be able to or have time to slow down for that. She fidgeted, deep down knowing what they were all thinking but she wanted to remain hopeful that no one had to die to do this.  
\----  
Aleah busied herself with making dinner for the boys, swatting Dean’s hand every time he tried to make a grab for a snack before it was ready. Or when he would fondle her as he passed, making her squeak and giggle in surprise but still she berated him for it when she was trying to get something done for the day. She could hear Sam in the other room on the phone talking to who she assumed was Garth and he sounded like he was doing his best to humor the man and let him keep him on the line, responding appropriately but not seeming to really be any too interested in what he had to say until finally he snapped, telling the other he had something really important to talk about.  
“Not a fan of this Garth fella huh?” She asked her lover who was currently nursing the last beer that Aleah okayed before dinner. Dean shrugged his shoulders and answered that he wasn’t exactly part of the Garth fanbase but he was developing a tolerance for the scrawny son of a bitch. She laughed and pat his abdomen as she passed him once more to get to the fridge. “Well from the sounds of it in there, seems like he’s game for helping and that’s worth something. Gonna be kinda nice to meet someone outside of you three, no offense.” She wrinkled her nose at him when he pretended to be offended, quickly continuing on about how she might change her mind about that.  
“Give the guy a chance, babe. He’s willing to help us and I’m sure he’s not all that bad as you’re making it sound.” The brunette smiled, getting up on her toes and kissing Dean’s jaw when she walked back beer in hand as she finished cooking up the pasta she was making.  
Their meal was nearly completed, Aleah propped up on the counter, swinging her legs and Dean standing between them, his hands on her thighs as they talked about nothing in particular. Sam wandered in and smiled at them both when Aleah noticed him and gave a tiny wave of her hand. “Well? Does Garth think he can get us some of his hunter buds to team up and be our sidekicks?” She questioned and Sam quickly responded with Garth had a few guys he thought would likely team up and come their way too, claiming the man sounded rather excited to get the ‘gang’ back together like old times. “Did you guys hunt together a lot?” She laughed at his answer that it wasn’t always intentional but sometimes the guy showed up from time to time. 

"He's definitely a character. But I have to give the guy his props, he knows his stuff and what he lacks in... Physical fortitude he makes up for with original strategy." Sam finished, chuckling a bit as he recalled some of the more 'unique' tactics Garth was known for using.

Aleah nodded and slid off the counter to finish getting the pasta she'd cooked up for them dished onto plates, which Dean and Sam accepted with a word of thanks. Sam took a seat at the little kitchen table with Aleah while Dean simply leaned against the counter to eat his meal, they never made a big deal out of breaking bread together but they all quietly enjoyed it.

Sam finished up and took both his and Aleah's plates to the sink, cutting off her protests with a gentle tone of voice, "Hey you did all the cooking, the least I can do is clean up." He reasoned, smirking a bit when the woman looked expectantly at his older brother, clearly waiting for him to join in helping with the dishes since he hadn't done any of the cooking either.

Dean sighed set his plate by the sink for Sam to wash, keeping his for to eat the last few bites of pasta straight out of the saucepan. "I'm not finished eating yet." He said around his mouthful of food, grinning at his girlfriend's sideways look at him avoiding helping.

Sam laughed and made quick work of all the dishes except the pot Dean was insistently trying to get every last drop from while Aleah stood next to him drying and putting away what he washed. The pair finished up and Sam wiped his hands on the dishtowel over his shoulder. "You can wash that. I'm gonna turn in, get a bit more heavy reading done and crash." Sam said, the other two knew by 'heavy reading' he meant another session getting what he could from the tablet. 

Aleah voiced her dismay at him reading it but seemed to understand now how important it was that they get all the knowledge they could from the tablet, so she let him go without a fight and promised to fix him up in the morning if he needed it. Sam nodded and said goodnight, leaving the pair alone in the kitchen.

Dean didn't like Sammy reading from the tablet either but he knew it was necessary so he didn't let it linger at the forefront of his mind. He finished up the last of what was in the pot and set it on the counter, smiling with mock innocence when Aleah chastised him teasingly for not doing his share.

"Are you saying I don't pull my weight around here Princess?" Dean asked, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously and reaching out to snatch her wrists before she could take the pan to put it in the sink. "I need to earn my keep, huh?" He asked in a softer tone, pulling her close and running his hands up and down her curves that he loved so well.

Aleah tried to brush him off, but it had been a few days since either of them had been up for anything other than cuddling in bed and he knew she was wanting for his touch just like he had been for hers. Her breathing sped under his darkened gaze and when he bent his head to capture her lips she eagerly responded, pressing up against his frame. After a moment they broke apart to gasp for breath, the brunette murmured that they shouldn't be fooling around in here but he just chuckled.

"I know. That's kind of the idea." Dean hummed against her neck, kissing and biting at her flesh while his hands slid down to firmly grasp her toned bottom, grinding her pelvis up against his growing arousal.

 

"We shouldn't be fooling around in the kitchen Dean." Aleah tried to scold him for the way he was acting but it was difficult at the moment, especially when it had been days since they'd had each other. His hands on her rear and the way he was kissing her washed away her resolve, groaning as he ground against her front.

She tried to speak his name again but it hardly halted him in the least bit. She could feel his arousal, knew there was no convincing him that they needed to go elsewhere... and she didnt much want to. Her fingers hooked into his shirt and he broke away long enough to allow her to tug the garment off of his frame. He did the same for her in turn, pulling off her top and his hands quickly unfastened her bottoms, making her gasp as he teased her through the fabric of her panties.

Aleah begged for more despite her previous reservations, pushing his hand inside her panties and forcing him to touch her and give her some sort of release. He did as she requested, teasing her clit and stroking her walls until she was panting and grinding hard against his hand while the other groped her chest. "Harder baby..." she moaned and his fingers worked her harder, hitting her in all the right places until she fell apart by his hand; gasping his name as she came around his fingers.

Dean growled that he had to be inside of her, tearing off her jeans and pushing aside just enough clothes to get to her. She squeaked and giggled with surprise as her rear hit the counter and he propped her just right, pushing inside of her roughly and making her gasp. She panted, crying his name as softly as she could and clinging to.him like he was the only thing keeping her from falling. He slammed into her as her nails bit into his back and just as her eyes started to flutter closed she saw someone in the kitchen doorway, the sound of M annys feet on the tile lightly pattering their way.

Aleahs mouth fell open and she tried to get Dean off her, "Oh god... Dean stop." She breathed, feeling that familiar ache between her legs and the flutter in her stomach knowing she was close to her peak. He didnt let up and her body arched despite telling him to move away.

Dean loved the added adrenaline rush from taking Aleah in a place like this where they risked discovery, relishing her every mewl and twitch as he finally plunged into her tight heat. He set her roughly on the edge of the counter, making her bite her lip to stifle a loud cry as the motion drove her harder onto his length.

The hunter had been craving his lover for days, losing himself in how good it felt to finally be buried inside her again, hear her desperate sounds and feel her ragged breath. He drove into her faster and faster, knowing from experience that she was close to losing it again and he gripped her tight, biting at her throat and growling with want as her walls flexed and fluttered around him. He heard her mutter his name, and took what she said as her meaning for him not to stop, her rough intake of breath interrupting her sentence so he pushed into her as deeply and rapidly as he could, making her body bow against him and cry brokenly as she found her release.

At the last second he slipped from her heat, cupping his hand to catch most of his seed as he came, panting roughly and leaning in to kiss her but finally what Aleah had meant to tell him a few seconds ago came across more clearly now that she wasn't in the throes of her climax. She was looking with alarm and embarrassment over his shoulder, and his senses finally clued him in to the fact that there was another person at his back.

Aleah kept him from turning fully to face the uninvited guest with a loud squeak, partly to keep him from exposing himself and more so he guessed so she could keep using his frame as a shield for her nakedness up on the counter. He understood Aleah's embarrassment but Dean honestly just thought it was funny, especially when his lover muttered the name of their angelic friend in a shocked tone. Dean craned his head over his shoulder so he could meet his friend's stunned gaze, still using his frame to mostly cover Aleah though there could be absolutely no mistaking what they had been doing.

"Hey pal, a little privacy please? This show ain't free." Dean joked, reaching for a dishtowel to wipe off his hands and he quickly got himself zipped back up so he could gently lift Aleah off the counter to hike her own pants back up from where they'd pooled on the linoleum floor beneath her. He handed the half-angel her discarded top with an amused grin, she was trying her best to be cross with him but it was difficult for the brunette to maintain when she was still floating on the high of her pleasure. Plus he could tell that under her mortification she thought this was at least a little funny too.

Dean took her hand, keeping her from retreating back toward the bedrooms like she wanted to. "Hold up, if it was Sammy we could just leave it like this, but I think with Cas we should probably say something to ease the kid's conscience." He chuckled. Despite the fact that Castiel was centuries older than him, he still felt like a big brother of sorts to the angel in many ways. He tugged her along with him to the library where just as he figured Castiel was standing stiffly holding Manny in his arms and looking more than a little perturbed.

Before Dean could speak Castiel immediately began to explain that he hadn't meant to happen upon them in a compromising situation, he had simply wanted to get Manny a bowl of milk as thanks for keeping him company while he recovered from his injuries. The hunter chuckled, nodding and not doing anything to try and mask his amusement with how awkwardly Cas was trying not to meet their gazes.

"Hey, it's okay. We just weren't expecting anyone else in the kitchen tonight, don't worry about it. Got it? No big deal." Dean stepped forward to clap his friend encouragingly on the shoulder, another burst of laughter escaping him when Castiel actually blushed a little when he made himself look Aleah in the eye to apologize again. The brunette smiled warmly and was quick to reassure her uncle that he had nothing to be sorry for, if anything it was them who should be sorry.

They said good night, leaving Manny with Castiel for now since he could probably use the additional consoling, retreating down the hall to Dean's room. As soon as they were out of earshot Dean laughed again. "Holy crap, did you see his face?" He asked, chuckling helplessly and Aleah's exasperated response only furthered his amusement with the whole situation. She hit his chest and told him off, but she was struggling not to giggle herself and put up no resistance when he snatched her arms and pulled her in for a deep kiss against the wall just outside his room.

"Maybe our timing wasn't perfect, but I know you liked it Princess..." He hummed, pressing her back against the wall knowing she loved when he trapped her between a wall and his hardened body. She shivered and relented, kissing him hungrily but managing to insist that they not get caught a second time in one night, and he agreed with a laugh. He stepped back and opened his door for her, giving a little mock bow, "Ladies first." He told her, swooping his arm towards the opening in an exaggerated manner. 

Aleah was more than a little embarrassed to be caught with her pants down and instead dean's hands and body in their place. She tried to stay mad at him even after they apologized to her uncle but deep down she found it amusing as well even though it was a little awkward. She smacked Dean for his comment and stifled a giggle as she scolded him for screwing her publicly.

Though when he forced her up against the wall and tried to get her to admit to liking it even if only a little... she couldn't hold onto her anger with him. The brunette giggled and pushed her frame against his making him take a half step back as they kissed, humming against his lips. "Best not to get caught a second time baby." She reminded him and he agreed.

She laughed as he bowed and held the door opened for her, giving a mock curtsey in response and thanking him before she bound into his space... or their space considering she never saw much of her room anymore. They made it just inside the door and Dean was on her again, pushing her until she collided with the dresser and she laughed as he devoured her, lips over every bit of exposed flesh he could get to and making her moan.

Their lips clashed together and when he shifted his weight to start taking off his pants again she pushed him back with as much force as she could, forcing him to turn and crash back on the bed. Her eyes were dark and her breathing ragged as she eyed him and he looked just as shocked as she felt for having tried such a move. Aleah smirked and ran her hands over her body, teasing him and slowly stripping down to nothing.

It took her awhile but she had grown much more comfortable in her own skin with the help of Dean. He o gled her openly and she climbed over him, humming as she felt his arousal already constricted once more in his jeans. She arched down and kissed his chest along the tattoo inked in his flesh and up his neck. His hands found her sides, guiding her hips to grind against him even with him still clothed.

Her cheeks were pink out of nervousness but Dean seemed rather pleased with hiw she was acting. She tugged her hair aside and sat up and he followed, kissing and sucking at her sensitive flesh, giving equal attention to her breasts in turn while she moved atop him making him harder until he asked for her again. "That's something I'll have to get used to... you begging for me." She grinned, tugging at his bottoms. "I missed you, Dean." She admitted.

 

"If you wanna hear me beg Princess, all you have to do is ask." Dean growled against her flesh, smiling with more tenderness when Aleah told him she had missed having him. He still wasn't quite adjusted to doing the whole 'lovey-dovey' couple thing again, and even less adjusted to the fact that he liked it. "I missed you too baby." He murmured, tangling his hand in her dark hair to pull her face to his for a sweet, lingering kiss.

He let his hands roam over her bare flesh as they kissed, gliding over her every curve and plane, committing her sweet form to memory. Aleah had become the most precious person in his heart and now he was determined to do whatever it took to keep her safe and happy. It scared the hell out of him, caring about her as much as he did, but he was in too deep to consider escape now.

They broke apart and Aleah's bright eyes searched his, every feature flushed and hungry and wanting. Dean's instincts told him to take hold of her and turn her down onto the mattress, but instead he held back, letting her set the terms. He didn't want her boldness from earlier to be an isolated incident, he was pleased that she was starting to gain that confidence to take control of their little trysts from time to time.

Aleah kissed him softly once more, leaning down to whisper in his ear, breathlessly instructing him to tell her again that he wanted her. Dean growled at her words, tensing when her hand slipped between them to stroke his bulge through his jeans. The hunter kissed her throat, muttering against her skin, "I want to feel you come on me Princess." He pleaded roughly, leaning back to allow her room to bend and kiss a line down his muscled chest.

The brunette pushed him back and he allowed her to do so, falling back on the mattress and sliding his hands over her thighs and waist above him while her hands explored his muscled torso and arms. After a moment she scooted back and unfastened his jeans, tugging them down off his hips along with his dark briefs, freeing his throbbing length and flushing a deeper shade of red as she looked him over.

Her eyes tracked over him and he chuckled, getting her attention. "What are you gonna do to me Princess?" He asked in a playful tone, enjoying watching the mix of arousal and embarrassment play out on her face as she considered what she might do first.

Aleah looked over his frame, seeing him hard like he was for her drove her crazy to an extent she would never have expected to earn from anyone. She bit her lip and her cheeks were flushed with want as well as slight embarrassment, she had come a lot further in a short time since she knew Dean but it still was a little harder for her to take such control like he might want her to. He laid prone and for a moment or two she considered her options, all she wanted was him, every part of him.

His eyes were dark with want and wonder for what she might do, asking where she was going to start and she wanted to make good on his request but her mind slid back to the look on his face and his fingers in her hair when she went down on him the first time. She made eye contact with her lover, kissing further down his frame and kissing his top. He groaned at her and she couldn’t help the little smirk that played on her lips.

Aleah lapped up his precum, humming at his taste, “Tell me.” She muttered and his hips rose off the bed ever so slightly, panting as he asked her to take him in her mouth. She smiled and followed his request, sliding down his body and relaxing her throat to accommodate what she could of him. He groaned harshly and his fingers carded through her hair once more, tugging gently as she sucked him off. He muttered that he was close and she didn’t let off, keeping her mouth tight around him until his thighs flexed and he jolted beneath her, coming against the back of her throat and again she swallowed down his seed.

The brunette rose off him and he smiled, his chest heaving as he eyed her. She climbed back over him, straddling his hips again and he muttered his approval. “Mhmm.” She hummed in response, leaning over him to kiss him again and hearing him groan as he tasted himself on her lips. She gripped one of his wrists and forced his hand between their bodies, already soaked with want for him inside her body. He teased her with her own slickness, fingering her until she was slowly riding his hand, working her up again.

She gripped his length in turn feeling him hard for once more as he ravished her mouth with his. She released him and his fingers moved aside, still lingering on her clit as she slid down onto his length, moaning as their bodies merged and she took him to the hilt, gasping with pleasure as she braced her hands on his shoulders, swiveling her hips so he would hit her in all the right places. “Oh god baby you feel so good.” She panted out as they moved together.

Dean shifted and sat up, her legs hitching around his waist and behind his back, positioned easily in his lap. Her hands cupped either side of his face, catching his gaze and pressing her forehead to his. She kissed him deeply, nipping at his lip and gasping as he hit her in all the right places. Her nails scraped over his scalp, gripping him tightly as she neared her peak, writhing in his lap and clenching around him, coming with a desperate cry of his name. He gripped her hips and pulled her off him in a matter of seconds and she felt his seed spurt on her abdomen between their frames. She panted heavily and smiled at her lover, holding him close against her as he buried his head into the crook of her neck.

 

Dean held his lover tight, panting roughly as he came down from his high. He kissed her neck and pulled back to stretch off to one side and grab some tissues to clean them up. After they got rid of the mess they tumbled back onto his bed in a tangle of limbs. Aleah nuzzled her head against his chest in what had become her habitual resting spot and he sighed contentedly as she gave him a gentle squeeze.

He heard her whisper a drowsy good night and he answered in kind, though sleep eluded him for several hours. Dean couldn't help but dwell on the coming battle, he and Sammy had faced down their fair share of nasty enemies, come to accept that killing was part of their job. He knew his hands would never be washed clean, no matter how much good he did. He really didn't want Aleah to have to live with blood on her conscience like they did. But he didn't see any way out of it, it wasn't like him telling her to hang back was gonna fly anymore.

He finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep close to four in the morning, holding Aleah close. When Dean woke he didn't exactly feel rested, but it was still nice to have his lover tucked up against him and errantly running her fingertips over his bare chest as she came fully awake. The couple found their way into Dean's shower together, not emerging again until both of them were clean and had their fill of each other.

When the came out to the kitchen for their morning coffee, Sam was leaning in the arched entry way into the room and greeted them with a slightly amused grin. Dean's eyes narrowed to see his brother just milling in the opening like that, his face transforming with chagrin as the reasoning dawned on him even before Sammy had a chance to speak.

"He decided to come as soon as possible so he could get up to speed before he called in his... Posse." Sam told them, wincing a bit at the last word when Dean fixed him with a scowl. "His words, not mine." Sam added quickly, looking down to Aleah when she asked who they were talking about.

A voice from inside the kitchen sounded and Sam made room for the pair to enter the room and respond to it. Garth was at the counter where he had been for the last half hour, trying to get the coffee pot working with little success. 

Aleah was holding Dean’s hand in the fashion she often did as they went out of his room to get coffee together. When she first saw Sam the look on his face made her think that maybe he had heard them more than a few times last night or this morning but his little smirk was directed at Dean in particular which told her it was something else entirely. He said something about the arrival of another and she wondered who it was that came, judging by the look on both their faces it had to be Garth she suspected.

Garth was fidgeting with the coffee pot, slapping his hand on the side in as angry of a fashion as he could manage for the tiny guy. “Come on, man. Just a single cup o’ Joe that’s all I’m asking. Don’t do me wrong.” He pleaded with the machine, resting his hand over top of it and sighing in defeat until he heard Sam’s voice and the grumble he knew to be Dean.

“What up, Hombre!?” The scrawny man hollered when he spotted Dean in the door way, making his way straight for him and gesturing for him to meet him half way. Aleah giggled and stood beside Sam, watching as her lover stood stiffly and Garth swung his arms around his large frame, patting his back and squeezing him tight. “Oh man it’s good to see you boys. It’s been crazy out there without you fellas, but Sammy here tells me you didn’t fall into retirement. Guess you been workin’ on somethin’ a little more important huh? Never could take the easy jobs could yah Dean?” He chuckled, patting the man and Aleah watched him wince as if it hurt though she knew it was only because he was holding back going off on the guy that touched him in this manner.

Garth’s eyes tracked over Dean’s shoulder and drew to Aleah in the doorway, her arms crossed neatly over her chest, keeping near to Sam and waiting her introduction but before Dean could give one Garth grinned broadly. “Hey little lady… And this has gotta be the infamous Aleah? Oh Sammy told me all about you! You’re our little half breed… Oh man that’s gotta be so cool! Havin’ angel abilities and all that.” He commented and Aleah flushed, tucking her hair behind her ear and shrugging her shoulders lightly. Sam pressed a hand to her back and guided her forward, introducing her to the man.

Aleah stuck her hand out with a gentle smile and Garth burst with laughter, “Now now, we’re all family here. That’s how it works. We don’t shake hands, come on… bring it in.” He encouraged, wiggling his hands for her to step into his space. The brunette smiled and she couldn’t help but laugh a little at how open this guy was, moving towards him to hug him gently and she squeaked when he tugged her in hard against him and squished her frame to his, holding her a little longer than needed and making her giggle until Dean scolded him for hanging on too long.

The half angel laughed, “It’s really nice to meet you Garth. The boys told me a bit about you but I didn’t think you were coming quite yet. It’s really nice of you to come out here and help us out with all of this… I mean after all I kind of expected that most hunters might kinda want to take me out as well.” She muttered.

“Psh. Believe it or not most of us have a heart… even these idjits.” Garth laughed, nudging Dean’s arm and nodding to Sam. “Anyway, I know I’m early but why not? Got nothin’ better to do for awhile anyhow… best I get as much going as I can here and get all caught up on the latest.” He smiled at Aleah and she nodded her understanding.

Dean wasn't exactly smiling but he wasn't exactly grimacing as he listened to Garth talking about how he'd felt it was best for him to come to the bunker right away and get as much information as possible on this endeavor. He supposed it made sense but at the same time Garth wasn't someone he could take well in more than small doses at a time. He had to admit that he had come to think of the odd hunter as another member of their grab-bag family, but the man pushed just about every button he had just by being himself.

Dean peered around Garth's narrow shoulder at the partly disassembled coffee machine and rolled his eyes. He strode around him and grumbled under his breath as he started putting it back together. Garth turned and explained that they needed to get a less complicated machine and then he could've had 'hot java' brewed for all of them in a jiffy.

"Oh for god's sake Garth it's just a normal coffee pot." Dean groaned, more than familiar with the man's ineptitude with what to him seemed extremely simple tasks. He quickly set the little maker to rights again and got the coffee brewing, he needed it if he was gonna handle their guest.

Sam took Garth back into the library to show him what they'd been working on, Aleah trailed behind them leaving Dean to grumble with the toaster after setting the coffee pot to rights. Sam told him about the seed and ring they four of them had worked and bled to obtain. The taller hunter held out the two small metal objects, letting the skinny man inspect them closely.

Garth carefully opened the apple shaped metal charm, turning out the tiny dull gold seed into his palm and commenting on how it was hard to believe that such a little thing could be such a huge deal. Sam smiled absently, glancing at Aleah and then back to Garth. "I've pretty much worked out the ritual. We'll have to put the objects in a bowl with holy oil, then dose them with some of Aleah's blood and light it up. The rite itself isn't complicated and shouldn't take very long, it's just going to be a matter of getting to the Rift to do it. And Aleah's going to have to be right there to do it, I'm afraid to risk our only shot with a vial of her blood, just in case it'll only work if it's fresh." Sam mused, reaching out to squeeze the half-angel's arm encouragingly.

Garth seemed to accept what he told him, but his face became colored with concern as he looked over the various images of the tablet strewn on the desk. The lanky man looked back at Sam, asking him how he'd managed to figure all this out and put it together, the uncharacteristic graveness in his gaze making it clear he already had a guess.

"I've been... Reading the tablet." Sam responded, running his hand through his long hair. "It's not the best option, but... We didn't have any other choice." He justified his actions, hoping his peer would understand. Garth nodded, telling him he understood but that it didn't sit well with him knowing it was costing Sam years of his life to get this information. Sam winced and cut Garth off with a look, glancing nervously at Aleah hoping she wouldn't get upset. The woman knew it was a serious drain on him that cost him energy directly from his soul, but she didn't realize it was literally shortening Sam's lifespan by a year every time he performed the spell to read it. 

Garth followed after Sam, listening to what the trio had to tell him about Aleah, reopening the gates, all they had done already to fight for her. He was all in, no one deserved to die for the sake of something like this, not when there was another way and not when they could protect her. He was game for the fight, ready to stand at their sides and do what it took. It hardly took him much convincing but he still needed as much information as he could gather from them.

He nodded very slowly as he opened up the tiny charm and ran his rough thumb over the smooth edges of the tiny seed he dumped out. “Kinda makes sense right, world started with a seed… could end with a seed be fixed with a seed.” He mulled, smiling at the object, glancing over at Sam when he spoke about the ritual, what they needed to do and where it had to take place. His face distorted, brows knitting together as he wondered just how Sam came about this bit of information. “And just how did you piece all this together, Sam? That’s all gotta be pretty deep in the angel archives I’d think, takes a lot to unhatch and tear t’ bits.” He commented, feeling he already knew what the tall hunter might respond with.

The loss of Kevin had affected them all and as it would seem Sam semi blamed himself for it, he knew that Dean did too. Though he might not know the exact terms of how it happened but he knew they lacked a profit. Sam’s answer came as no huge surprise to the lanky hunter, giving him a nod of understanding and putting the seed back in its rightful place until they would need it later on. “I get that but like you said it ain’t the best option. Hate t’ think you’re slowly losin’ years of yer life, Sam. Just t’ get a bit of informa-“ Garth started, with a little more of a southern drawl than he normally had. When he felt protective or got down to business it always came up more, partly out of habit and partly because he started to think of Bobby whose job he had taken over the past year or so since his passing.

He stopped easily when he saw the look Sam gave him and his eyes followed over to Aleah who was still holding Sam’s hand over her arm. The half angel’s brow furrowed and she processed what Garth was saying, “Y-you’re slowly dying because of me? But… I thought my healing you was stopping that. Sam, why wouldn’t you tell me that?” She pleaded, her eyes watery as she pulled her hand away from his. She felt a little stupid, she should have known there was far more to it, that not every detail had yet been given to her. It bothered her but she understood why he did it, because if he had told her the damage it could cause, she would have kept him from doing it and they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they had today.

Garth shifted with the change in the mood of the room, clearing his throat, “Somebody had t’ do it. Couple years ain’t gonna make much difference for the boys anyhow, you’ve seen them risk their necks like they do, surprised they’ve lasted this long.” He smiled at her, hoping she would accept that and they would move on. Aleah sighed, fidgeting with the hem of her shorts but opting to let that bit of information go considering she couldn’t do much of anything to turn things around.

“So I got a couple o’ buddies that’ll come out when the time’s closer. We got an exact local and all then I’ll give ‘em a call, send ‘em the coordinates and they’ll be here in a heartbeat. Think this’ll ease a lot of their minds t’ be quite honest, makes the idea of dyin’ a little less heavy… knowin’ souls got a place t’ go and all that, even for us.” Garth grinned, seeing the positive in this rather than focusing on the fight they might have ahead of them.

Sam smiled weakly, nodding in agreement with Garth's sentiment. "Glad to hear it. I just hope whatever hunters we can gather will be enough." He mused, moving to clean up some of his research materials and pick out the more prominent notes for Garth to read over and get caught up.

The group spent most of the day getting their comrade up to speed, and the more Garth heard the more his normally carefree attitude was subdued. By late afternoon the mood in the bunker was heavy and everyone, even Castiel seemed affected. The conversation had died down and Dean was sitting with his feet propped on the chair beside him, starting to fidget and wanting to be doing anything but talking about the likely un-winnable battle looming over them.

Suddenly Garth piped up, in his typical fashion all smiles and bad jokes, everything that made Dean want to throttle the man on the regular and he was focusing it on his girlfriend. The lanky hunter asked Aleah how she was surviving living here with the "Sourpuss" brothers and their dour angelic sidekick.

The brunette seemed amused if a little taken aback by Garth's straightforwardness, shyly telling him that things weren't all bad. He kept up his mostly one-sided conversation with her, asking her things that Dean realized with a little guilt he had never thought to ask the woman he loved: Asking her about her family, her interests, how it felt to find out your father was an 'angel on Godly steroids.' He listened with veiled interest, but when the talk turned to Gabriel he started feeling more and more like he should put a stop to the chatter.

Aleah asked Garth what he knew about her father, and the man seemed overjoyed to be asked. He told her he could do better than tell her about Gabriel, he could show him to her. Dean and Sam exchanged an alarmed look, the only recorded evidence of the arch angel they knew of was... A porno DVD they'd left with Bobby for safekeeping. Garth couldn't possibly have that on him, could he? 

Garth grinned and pulled up a search on something, making aleah arch a brow at him curiously as he dug up an archive of sorts, telling her he had something to show at least and let her see who her dad was. "It's not so bad... not the greatest but..." Garth smiled at her, flicking through channels to find what exactly he was looking for.

He flicked it on and it started and the look on the brothers faces told him this wasn't okay in their eyes, "what shes gotta see how he was and this was it." Garth pointed out and both men sat back as best they could and allowed it if only for a second or two. Aleah arched a brow and a mans face appeared, her eyes welling at first but then things turned to something else entirely and her mouth fell opened in surprise.

Aleah stared as a cheesy porno began and she clasped a hand over her mouth in surprised, trying not to laugh as she watched the video. "Oh... oh my god." She gasped, squeezing her eyes closed and letting it play but she instructed Garth to shut it off as quick as it began, hearing moans and groans as she only half watched.

Dean reached over and snatched the remote telling Garth this wasn't the way to show her; asking how he had all this anyways. "What? Bobby kept everything for back up... not that hard to find, hack the system... It's there." Garth responded to him as Dean started to turn it off.

Castiel stepped in just as it began, his eyes wide as he asked what it was they were doing. "Watching my dad.... in all I have." Aleah answered and cas nodded.

"If you wished to meet you father.... you could have requested such." Cas stated and aleah stared up at him, asking what it was he meant. "I will show you." He pointed out and garth turned down the porno playing in the background.

Castiel took a seat beside aleah, placed between the pair and took her face in one hand, staring at her and nodding for her to close her eyes. Within seconds she did such, her breathing changing as she saw what cas had for her, visions of her father, nor than a promiscuous man, fighting another she didnt know, standing up for the Winchester, those she thought to be her family, keeping them safe and pushing his brother away. He argued with gods, played cruel tricks she found rather amusing until she watched him burn, felt his pain as he died and stared into the advancing darkness as he passed.

Aleahs body wracked with sobs, gasping for breath until the first hand she felt on her was G arths until Castiel let up, let her breathe on her own and gather herself a bit from it all and she could hear Dean asking what he did, why she responded how she had, aleah shook her head as the other approached, "He showed me... I felt him, my father, felt everything... how he died... he fought for you both... he wanted you to win..." she muttered, sobbing brokenly, he suffered when he passed and it killed her to think so. But he fought for humanity much to the same degree that she might.

Dean watched with mounting alarm as Aleah's reactions got more and more intense in response to whatever it was that Castiel was showing her. He sat forward to put a stop to it but halted when Sam gripped his shoulder tight, shaking his head at him slightly, silently asking him to let her finish seeing what Cas had to show her.

The second Castiel let her go Dean confronted him, demanding to know what he'd done to his girlfriend. He let go of his anger with Cas when Aleah spoke in a broken voice, his heart clenching as he considered what it must have felt like for her to experience all of that at once. He quickly moved to the woman's side, crouching and taking her hand resting it in her lap. She took a few deep breaths and tried to collect herself, but tears still slipped down her flushed cheeks at an uncontrolled pace.

"Your old man he... Well he was a giant pain in our ass. But when it all came down to the wire, he fought for us. For you. He was a good man. Angel. Um-" Dean faltered, giving Garth a dirty look when the lanky man snickered a bit at his attempt at comforting Aleah. "What I mean is... Everything good that was in him, he passed it on to you." Dean said with a bit more certainty this time. His fond memories of his run-ins with the archangel were far fewer than his bad ones, but he knew beyond a doubt that Gabriel had gone down fighting not just for him and Sammy but for all of humanity's sake. He just hoped with all his heart that his daughter wasn't going to be following his example.

Garth gently patted Aleah's opposite leg, commenting with a light-hearted laugh that her dad was well known for being an ornery trickster, and had taught the Winchesters a thing or two. Dean looked back at Sam and the younger sibling shrugged, wincing at Dean's outraged expression. "Oh yeah, trapping us in a time-loop that resets with killing me over and over really 'taught' Sammy good." Dean snapped, immediately regretting flying off the handle but when it came to his brother being tormented Dean tended to get touchy really fast.

Sam jumped in before Dean could boil over further, "Okay, okay. That's all in the past now, water under the bridge. Right?" The long-haired hunter gave his brother a pleading stare, wanting him to let it go more for Aleah's sake than his. Dean begrudgingly nodded and Sam sighed with relief. "Right." He looked back at Aleah who still seemed conflicted on how to feel about her father. 

"Look Al, we're not trying to tell you how to feel about your dad. He had his reasons for everything he did, and he was hurting because his family was tearing itself apart around him. But there was so much good in him, and like Dean said, it's all alive in you." Sam reached out and gently patted her knee, smiling at her warmly. "He was strong, powerful- But more than that he was brave and compassionate. He took a stand knowing full well it would cost him his life. I know you felt that in him, and no matter what else he did, that's what you can believe in." He reassured her, giving Dean another warning glance that he needed to forgive the archangel and let go of his lingering resentment for him.

The brunette nodded, sniffling and wiping away her tears which had finally stopped flowing for now. She thanked Garth, Cas and the brothers for giving her insight into her father, gently asking if she could be alone for awhile. Dean wanted to object but he held his peace, knowing Aleah probably needed some time to process everything she'd been handed so abruptly.

Aleah padded out of the library, her gray cat trailing after her down the hallway and out of sight. Dean turned to face Castiel, trying to keep the residual anger out of his voice and at least partly succeeding, "You never once told her anything about her dad? Don't you think she might have wanted a bit of a clue about him? And maybe a bit more gradually instead of dropping it on her like a ton of bricks? Huh?" He asked, sitting back down in his own chair roughly.

Aleah felt the eyes of every man in the room, watching her slowly fall to pieces and despite her lovers comforting touch it wasn’t helping her any at the moment. She stared at nothing in particular as he spoke of her father, her mind still filled with the memories of him that Castiel showed her just recently. She felt Garth’s hand on her other leg, trying to muster up a smile of some sort for the kind gentleman but she simply couldn’t manage.

Garth promised her that her father was a good man but it was hard for her to focus on that when Dean was telling her of the crappy things he often did, he hurt people, a lot of people and she had seen that too, but he redeemed himself whether they knew that or not. She didn’t know what to feel, sorry for him, hurt that he was gone, angry that he left her with that woman, sadness for the things he felt… so many things ran through her mind all at once it was simply too much to handle.

It didn’t matter what any of them said, none of them saw or felt what she did, though the look in Castiel’s eyes told her that he did understand, to a certain extent what she was processing slowly but surely. “Yeah.” Aleah nodded, sniffling to keep from crying completely like she wanted to. Her eyes were still watery and her lower lip quivered with emotion she refused to let spill over for the others to see just like before. “Can I be alone for a while?” She requested, pushing Dean’s hand away and then Garth’s and avoiding Sammy’s gazes.

She departed rather quickly, with her cat Manny in tow close behind her, weaving through her feet and she could hear them still talking, about what she wasn’t sure she even cared right now. “She needed to know… She had many questions and the visions I showed were the only answers I could give.” Castiel said to Dean.

Aleah made it to her door, pushing it closed tight behind her and heading over to sit on her mattress, Manny joining her in her lap as he so often did. Even his company she didn’t feel much like accepting but at least he didn’t try to tell her things or make her pick a side or something like that. She sat down and Manny took over her lap, purring as she pet him and closed her eyes, envisioning what she saw, the pain her father, Gabriel went through for not only the Winchesters but also for the angels, for Heaven and Hell, for Earth and everything in between. He may not have said it or gone about it in a good way but he certainly had a mind to set things right for his family any way that he could manage.

The half-angel sat cross legged on top of her mattress, breathing slow and heavy as she replayed his pain, the expression on his face the moment he died, the second he came face to face with Dean, the pranks he pulled on them… seemed like a form of affection, he was testing them, or luring them when they needed help. She knew all he wanted was his family fixed, pieced back together and to stop fighting like they had been. Tears spilled from her eyes and when they opened again she was standing in the same open field Dean found her in, a place she loved, a place that soothed her. She didn’t feel like she had sent herself there, hell she hadn’t even been thinking about it. Her blue gaze darted around the open space, confused by the change in her surroundings and then a man standing at the waters edge addressed her in a gentle tone that oddly comforted her. She recognized the voice, the same she heard in the video and in the visions Castiel had shown her, but it couldn’t be…

The light breeze ruffled his hair over his striking hazel eyes, the sound of the lapping water was oddly soothing and he knew why this was the quietest corner of his daughter's mind. He chuckled, it was such a strange sensation to feel tangible, to feel like he existed when he knew he was only a fleeting moment of memory wrapped in a dream. Every second Gabriel had with Aleah was precious, he had to see her, tell her everything he had come to tell her before this last squirreled away this piece of himself dissolved into nothing forever.

"Hey Al. This is a nice place... Wish I could have seen it in the flesh." He commented as he walked closer to her, feeling the tug of the void at his back. He didn't have much time and there was so much that needed to be said, so much he knew he could never ask forgiveness for but he at least wanted to tell her he was sorry.

He could tell from the look in her eyes that she knew who he was in her heart, even if she didn't quite believe it in her head. She asked him if it was really him, reaching out to touch his hand that hung by his side but stopped herself just short of making contact, as if she was afraid he might wink out of existence. Which he would, but not because her mind touched his, or what was left of him anyway.

He met her the remaining distance, gently brushing the back of his fingers against her open palm, turning his hand to softly thread his fingers with her and give them a gentle squeeze, his heart nearly bursting as he felt how warm and alive and vibrant she was.

"God, you are so, so beautiful." He said, his voice cracking slightly with emotion. He cleared his throat and met her gaze directly, "I'm sorry pumpkin, it's not me, not really. I used the last of my power to plant a seed of my consciousness in Castiel's noggin. I knew he would watch over you for me, I just hoped that... Maybe one day... Well. It was a long shot but it was the only way I might get to see you in some form at least. My final trick, I guess. And it worked." He explained, hardly believing it himself but grateful that he got this moment with her at least. He blinked back tears, he didn't really have a physical form to weep but his heart was so full that it manifested in his non-corporeal form nonetheless. 

He was so proud of the woman she was becoming, so full of guilt at the fate he had sentenced her to, and especially full of regret that he would never get to express all the love he felt for her like he wanted.

"So... You and Dean, huh? That sly bastard, taking my daughter's heart." He laughed a bit, Aleah's mind was an open book to him in this hallowed place inside her mind, and as much as he wanted to apologize for everything he'd put her through, part of him was greedy for the simple need to just see his daughter smile, to know she was happy about something. She did smile a bit in spite of everything at his comment, shyly acknowledging her relationship with the hunter, but then her voice faltered, and he could tell she was burning to ask him all sorts of things.

"It's okay Aleah." He soothed, nodding slightly to encourage her. "Say whatever you want, ask whatever you want. I'll tell you everything I can for as long as this memory of me lasts. I owe you that much, and so much more." He said quietly, waiting for her to collect herself enough to speak.

His touch on her hand alone was enough to make her lip tremble again. Aleah was hesitant to hold his fingers back, staring at him in disbelief, a large part of her wanted this to be real, wanted him to be real. He answered that it wasn’t him, not entirely, just his consciousness in a matter of speaking. She didn’t know what to say to him first, what she wanted to ask, if he was even willing to answer her at all. She was angry but at the same time she wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around this man because if it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t have those in her life that she did today.

He asked about Dean and his comment made her lips turn up at the corners, nodding her head, “Yes, pretty quickly too.” She muttered, her voice wobbling with emotion that she was trying to keep from spilling over. She shook her head, tears staining her flushed cheeks when he told her she could say whatever it was she wanted to him. “I—this is really overwhelming and… kind of awkward I just saw you in a porno and not even a good one at that.” She commented, making the attempt to lighten the mood a little for them both, laughing quietly.

It took her a moment to speak again but she did soon enough, “I don’t understand why you left me and mom… I know she meant nothing to you but for almost 28 years of my life I thought my father wanted nothing to do with me. Seeing what you felt, how you thought of me… You knew I existed and you didn’t come find me. Y-you should have been the one protecting me, not Castiel.” She muttered, her voice shaky despite her best attempts to keep her tone stern.

Gabriel nodded, seeming to understand her hurt but he had his reasons, angel business, knowing he couldn’t leave without the others following, without risking her discovery, it was better that way. Aleah shifted, she knew that but that didn’t keep her from wanting so badly to have that father figure in her life. “I think I deserved an explanation at least, from you… someone to hug me and tell me that I wasn’t steadily going crazy, do you know the things I thought about myself when I started hearing voices in my head? Do you know the things I was willing to try to make them go away and they never did?! Do you know how scary that is for a little girl, how lonely it is?” She questioned somewhat angrily.

“I feel stupid for wishing you could’ve been there… I wish you could still be here, Dad.” Aleah whispered, the name sounding funny on her own lips to address anyone as such. “I know there was reasoning you made sure I was created and I know you had hoped reopening the gates didn’t mean I had to die… I’m really grateful for what you’ve given me even if it wasn’t intentional.”

 

Gabriel listened patiently, wanting to interject but holding his peace until she got out what she wanted to or at least until she decided to give him a chance to speak. He might not be the genuine article, but he still carried every single moment of regret and worry that he'd felt for his daughter, the raw memory of knowing he had the power to intervene in her life and make it better but having to stay his hand to preserve her existence.

"I know... I know and I am so sorry. I can't ever make up for that pain, that loneliness you felt, but I can at least explain why things had to be the way they were. Have a seat kiddo." He responded, gesturing at the ground and smiling a bit in spite of himself when Aleah jumped at the sudden appearance of a red and white checkered blanket on the grass along with a woven picnic basket that was full of all her favorite snacks from childhood until the present.

She looked back at him and smiled timidly, a bit of wonder in her eyes and he could tell she was thinking of the many jumbled images Castiel had shown her of him conjuring up whatever he wanted out of thin air. They settled on the blanket and the archangel opened the basket, handing her a perfectly chilled bottle of cream soda and a bag of gummy bears. Aleah accepted them, she understood that they weren't really in this place and she wasn't actually eating real food, but the nostalgic candy seemed to warm her heart a bit nonetheless.

"Now first of all, I did care about your mother. I had to choose her very carefully, someone with the right bloodline who could pass on DNA strong enough to withstand all the "heavenly glory" I was gonna pass on." He grinned crookedly, flourishing his fingers in a mocking gesture when talking about his own powers.   
"Unfortunately, I had to partly expose her to my true form in order to create you, and that... Well it did a number on her psychologically. So that's the first thing I have to apologize for, leaving you not only without a father but without a whole, sane mother either." Gabriel's intense hazel eyes flashed with remorse as he looked out over the water, gathering his thoughts and centering himself, trying to prolong this time he had with her as much as possible.

The brunette nodded, her own eyes watering and she told him that she could understand that but again that she didn't understand why he couldn't have just let her know he was out there, given her some sort of hope and reassurance that she wasn't crazy with Angel Radio buzzing in her head. He sighed, looking back at her again and smiling that same crooked grin. 

"That's the second thing I've got to be sorry for then. I've gotta say kiddo, I've never been very good at following the rules. The thing is, and I know you've heard all this before but humor me, archangels technically aren't supposed to be able to create Nephilim. I couldn't even let my Dad find out that I had fathered you, and you know the old verse, God knows all his children. So if I had reached out to you in the real world, in your mind or whatever even once, he would have known you weren't just a run-of-the-mill human/angel 'abomination' and he would have been forced to remove your grace to keep the balance of Heaven and Earth in check. You're a very special little lady." He told her, laughing a bit when Aleah commented on how odd it was to think that her grandfather was literally God.

She ate a few of her gummy bears, digesting what he'd told her so far and commenting sadly that she would have been perfectly content being less special and more ordinary. He reached out to pat her foot reassuringly. "I know. And there is nothing I'd like more than to have given you that ordinary life, where the biggest thing you had to worry about was why Brandon Perkins didn't ask you to prom." He said, winking at her when she looked up at the mention of her first crush and how sad she had been when he'd picked her best friend over her to date in high school.

"I know it's asking a lot for you to just accept that your dear old dad 'had his reasons' for doing what I did. The same thing happened to me when my old man created humanity. These fleeting, flawed beings with unlimited potential... I didn't understand it, but from the get go I wanted mankind to succeed where we couldn't. To become more than us angels ever could. That's why I knew I had to make sure you were created. I didn't... I didn't realize that even without ever seeing your face... I would love you like I do. Aleah-" Gabriel's voice faltered and he cleared his throat to gather himself before continuing.

"I am so, so sorry kiddo. I didn't think the weight of one life versus the whole of humanity would weigh on me, but there wasn't a day that passed that I didn't think of you, that I didn't wonder if you were all right, and if I had condemned you to a doomed path for nothing. I lost hope, I regretted my choice. But then..." Gabe shook his head, snickering a bit despite being on the edge of tears.

"Then I met those two chuckleheads, Sam and Dean, in person. I had known about their part to play in Dad's plan all along, but I never expected them to trump destiny and make their own fate. But they did, and that gave me hope again. Hope that they would find a way to save all the souls of Heaven without it costing my daughter's life. And I still believe that they'll find a way, that you'll all find a way together." He murmured, finally meeting her gaze again and smiling at her tenderly.

Aleah stared at the checkered blanket, a little amused by the somewhat cliché picnic he managed to create out of nothing. She grinned and took a seat on the blanket spread out, watching and waiting as he pulled out her favorite soda and gummy treat. She sat rather comfortably, aware of the fact that none of this was real, like a memory or dream she didn’t know she had and she hoped when she woke she might still remember.

He spoke to her, apologizing about his absence and explaining his reasoning and every so often she gave a nod of her head to show that she did in fact understand why. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt her but it did ease the sting quite a bit and each time he called her kiddo or any other pet name made her eyes well even worse than they had been, tears spilling over only she was silent as she cried, accepting his words for what they were and knowing in her heart he was being genuine. She could feel what he felt towards her, that she wasn’t just a tool he did love her and like he said, he hardly seemed like he expected to get to that point.

Her eyes widened in surprise when he mentioned her first crush, flushing a little and feeling silly as she recalled how upset she had been that Brandon hadn’t asked her to prom. In fact the kid managed to get her to help ask out her friend when the whole time she thought the questions he was asking about what she liked and thought for ideas on being asked to prom, were meant to be hints towards him asking her but it was for her best friend all along.

She glanced up at him when he said he was sorry once more, popping a couple gummy bears into her mouth and chewing them slowly as she waited for him to finish. Aleah smiled slightly at how he referenced the boys, her family… holding in a laugh because as it would seem her father actually approved of the man she chose and Dean, whether he would admit it or not, respected her father. That eased her mind, knowing that perhaps if things were different her family would get along just as well… to a certain extent at least.

“We have… Sammy’s been reading the tablet and piecing the puzzle together and we think we’ve got a way to change fate. There’s hope at least, that all they need is a few drops of my blood, an ancient ritual and some old relics and what have you…” She assured him, scooting closer to his side. In many senses she felt like a kid again, like she was resorting to that time in her life when she would pray for him, wait for him to come find her and hope that he at least knew she was there that she thought of him too.

“Castiel thinks there’ll be a fight amongst the angels, those that want me dead or… for whatever reason don’t want to reopen the gates. We called a man… his name’s Garth,” She laughed, “He’s gathering hunters to help us in case there is a fight. I think that no matter what, they’ll try to kill me for what I am but I’m not scared.” Aleah told him, her eyes watering as she replayed his attempt to take out Lucifer, to end it all in hopes to save humanity not just the Winchesters. She wanted to be like he had been, there was no hesitation, though it was clear in his mind he already had thought things might go wrong but he took the chance, risked himself anyways to fight just like she would.

He smiled at her, gently reaching up to touch her cheek and she closed her eyes, it felt real, every part of it, like he was still there it was so vivid in her head. He said he knew she wasn’t scared, it wasn’t in her blood, not his daughter. The half angel opened her eyes to look at him once more, leaning into his touch and craving that from him. “I’ve learned so much from the boys and I think we’ll be okay… they’re fighting really hard for me, more than I deserve if you ask me.” She murmured.

Gabriel swallowed hard trying to get rid of the metaphorical lump in his throat, gently brushing his knuckles against her rosy tear stained cheek. He wanted with everything that remained of him to have gotten the chance to touch her, hold her in the flesh and protect her from all the heartache of the world, but just like when she was born, he had to entrust that duty to another.

"I know you're not afraid, it's not in your blood. Not my daughter." He said softly, his throat tightening with emotion again when she spoke. He should be the one reassuring her, not the other way around. He supposed he probably wouldn't have been too good at the whole 'Dad' act if he'd been given the chance.

"No. What you deserve, is so much more than this world can offer you. I wish I could have shown you everything you were meant to have, that you deserved to have. But all the wonders of the universe still don't measure up." Gabriel could feel his energy draining away, feel his consciousness losing it's foothold in his daughter's mind and he knew his time was nearly expired. 

"Listen kiddo, I... I'm clocking out here. I won't see you again, so..." Gabriel's breath hitched and he reached up to cup his daughter's face in both hands, gently running his thumbs over her cheekbones. "I know you can do this. I know you and those damn Winchester boys can pull it off. I wish I could tell you things will get easier for you once Heaven is reopened, but there are always going to be challenges, roadblocks. That's life. But you're strong. Stronger than me, stronger than destiny, just keep putting one foot in front of the other, all right?" He told her, desperately trying to keep his energy grounded as long as possible, to glean as many precious seconds with his daughter as he could.

He felt himself slipping away and he took a shaky breath, tears slipping down his scruffy cheeks and he forced himself to smile in reassurance as Aleah frantically gripped onto his arms, feeling his energy being pulled away as well. Her blue eyes went wide and she pleaded with him not to go, her voice small and wanting as if she were a little girl again.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her brow, his form starting to waver and flicker, becoming transparent as the last of what he had preserved for her ran out. "Seems like that's the last thing I have to apologize for. All I do is leave you. But it's because I trust you, because I know I can leave everything in your hands. You can do this baby girl." He told her in a fervent whisper, looking into her eyes as long as he could. "I love you, Al." He finished, the sound less of an audible whisper and more of a vague sensation, like the fleeting feeling of a summer breeze or the tingle of a single raindrop hitting skin. The archangel was gone from the world, and any other plane of existence, but he left it peacefully knowing he had left behind a legacy in his daughter he could be proud of.

Aleah stared at him as he spoke, tears slipping down her rosy cheeks as he reassured her she deserved so much more, from him from the world, from all of this, telling her she was strong enough to handle it. She nodded at his question, silently promising him that she would keep going like he wanted her to. She could feel his presence faltering, her hand reaching out for him suddenly and she refused to let him slip just yet. “Daddy, please don’t go… Please…” She pleaded with him, knowing she sounded childlike maybe but she had been so long without him it was hard not to fall into that.

She couldn’t help the desperate sob that ripped its way from her throat, clinging to his wrists as he pressed his lips to her brow. She felt heaviness in her heart, that lonely feeling returning and she knew he was getting ready to leave, that he had to go and there was nothing she could do to keep him here. He said he had more to apologize for but she shook her head, telling him he didn’t, something from him was better than nothing at all. Her hand was gripping air when he said he loved her, his disappearance sudden and she closed her eyes tight, muttering the words back to him despite that he couldn’t hear her she needed to feel like he knew that she did.

Aleah opened her eyes again when the sound of Dean’s voice pulled her back completely. Her lover was knocking on her door, asking if she was still up in a gentle tone. She could hear his worry for her, Manny was at the door on the other side, scratching and mewing in response to Dean’s voice. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and she could still feel his touch, like he was sitting there holding her face and telling her she would make it. She did her best to gather herself and Dean peeked in through the door to check on her, giving her a gentle smile but it was clear he was wondering as he asked if she was all right.

The half angel nodded her head and her lip quivered again, hugging her arms around herself as the hunter rushed to her side, sitting on the edge of her bed and gathering her up in his arms. She clung to him, crying into his shoulder as he soothed her. “I saw him… He talked to me about everything…” She muttered, holding him tight against her and not wanting to let go. Dean seemed confused but accepted it and she told him all that happened, everything she saw when Castiel touched her and gave her his memories. “He actually wanted me… My dad and he’s rather fond of you… whether you believe that or not.” She laughed.

Dean held his girlfriend tightly, smiling a bit despite his worry. "Leave it to that crafty s.o.b. to figure out a way to reach you." He commented, biting his lip and letting his head tip down to rest atop hers. He didn't want to have to ask but he needed to know for certain, "So he's... Gabriel's really gone for good now, I'm guessing?" He squeezed her a little harder when she shook her head yes against his chest and another little sob escaped her. She told him a little more about her conversation with her father, and he was relieved to hear the genuine happiness in her voice as she talked about him.

"Well it's good to know he placed his bets on us I suppose. For what it's worth, I believe in you too Princess." Dean said softly, turning his head to kiss her shiny espresso hair. Aleah sighed against him, still sniffling a bit as she thanked him for being by her side. "Nowhere else I'd rather be. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" He asked, nodding when she asked him to simply keep holding her.

The hunter shifted and guided her to lie down on her mattress with her figure still pressed against him, holding her securely and sighing as he let some of the built up tension in his muscles ease up as he felt her relax into his embrace, nuzzling her face deeper into his shoulder and taking a deep, centering breath.

The pair lay entwined for the rest of the evening, not speaking, not moving except for the errant brush of fingertips now and then. A gentle knock roused them from their cozy near-sleep state, and Dean shifted to sit up leaving Aleah lying on the bed. He called that the door was open and Sam poked his head in, smiling gently at Aleah then looking back to Dean.

I've got some dinner ready, if you guys are hungry. Castiel went to scout Yosemite so if you're up for it, you should probably be up and around for when he gets back with the news. The taller hunter knew Aleah hadn't really gotten much time to process everything she'd just been force-fed about her dad but their lives rarely afforded them much time for peaceful contemplation.

Aleah sat up as well and reassured Dean with a gentle touch and shake of her head that she was fine to get up when he tried to tell her she didn't need to come out yet if she wasn't ready. Sam smiled, admiring the woman's fortitude of will and left them to join him and Garth for dinner at their own pace.

Dean stood and helped Aleah up, pulling her into a hug and snatching her chin with his thumb and index finger before she could back out of his grasp. "It's gonna be okay." He assured her, knowing there wasn't much point in making a promise like that considering what they were up against, but he still felt like he needed to say the words anyway. 

Aleah lay with Dean with her eyes closed, enjoying his gentle touch and the comfort of knowing that he was there with her. She barely heard the knock on the door, it only registered when Dean moved to sit up and Sammy peeked in through the cracked open door. He told them there was dinner made and ready for them both if they wanted to come out for a bit, smiling at her and seeming to think that she should get out and be there when Castiel got back.

When she sat up Dean started to tell her she didn’t have to get up and go out at all if she wasn’t up for it. She reached out and touched him softly, giving a shake of her head to let him know she could manage, if anything she wanted the comfort of the family she had here. Sam grinned once more and with that he ducked out of the room and left them to decide if they were going to come out and eat with him and Garth. She got up off the mattress and Dean grabbed her instantly, pulling her into a hug once more.

She smiled and hugged him back, stepping away but instead he gripped her chin and made her look at him, promising that things would work out. The brunette nodded, “I know.” She responded seeming rather certain of herself when she said those words. “You know no matter what, you and I will be okay and I’m always going to love you. Even if something ever happens…” She murmured, a gentle smile on her lips as Dean shook his head and told her not to think like that but they both knew what she was getting at.

Garth and Sam were seated in the living room together, the taller of the two eating quietly while Garth ranted on about his last hunt. Sam simply nodded, looking overly thankful when Dean and Aleah stepped into the room hand in hand. Aleah dragged her lover over to the kitchen and to her surprise he pulled out plates, served them both and got her a beer, popping it opened for her so she didn’t have to. She giggled, “Now that’s royal treatment.” She grinned, leaning up to kiss his scruffy jaw and pull away but he grabbed her, kissing her again and promising she deserved it. “You say that now but give it a few days and you’ll forget.” She teased.

The couple wandered into the living space, sitting on the smaller of the couches while Garth sat on the end of the larger and Sam was seated alone in the lazy boy, leaning forward and chowing down. They were nearing the end of their meal when Castiel appeared before them, it didn’t take long for an angel to search a location and Yosemite wasn’t exactly giant but he had to be thorough in his search for the proper location that the ritual might need to take place. “The highest peak… near the falls… I am afraid the location may be compromised. The others did not make their presence known but it was clear I was not alone. That could very well be coincidence but we should not write it off as such.” Cas stated simply, standing in the middle of the room and waiting for no greetings.

Aleah looked to Dean and Sam, seeming worried about the fact that maybe others had caught on, they were starting to put the pieces together as well. “Lets not get our panties in a bunch, fellas…” Garth spoke up, looking to Aleah and smiling, “And lady.” He finished, “We don’t know for sure but we’ll go full force fight mode, we’ll have an army of back up. It’ll be good.” He said, taking a drink of his juice, one of few things that Dean would ‘allow’ him to drink considering sugar hyped him up and he was the biggest light weight around. “’Ey, Sammy what’d the tablet say about timin’? I mean we gotta do this full moon, right at dusk or somethin’ like that? Be kinda nice to have a fight when it’s still day light at least.” He muttered.

Sam looked at all of them and shrugged, hurriedly swallowing his mouthful of food to answer Garth's question. "As far as I know, there isn't a strict time to enact the ritual. But I was just getting to something on the tablet before my juice wore off that might be alluding to a time of day, so I want to double check that before we make any kind of move." He said, his tone sober and he let his gaze drop back to his plate, knowing full well that none of them wanted him looking at the tablet again.

Aleah broke the heavy silence after a moment, asking him how sure he was about timing not being an issue, wanting him to consider if reading the tablet again was absolutely necessary. The long haired hunter shook his head. "I can't be sure. I know how you all feel, but I we can't risk everyone's lives on the off-chance that we do have to do this on the third Wednesday of August but only if it's raining out or something." He replied, trying to lighten the mood a bit though his little crack didn't do much.

Dean nodded, clearing his throat to discourage any further nay-saying from Aleah or perhaps Garth. He knew fully what it cost his little brother to do this but there wasn't any other choice. As much as he hated it he knew he had to let Sammy do this. Like he said, the risk was too great. 

"All right then. Do it tonight, try to get everything you need in one shot. Aleah or Cas can top off your tank and we can get a move out." He said with a note of finality, not liking it but knowing that someone had to lay it all out. If this whole thing went sideways on them, they could look back and blame him for giving the order.

They all seemed to accept his words, even if it was with a note of regret. They finished their food, Garth took it upon himself to fill the silence with more choice selections from his grab-bag of ridiculous stories from hunts he'd gone on and reports he'd gotten from other hunters now that he had pretty much assumed Bobby's place as a support system for all of them.

Sam got up and put his dishes in the sink, grabbing his blood drawing kit and the piece of parchment he had to burn after Crowley gave him the sigil he needed to write in goat's blood for the spell so he could put on his prophet goggles. He turned down hall to go downstairs to their pet demon king, stopping when he felt Aleah's light grip on his bicep.

He turned and she asked him softly if she could accompany him, offering to draw his blood for him and justifying it by reminding him that she had been in school to become a nurse. Sam smiled and shook his head, gently brushing her hand off of his arm. "It's okay Al. You don't have to see any of this. As long as you're around to patch me up afterward, that's enough." He answered, touched that in spite of everything she'd been through today, she was more concerned for his well-being than anything else.

 

None of the others liked Sammy playing profit how he was but they seemed to understand at least the reasoning behind it. Aleah bit her lower lip, knowing that it had to be done for them to be sure of the circumstances in which they had to do the ritual to make sure everything was set to go and done correctly. They didn’t have multiple chances at this, not if there were others on their tails watching and waiting for the moment they could strike.

They finished up their meal in comfort… at least for Aleah, she smiled at Garth who seemed completely ecstatic to have someone that was so willing to listen to his stories, take in what he had to say and even ask him questions about what happened exactly. She liked him, no matter what the brothers said, his kindness and pure enthusiasm involving life and everyone around it was refreshing in a number of ways. Garth was finishing up a tale about a werewolf he encountered, bringing up past hunts with the boys and stories Bobby once told him about the creatures. He was smart, no matter what else he was a good asset and that was certainly clear.

Aleah followed Sam up from where they sat, heading in behind him to the kitchen and putting her empty beer bottle on the counter to go out with recycling and rinsing off her dishes in the sink. He left the kitchen to go down to the ‘dungeon’ like area that they kept the King of Hell and she followed after him once more, padding down the hall to catch up to the man, having to jog to keep pace. She gently touched his arm and got his attention so he would stop, turning around to face her. “Can I come too?” She asked quietly, meeting his eyes as he started to shake his head. “Sammy I can draw your blood for you, I was going to school to be a nurse after all.” She pointed out, smiling at him.

Sam pushed her hand off his arm and she stood there staring for a moment or two, “I know I don’t have to see it all but… I’m kind of curious about this Crowley fella and I don’t know…” She murmured just barely above a whisper, hoping that he would let her come with him. Sam shook his head again and turned back around to head down to where Crowley was being kept and despite his words that didn’t keep her from wanting to go with him so she chased after him. “Sam wait.” She requested and he halted again only this time she managed to work her way in front of him.

The brunette stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck, hugging him to her. “It doesn’t always have to be you reading the tablet… but… I appreciate everything you’ve done Sammy.” She told him, holding him close until he hugged her back. She smiled and gently took the blood drawing kit Sam had from him, making him laugh and accuse her of distracting him. “So? Come on, least I could do is keep you company; maybe it’ll be less stressful. I can sit with you while you read the holy pebble.” She shrugged, putting up little fight when he reached for the kit back. “I just worry about you being on your own… down there.” She finished.

Sam laughed a little as he gently tugged the kit back from Aleah, shaking his head knowing that he wasn't going to be able to dismiss her without a fight. He walked past her and tossed his head to indicate she should follow, having to acknowledge that her being at his side did make this whole awful process seem a bit more bearable.

They made it down to Crowley's dark little cell. Sam flipped on the lights and set his supplies down on the table, efficiently removing what he needed from the blood draw kit and ignoring the demon's smarmy chuckle when he placed the small square of parchment and small ink vial full of animal blood in reach of one of Crowley's bound hand.

"Hello, Moose. Is it bring your daughter to work day?" Crowley asked, his dark gaze sliding over to Aleah and he gave her a sly little grin. The brunette took a half step behind Sam's towering frame, likely not enjoying the man's leering stare. Sam secured the little strip of rubber on his bicep, clenching and un-clenching his fist a few times to make the veins running down his arm more prominent.

"You know the drill Crowley. Sigil first, hit after. Let's go." Sam ordered absently, getting his needle ready to go. Aleah put her small hand over his before he could continue, telling him again that she could do at least this much for him. He smiled and nodded, handing it over but they both froze when the demon king spoke again.

"You know every time Sasquatch here uses my spell, it takes more years off his life." Crowley quipped, idly fidgeting with the quill and ink bottle before him, making his chains clink slightly.

Sam shot him a dark look, returning his attention to Aleah and gently rubbing her shoulder with his free hand. "Just ignore him. It's all right." He soothed, holding his arm at a better angle for her to take his blood.

"Doesn't have to be that way of course..." Crowley murmured just before the brunette slid the needle into Sam's arm. She stopped and looked around the hunter's body, asking him what he meant and Sam shook his head, trying to get her attention back but failing.

Aleah practically skipped down the hallway and followed Sam into the cell they kept the King of Hell contained in. She smiled at Sammy for allowing her to come with him at least, glaring slightly at Crowley while Sam handed him the pen and ink substitute. He smirked at her, his eyes raking over her frame and regardless of his reasoning it made her more than a little uncomfortable. She shifted to slide further behind her friend to keep the others gaze off of her as much as she could.

Sam seemed rather unfazed and unamused by Crowley’s comments, instructing him to draw the sigil and get a move on. He had the needle hovering over his arm and Aleah reached out to hold her hand over his, “I can do that at least since I’m here.” She assured him, giving him a smile as she took the needle from his hand with a nod. Crowley kept up his act, trying his best to get under her skin while she focused on drawing Sam’s blood.

She turned when he mentioned Sam’s life slowly depleting to nothing each time he did this ritual… it bothered her and knowing that each time he did it he lost more years, it was a heavy weight on her even though he seemed perfectly willing. Crowley’s next words however made her freeze, pulling the needle away before she could push it into his skin and staring the demon down. “Excuse me?” She questioned, “What’s that mean?”

Sam tried to pull her back around him to block her from viewing Crowley, saying he was just trying to get under her skin, get her worked up and get a rise out of her. It was what he lived for. She pushed at the tall hunter and gave him a look that said to stop grabbing her, stop pulling her back. “No I want to hear what he has to say!” She snipped at him, putting the needle down on the table. “Tell me the other way! What do we have to do?” She asked her voice loud but she sounded intrigued, stepping towards the table he sat at and catching his gaze, brushing off the smirk that he wore and focusing on the information he might give her all the while with Sam at her back, tugging her away or trying to at least.

Crowley looked like a cat who'd just been handed a dish of cream, practically oozing satisfaction that he'd roped the woman into his little scheme. He wasn't exactly spoiled for entertainment down here in this dark hole, and the half-angel presented him with a unique opportunity that he would exploit in a heartbeat if given the chance.

"Well it's simple really. I'll just write the sigil correctly so that it doesn't siphon off so much of poor Sammy boy's life force. It'll cause more physical damage sure, but that's where you come in handy, right angel face?" The demon king replied.

Aleah demanded that he give them the correct symbol, promising with more resolve than the demon would have thought her capable that she would end him if he tried to double-cross them. He raised his brows, clucking his tongue at the half-angel but still the snarky grin remained on his face.

"My goodness me. Your time with Laverne and Shirley has really roughened up your disposition crumpet." Crowley commented, dipping his quill in the goat's blood and holding it's dripping tip over the parchment. "Here's the deal moppet. My new and improved sigil for one vial of your blood." He proposed, his devilish gaze flickering up to Sam when the tall hunter finally couldn't stop himself from intervening any longer.

"Absolutely out of the question, Crowley!" Sam snapped roughly, gripping Aleah's shoulder and pulling her back, stepping in front of her in a unconsciously protective stance even though the demon was bound and tied at the moment. "You are not getting a single drop of her blood, so shut up and write the damn sigil we've been using. No deal." He commanded fiercely, wishing he had insisted on Aleah not accompanying him, that he hadn't let his own selfish desire for support cloud his judgement.

Aleah touched his back, arguing with him to let her give Crowley some her blood and Sam turned to face her, forcing himself to lower the pitch of his voice when addressing her though it was difficult. "Aleah. No. There's no telling what giving Crowley a shot of Nephilim blood would do, let alone one born from an archangel. Besides, it's more than likely there isn't a better symbol anyway. This is what he does, okay? He pokes the bear, tugs the loose strings, messes with people just for the sake of messing with them. Please. Trust me, not him." Sam pleaded, searching her face and holding her line of sight, his heart bleeding when her blue eyes began to well with emotion again.

The half-angel softly accepted his words, backing down and picking up the needle again to draw his blood for him. He smiled with relief and held out his arm, hardly flinching when she poked the metal into his flesh and took a syringe full of his blood. Tears ran down her cheeks and he gently cupped her face hating that her caring for him meant that she would be hurt by default.

"It's okay Al. We've all got our part to play in this, and this is mine." He said in a soothing voice, wiping away her tear tracks and turning back to Crowley. The demon king raised his dark brows, looking once more at Aleah and waggling his quill in his fingers.

"Last chance, angel food cake." He warned, snickering and then crying out in pain when Sam growled and jammed the syringe into his neck with far more force than was necessary, injecting him with his own blood and demanding in a dangerous tone that he write out the symbol required on the parchment.

The demon king yelled his acquiescence and scribbled an elaborate sigil on the square, hissing when Sam finally extracted the needle from his neck and giving the tall hunter a dirty look for spoiling the full buzz he might've gotten from his blood fix. Sam dropped the parchment into the metal bowl he had set aside on the other table, setting it aflame and speaking the Enochian verse required to enact the gift of the Sight.

The hunter's world narrowed to the scanned images of the tablet laid out on the table before him, his muscles getting steadily tighter and tighter as the pain radiating out from behind his eyes grew white hot like it always did when he forced himself to read the Word. Sam read from his last place he left off, furiously scribbling down notes and taking in as much as he could. He powered through the blinding pain as best as possible, gripping the edge of the table with his left hand till his knuckles were white, panting from the effort of not letting the agony swallow him up and keep reading.

He was vaguely aware of a soothing presence beside him, a light touch on his clenched hand that comforted without interfering with his task. Sam couldn't really afford to focus on anything but the translation but he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that Aleah was next to him, murmuring encouragement through her tears and even if he didn't like her seeing this he was grateful for her support.

Nearly thirty minutes later the prophetic sight began to fade, and Sam's body was well past it's limits. His tall frame trembled violently to the point where he could hardly write his notes legibly, his face white as a sheet and a fine layer of sweat over most of his skin. Aleah prompted him to stop but he had to keep going, this last verse was very important and he had to be sure to get it all before the Sight faded entirely. A trickle of blood ran from his nose and dripped down onto the table, and he managed to get the last few words scrawled down before collapsing to his knees.

Every alarm bell was ringing in Sam's anguished mind, this just wasn't right. Reading the table was always hell, especially when he performed several sessions in a row without taking time to recover. But he had been healed by Aleah after his sessions lately, and this time was still far more painful and draining that it had ever been before. Crowley. He must've given him a different sigil after all, and while he was glad he had managed to record the information vital to their ritual working, he was now being forced to consider that this dark room was going to be the last thing he ever saw.

The world began to spin and Sam fell back, his consciousness snuffing out like a candle flame and so he couldn't even control his descent. Aleah tried to break his collapse as much as she could, but she was much smaller than him and only just managed to keep his head from cracking hard on the pavement. He couldn't hear her alarmed cries or feel her tears dropping on his face, or the smug laughter of the demon king underneath it all.

Aleah kept her hand on Sam’s frame any way that she could, muttering reassurances and words of encouragement as he scribbled out notes that she could hardly understand herself. She watched him work through her tear soaked eyes, hating seeing him do this when she knew full well what it was doing to the inside of him. “Sam…” She muttered his name, seeing him look like he might get sick or pass out from his efforts. “Sammy stop.” She instructed, touching him again but he didn’t seem to even hear her at all.

She gripped his arm a little tighter, fingers digging into his skin and trying to pry him away from his task even though it needed doing. She hadn’t ever watched him read the tablet before but this didn’t seem right, she had healed him time and time again and she could see clearly the damage was getting deeper this time around, wondering in the back of her mind if this might be his last time, this might be the one time that she couldn’t fix him back up and set things straight in Sam’s person.

Sam’s nose dripped blood and she cried harder at the sight, reaching up with one hand and trying to wipe it away with her sleeve, unbothered by the stain it might leave behind. His eyes fluttered and she whispered his name again, then a little louder trying to pull him back to the here and now and soon he tumbled, his large frame nearly pushing her over as well but she did her best, squeaking as he fell and following him to the ground with her hands under his head. “Sammy!” She screamed, patting his cheek and desperately trying to keep him there with her.

“Dammit I told you…” She sobbed, shaking her head. She didn’t want to risk him like this again, it killed her to watch it alone, knowing the pain he was putting himself through. The laugh from beside her brought her back, pushing Sam’s hair away from his face. She turned and stared up at the demon king, Crowley who had a smug look on his face, this was his doing. “What did you do!? What did you do to him!” She screamed her voice cracking from emotion and the high octave she used.

Aleah stared up at him, shifting under Sam’s head she was cushioning and getting to her feet. He had a devious look in his eyes and she knew he did something to cause such a strong effect. She hunched again and laid her hands over Sam, shaking as she tried her damnedest to revive her best friend all the while with Crowley’s cruel voice cooing behind her that her efforts weren’t worth it. “What do you want?! You want my blood! Will that fix him?”

Crowley all but giggled in his chains. "Oh I like you, moppet. So pretty, so... Animated." He commented, watching as she rose to her feet and stepped closer, swiping a fresh syringe off the table and holding her arm up. "Yes, that's right. Just a taste and I'll fix Lurch here right up for you." He said in a dulcet tone, reeling his fish in and biting at his lower lip in anticipation of receiving his prize.

A sharp yell echoed through the room, Crowley let out a curse as he saw Castiel and Dean suddenly manifest in the room behind Aleah. The full angel immediately dropped to one knee beside Sam and put one hand on the man's chest and the other on his forehead, the tingling sensation of him flexing his angelic powers filling the room as he began to heal him.

Dean grabbed Aleah and yanked her back away from the table Crowley was seated at, snatching the syringe from her hand and throwing it across the room with a growl. "What the hell are you trying to pull you slimy douchebag!?" The short haired hunter yelled, pushing the half angel behind him in much the same fashion Sam had done earlier that evening, as if the demon king's very gaze itself was poisonous.

"Oh come on now Squirrel. Just a bit of fun really. Can't blame a girl for trying." Crowley said in far too reasonable a tone, only serving to make Dean even more upset.

"What did you do to my brother you son of a bitch?" Dean yelled, his voice coarse with anger and before Crowley could even speak again the hunter raised his gun and shot him twice in the chest, wanting to cause the demon at least a fraction of Sammy's pain. Aleah cried, trying to apologize, to soothe him, to simply talk to Dean but he was blind with anger and panic for his brother, hating that it had taken him this long to realize Crowley's endgame all along.

Castiel's quiet voice caught the half-angel's attention and he instructed her to quickly aid him in healing Sam or they were going to lose the younger Winchester. She released Dean for the moment but the hunter hardly noticed, coming around the table and pressing the end of his gun into Crowley's fresh bullet wound, extracting the demon slaying knife from the holster on his belt and working the tip of it into the prisoner's other gunshot wound.

The demon king sputtered and growled in pain, smiling and showing his teeth now awash with blood from what would have been fatal wounds if he were anything other than the king of hell. "Don't make me ask you again Crowley." The hunter growled, pushing the blade further into the demon's chest until his body began to twitch and crackle with eldritch energy.

"All I did... Was exactly what your little Pigeon wanted. I gave Sammy boy the sigil that wouldn't cost him any more years of his life. I did warn them both that the effects of the symbol were a tad more... Aggressive." Crowley laughed but it shattered into a cough of pain when Dean came within millimeters of ending his life with the ancient blade.

Dean yanked the blade free of the demon's body and turned to look down at his brother prone on the ground, both Castiel and Aleah poised over him combining their efforts to save Sammy from dying in the most final sense the Winchesters had ever come across. "If he doesn't make it, I swear Crowley..." Dean snapped, his grip on the knife tightening and the demon struggled to draw in enough breath to speak with his wounds.

"I'll get it right in the bollocks, I know I know." He spat out a mouthful of blood, watching for his own entertainment and relishing the fear and anger of all the mortals and angels around him. Dean dashed back around the table and knelt at Sammy's head, looking from his friend to his lover and gently reaching out to put his hand on his brother's hair.

"You can do it. You can save him." Dean coached, mostly directing his encouragement at Aleah but also to bolster himself and keep from screaming his own rage and panic. "Come on Sammy, come on." He murmured under his breath, hoping he could hear him still.

Aleah tried to plead Dean, tell him what happened, make him calm down but it was hardly worth the breath. He was far past the point of being angry and went straight on to being completely livid, on a war path and out for the Demon King’s filthy blood. She could hardly blame him to be quite honest but now wasn’t the time for her to spend trying to break through to him. She did as he prompted, slipping behind his frame as he threatened Crowley for likely the dozenth time just that week alone.

She jogged over to Sam’s opposite side, leaving Dean to do what he felt he needed to though they might still need Crowley as much as she hated to think such a thing, she didn’t wish death on anyone but perhaps the law of ‘an eye for an eye’ might come back into tact here. If she lost Sammy, her best friend and a man she saw as her big brother, she didn’t know what she would do. She crouched down and held Sam’s other side as Castiel instructed her to do so.

Sam didn’t even seem to be breathing, not that she could see or feel but it was worth the shot anyways in her eyes, she would break herself to save him, knowing Castiel would do the same. Her uncle looked up at her and gave a nod which she exchanged for one of her own, knowing they needed to get a jump on it if they had any chance of saving him now. She could faintly hear Dean still threatening the King of Hell but she did her best to keep focus, her attention on Sammy full force.

Aleah rested a hand on the other side of his chest and the opposite on his temple, closing her eyes and she felt Dean beside her soon enough. What she felt from Sam however was little to nothing and both angels, half and whole were giving up hope on turning this around. Castiel was muttering under his breath and for a brief second she lost her focus, her eye lids fluttering but not opening fully, flinching as Cas’s harsh tone jabbed at her to follow his lead and keep to their task. She nodded and adjusted her hold on the man, cupping his cheek instead and with a few quick flashes of light, the hum of extra energy around them making nearly the whole of the basement vibrate.

The brunette felt nothing, not Dean’s hand on her back, not the change in the air, not the vibrations of the room, the only thing she felt was the pain in Sam’s soul, his whole being was destroyed some damage maybe permanently and it was odd to heal with Castiel’s aid, felt like they were walking together through Sam’s mind, restoring the old and patching up what they could like renovating a home after disaster struck. All her senses were honed in on Sammy and she could hear his voice inside her head begging to be let go but she couldn’t do that, not with him. Her fingers curled into his shirt, “Not this time, Sammy.” She whispered to no one in particular and the surge of energy grew stronger, Sam’s chest beneath her hand slowly began to rise a little more steadily as he returned to them.

The younger of the hunters was no where near full consciousness but anything was better than the previous. Aleah felt Castiel’s hand glide close to hers, their fingertips touching and she knew he was coaxing her to finish the job, encouraging her not to let up and she didn’t, her own body and mind hurt from the effort, her head pulsating and her frame trembling but she didn’t give, not until Sam shifted, his fingers twitched and it was a promising sign of life. She wondered as her eyes opened again if perhaps Crowley was the only one who could put him completely whole again, set him back to rights and give him more than just a careful patch job. He needed deep fixing up and that was something she couldn’t do, not alone.

Dean sat back on the cold concrete, feeling a sliver of relief when he saw Sammy's chest start to rise and fall steadily, even if his younger brother didn't wake up. He knew both Aleah and Cas had poured all their efforts into saving him, he only hoped that it was enough. It had to be. "Well?" He asked Cas, wanting the angel's assessment of his brother's state.

His friend met his gaze, his expression solemn. Castiel explained that they had managed to keep Sam in the realm of the living, but there was still extensive damage that needed to be repaired. He told him he was fairly certain they could successfully restore him, but it was going to take time and a lot of power.

"So... We don't need his help, right?" Dean asked, his voice full of disdain when he referred to the demon king. Cas nodded, stating that he wasn't sure but felt confident he and Aleah could heal Sam on their own. "All it'll cost us is time then. The longer and harder it is for you to heal Sammy, the more time the God Squad has to marshal their forces at Yosemite." Dean reasoned, cursing the rat bastard chained next to them and contemplating just finishing him off then and there on principle.

Dean forced himself to stand and move away from Sammy, going to look over what his brother had left written on the table. "Aleah, you were with him when he did the translation... Did it seem like he got everything he needed? All the information he was looking for?" The hunter asked, making himself focus on their job despite his worry for his brother's well-being. Aleah had a harder time tearing her focus away from Sam, gently petting the slumbering man's hair and murmuring brokenly that she wasn't sure. She told Dean he was writing down notes until the last possible second, but it was nothing she had been able to make sense of.

The elder Winchester nodded, knowing the translation process was two step for Sammy, get all the information off the tablet he could, then sort it out into something coherent after the 'prophet hangover' faded. He sighed in frustration, setting his gun down and picking up a couple note pages, hardly able to read his brother's disjointed handwriting and what he could read didn't make any sense to him either.

"Great. So now we're basically stuck until he gets better, and until you two recharge after making him better. Awesome." He summed up the situation grimly, fixing Crowley with another venomous glower.

The demon king shrugged, holding up his hands as far as he could in his restrictive restraints in mock surrender. "Ooh, don't look at me like that Squirrel. Makes my man bits all tingly." He quipped, snickering despite the pain it caused him. His mockery was cut short however, when the air pressure in the room suddenly shifted and even Dean was blown back a bit by the force of Aleah standing and thrusting her arm out towards the bound demon, pinning him against the chair making the furniture groan and crack with the sheer amount of invisible force she was projecting at Crowley. 

The half-angel's eyes glowed faintly, the tears still streaming from them steaming slightly on her flushed cheeks. She screamed at the demon, all her pent up fear and anger boiling over and the whole room shook. Dean cried out, raising his hands to his ears involuntarily because it felt like his ear drums were about to burst from the pressure, he braced himself and crossed the space to his lover, gathering her trembling form against him and speaking her name over and over in a soothing tone, trying to calm her down for her and all their sakes.

"Aleah... Aleah baby please. I know you're upset, I am too, but you need to calm down for me. Come on Princess, come back to me... Save your energy for helping Sammy... Aleah..." Dean murmured against her ear, stroking her back and holding her tight until to his great relief she seemed to snap out of her fugue and finally clung to his frame, weeping softly, barely able to support her own weight.

Dean kept her from falling, shushing her as he shifted his grip to hold her bridal-style. "Cas, move Sammy to his room and keep an eye on him. Everything else gets put on hold till we've had a chance to heal. All of us." The hunter instructed calmly, his rage at Crowley gone in exchange for his concern for his desperate, broken family he'd go to any lengths to protect. About that time Garth had finally found his way down to the 'dungeon,' and Dean told him in the same subdued tone to get everything Sammy had written and the spell implements cleaned up. 

The lanky hunter didn't question him, getting to work immediately and giving Aleah a sympathetic farewell, telling her to get some rest though the brunette had already slipped into unconsciousness against her lover's strong frame. Dean carried her up to her bed and gently laid her down, pulling the covers up to her chin. He sat heavily on the edge of her mattress, put his head in his hands, and allowed himself to quietly weep.

Aleah was poised by the long haired hunter, gently running her fingers through his smooth hair as she answered Dean’s question quietly, her focus on Sam and soothing him to her best abilities. She touched Sam’s cheek, staring down at him and hoping to offer him comfort even as he remained unconscious. She listened absently to her lover and then the sound that caught her full attention was that of Crowley’s voice. She rose up from the ground with ease as if she was floating upright, her sparkling blue gaze flickered directly at the enemy.

She moved like she was in a trance, hardly aware of her own reactions but her rage towards this… beast before her was uncontrollable. The brunette fixed him with her stare and his body was forced back against the chair completely, the force of her abilities so strong she kept him from speaking or maybe that had something to do with her screaming at him. “I’ve had enough of you! Of all you demons, gods, goddesses, it’s all a load! You think I won’t kill you?! That I’m too weak to do it?!” She questioned harshly, each word growing louder as she spoke and her voice and unintelligible chanting and hollering grew to a range she didn’t know existed.

There was a single thought in her mind, nothing holding her back from ripping this fool apart and like her dad said, she was strong, a lot stronger than she ever gave herself chance to channel. Her fists clenched at her side and the pressure in the room grew more intense as she pinned Crowley down, kept him from talking and it wasn’t until she felt Dean against her, muttering sweetly against her ear and drawing her back to reality of what she was doing.

Her bleary gaze flickered away from the King and she gasped for breath, tears spilling past her dark lashes and onto her lovers blue button down shirt. Aleah’s body slumped, her knees giving in but Dean was ready for her fall, keeping her upright as she clung to him like her only life line. He hushed her gently and swung her legs around, hooking his arm beneath the back of her knees and carrying her easily towards the steps. Castiel nodded his agreement, kneeling once more beside Sam and pressing his finger tips to his temple, taking him with him to the youngest hunter’s room. With a flash he had the taller man in bed, put to rest and he stayed at his side, hearing Garth scamper down the hall but he didn’t react, letting the man handle picking up what they had to go off of in terms of the tablet, Sam needed his attention, his watchful eye for the evening and he would gladly linger.

Aleah had passed out in Dean’s arms, having no idea just how much it drained her to do such things with her angelic powers but when she roused her lover was sitting on the top of the mattress, shill half clothed beside her, his head hanging and he almost looked like he was praying though there wasn’t really many to respond but maybe it was out of comfort or he was so deep in his own thoughts… Manny was sleeping against his leg but he hardly seemed to notice him in the least bit. He didn’t move, not until she groaned tiredly and as soon as her eyes focused fully they started to water, the recollection of the day’s events flooding back. “Where’s Sammy?” She asked, her voice wobbly and quiet but it was enough to grab his attention.

When Aleah shifted she realized how tightly Dean was clinging to her fingers even in her sleep, his back against the paneled headboard at the top of her bed, his gaze almost vacant completely as he answered that Sam was sleeping in his room, not to worry because Garth and Cas were watching over him in shifts and Castiel said he would recover slowly but surely. She swallowed hard, squeezing her lovers fingers and scooting over to press up against the side of his frame but that wasn’t enough, swinging her leg over his lap and sitting across him and resting into his grasp comfortably. He carefully wrapped his arms around her shoulders the other slung across her legs, asking if she was okay, “Yea I think so, but… stay with me, please?” She requested, glancing down as Manny stretched and moved to sit at the end of the mattress, disturbed by their chattering.

“I-I didn’t mean to lose control like that… I’m just really tired of us being picked on.” She whispered, hearing Dean’s agreement and the tone in his voice told her he was breaking down, slowly but surely as she looked into his bright green gaze she could tell he had been crying, that he was barely hanging on to those emotions now. The brunette swallowed hard, “We’re okay baby, just like you said. I’ll fix Sammy, I swear I will. I shouldn’t have gone down there with him; he told me not to follow but I made him take me with him and that’s what got Crowley… He-He wouldn’t have messed with him if I hadn’t been there. Dean I’m—“ She cried, trying to force herself to meet his gaze but she could hardly manage it.

Dean cut her voice off with a kiss and muttered how they should have expected that towards the last leg the King might pull some sort of stunt on them. His voice wobbled as he recalled her behavior, how hard she pushed herself to bring Sam back and he cried, saying how he was always risking someone he cared for no matter how hard he tried to get things right. “Shh. Stop. Sweetie, all of us know what we’re in for now… we know the risks and the benefits and maybe I didn’t choose this at first but I’m more than happy to share this life with you and the other goons.” She teased, earning a light smile from him though it lacked much of anything. “We’re working out the kinks as we go. I’m sorry I lost control.” She muttered tiredly, reaching up to touch his scruffy cheek, “I’m so sorry that I hurt you…” She told him, recalling the effects of her actions on him.

Dean hushed her again, leaning down to kiss her tenderly and shifting down into a more comfortable reclining position with Aleah sprawled over him. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. Just rest." He told her in a soft voice, letting his eyes slip closed and focusing on the sounds of her breathing, her warmth and slight weight against him.

The pair drifted off into a deep sleep, not waking again until late in the afternoon the next day. Dean was the first to stir, sitting up and stretching, his motions bringing Aleah out of her slumber. "Hey. How you feeling?" He asked, checking his watch and groaning at the late hour. They both really needed the rest apparently.

Aleah responded that she felt much better, but was hungry and her words were accentuated by a loud gurgle coming from her stomach. She giggled and Dean smiled, standing up and adjusting his rumpled clothes as best he could. "I'm pretty hungry too. Let's go and check on Sammy then get cleaned up, find some grub." He prompted, holding out his hand for her to take and she tugged herself up off the mattress as well.

Sammy's room was dark and quiet, the tall hunter still lying out cold on his bed. Castiel was seated in a chair by the head of the mattress, his elbows braced on his knees as he leaned forward, keeping his silent vigil over his friend. He looked up when Dean and Aleah entered, greeting them in a subdued tone and asking if they were all right.

"We're fine. How's Sammy?" Dean responded, coming to stand at the foot of his brother's bed while Aleah moved between them to sit on the mattress and put her hand on the sleeping man's chest. She offered to start another healing session with Cas right away but Dean shook his head. "No, you need to get some food in you first, get your strength back before you dive in again." Dean told her, gripping her shoulder and Castiel agreed with his words, telling his niece that they would be more effective in healing Sam if they were in good condition themselves.

Aleah agreed to go and eat something, she and Dean left Cas to stay with Sam while they headed to the kitchen. To their surprise Garth was already there, and there were various pots and plates piled on the counters around him. The elder Winchester looked around with a flabbergasted expression, eyeing the odd selections of food laid out suspiciously.

"Uh, Garth? What's with all this.... Food?" Dean asked, using the term food lightly considering one plate was stacked with what looked like egg salad, bacon and hot dog sandwiches. The lanky hunter lit up when he saw Dean and Aleah, moving away from the stove where he was stirring a big pot to hug them both. He explained that since he didn't know exactly when they'd be up and around again, he figured he'd make breakfast, lunch and dinner foods, lay out a whole spread for whenever they were ready to eat.

Aleah suggested healing Sam but Castiel and Dean were both quick to brush off the idea. “We will be far more effective in the healing process if we are both well rested for the session. We will take the day. Dean is right, you need to replenish.” He stated softly, his narrowed eyes focusing on Sam’s sleeping face and Aleah nodded, getting back up to take Dean’s hand after kissing Sammy’s cheek and instructing him to do a little getting better on his own despite that he might not be able to hear her.

The couple walked hand in hand out to the kitchen in search of something to eat, anything they might be able to find and Aleah wasn’t so sure she felt like making up anything fancy like she might normally, hell some crackers and peanut butter would do her just fine for the time being until they felt up for putting a little more effort in after recovery. Her eyes went wide when she saw all the platters and bowls covered in various foods that Garth had made.

“Well good mornin’ sunshines!” The thin hunter greeted with an all too pleased grin smacked across his face. He rushed over to them, spoon still in hand from whatever it was he was currently stirring and threw his hands around both of them, squeezing their frames much tighter than you might think a man of his size could manage. Aleah laughed lightly, hugging him back until he pulled away to answer her lovers question.

“Well I wasn’t so sure when you’d be gettin’ up. Figured I’d cover all the bases, breakfast lunch and dinner. Lay it all out and you can decide what you’ve got a hankerin’ for.” Garth grinned widely, returning to the pot he was cooking with and sticking his spoon back into the heat liquid and Dean cringed as he asked what the hell he was cooking. “Homemade chili. Oh man, dug up a recipe in Bobby’s archieves awhile back and this stuff looks like hell right? Well it tastes like Heaven! You gotta try it. Tweaked it a bit, added little more brown sugar, made it sweeter and—“ He laid a hand on his stomach and made a pleased groan in his throat to emphasize.

Aleah laughed again and stepped forward to peer inside the large cooking pot, wrinkling her nose but Garth pulled the spoon out again, with a tiny scoop of the beans, offering it to her. “Go on. Don’t worry I know you’re a health nut here like Sammy but this stuff’s worth it.” He encouraged, nodding to her to take the sample, his hand cupped under the steaming spoon to catch any drips.

The brunette looked to Dean who seemed to find this rather amusing and she leaned forward, taking the bit he gave her while he still held the utensil and she hummed. “Oh my god that’s amazing.” She sighed, putting her hand over her mouth as she swallowed down the rest of it.

“I told yah! Dean?” Garth offered the spoon his way and Aleah smirked, taking her lovers hand and telling him he had to try it too. Dean brushed her off, saying he was good but she wasn’t going to let him out of this one, pulling him forward and the lanky hunter made the attempt to spoon fed him too with a grin on his face. Aleah put her hand over her mouth, biting her lower lip to keep from giggling at the image of Garth feeding Dean but he quickly snatched the wooden spoon and snipped at Garth saying he could happily feed himself.

Her lover pulled away and looked annoyed at them both, giving a thumbs up and quickly slipping away from the other. “Garth you didn’t have to do all this.” Aleah muttered, smiling at him and shaking her head at Dean who looked a little tramatized from his friend trying to feed him like he had but Garth was unfazed by his reactions, happily skipping around the kitchen and shaking his head at her.

“Got nothin’ better t’ do. I mean sure look after Sammy but Cas is there. You guys gotta get fed somehow and I knew our boy here…” He said, gesturing to Dean, “wouldn’t jump at the chance of makin’ up some chow for the rest of us. It’s all easy stuff anyhow… Them sandwiches are just as good. Feed ‘em t’ the guys a lot. Seems odd but somethin’ about all the flavors and just the right kinda bread makes it work.” Garth defended his odd dish he had laid out already with the rest of the food and Aleah gave a hesitant nod. “Dean why don’t cha carry ‘em out t’ the livin’ room you guys should sit and eat. Don’t worry bout waitin’ for me now.”

Dean was about to snip at Garth again and Aleah could feel it, putting her hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently she halted him from his attempt, giving a shake of her head and thanking Garth for the food. She took one of the plates out, staring at Dean until he grabbed the other and followed her into the living room grumbling about the other hunter. “Good to have you back, baby.” She giggled at him teasingly. “He’s trying to help. He loves you guys and I think it’s really sweet, whether you like it or not. You could learn from him.” She smiled, arching a brow and setting down the plate, laughing at Dean’s response. Aleah turned and stood on her toes to kiss him sweetly, “The least we can do is try it, he put a lot of effort into this, sweetie. Be nice.”

Dean sat down heavily in one of the chairs around the long table, grumbling under his breath but grudgingly acknowledging that Garth was doing his best to help them however he could. Even if that did making weird food. The hunter picked up one of the lanky hunter's signature sandwiches, sniffing it and wincing at the odd combination of aromas.

Aleah was watching him intently with an amused grin on her face, and he waved the sandwich in her direction, "Hey! If I have to eat one of these nasty things, so do you." He told her, smirking a bit when her features bent at the thought of eating one herself. She dutifully picked up her own sandwich and they played an unspoken round of chicken, bringing the sandwiches closer and closer to their mouths, each trying not to be the first one to take a bite.

Finally Dean tore into his food, and Aleah took a bite as well, both of their expressions going sour as they forced their mouthfuls down. The hunter dropped the rest of the sandwich back on his plate, ready to curse up a storm at how bad it tasted but at that moment Garth came in carrying the pot of chili that looked like it weighed more than he did, a huge grin on his face as he announced that it was time to 'get their grub on.'

Aleah gave Dean a sharp look and to his credit, Dean bit his tongue on how nasty the sandwich was. The chili actually wasn't half bad, so he had a big bowl of that and only took bites of most of the other foods Garth had prepared when the lanky hunter was watching him. The trio ate till they were full, barely making a dent in all the food Garth had prepared but it was a fairly pleasant meal all things considered.

Garth and Aleah busied themselves doing the dishes and putting away all the leftovers, while Dean sat nursing his beer and looking over Sammy's notes that Garth had left piled up on one end of the table. His green eyes narrowed as he tried to decipher his brother's handwriting, normally Sam had annoyingly good penmanship but he had obviously been under great strain when he wrote all this out.

He tried to make at least some sense of it, but even when Garth and Aleah joined him in the effort and they spent all evening on it it was obvious that they needed Sam to do the translating. Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his face, not wanting to call it a night with nothing to show for their efforts but there didn't seem to be any other choice.

"All right. I'm gonna go check on Sammy. We need to call it a night, do another healing session in the morning. We can't make heads or tails of this without him." Dean announced, standing and stretching after so many hours of sitting stiffly in the same position. He bid Garth goodnight, waiting for Aleah to straighten up her pile of notes herself and get up to join him. He knew she would want to look in on Sam as well before turning in, so the pair left hand in hand leaving their companion at the table who said he'd keep working at it a while longer.

When they arrived at Sam's room Castiel was in almost the exact same position they'd left him in that afternoon. The angel's eyes were closed and while Dean knew his friend didn't need to sleep, he sometimes meditated after a fashion, regaining his strength in that way. He shook his head at Aleah prompting her not to disturb him, hugging her close and watching the gentle rise and fall of Sam's chest for awhile. He had to take comfort for now that his brother was alive, even if he wasn't whole yet. He hated having to wait but he knew there was no other choice. He couldn't run Cas and Aleah into the ground to heal Sammy faster.

After a few moments Dean took Aleah's hand and tossed his head at the door, indicating that they should leave them for the night and she followed with a slight nod. The short haired hunter quietly closed Sam's door behind them and sighed. "It seems like it's always this way. Sammy keeps taking the licks and I can't do anything to stop it." He said in a subdued tone of voice.

Aleah followed her lover to Sammy’s room where both the other two were, Castiel still posed in the same spot they left him previously, he’d been there all night she assumed, watching over Sam. His eyes were closed and she knew he was quietly trying to heal himself and relax as much as he needed in order to get to the point of fixing up Sam completely. She wanted to ask him how her friend was doing, biting her lip and nodding when Dean indicated for her not to bug him. She wanted Sam better, wanted to fix him up as fast as possible but she also knew she had to be a hundred percent in order to be effective.

She slid into his arms, her hand over his abdomen and her head pressed into his chest, tucked neatly against his side at his prompting. They stood like that, watching Sam sleep like he was for a good few minutes before Dean laced his fingers with hers, nodding to the exit and silently indicating it was time to go for now. He was under Castiel’s care and that was enough considering they couldn’t do much more for the time being.

The brunette followed him out, rotating so he could close the door behind them. She smiled weakly at his statement and the gesture seemed to confuse him, his brow arching. She stepped forward and put her hands on his muscled sides, she liked this side of Dean, the one where he allowed himself to be weak from time to time, show what he was thinking and open up to her about his worries. “It’s not always this way… I seem to remember saving your ass one of the first days I was here.” She reminded him. “We’ve all taken a hit or two, I think Sammy… he’s always trying to prove himself to you baby and maybe it’s not in the best way but that’s why he’s so willing to take one for the team. Why he’s so okay with putting himself in danger; I think he thinks he’s gotta redeem himself.” She shrugged.

Aleah stood on her toes to kiss him sweetly, sighing when he didn’t seem to accept that. “You keep telling me it’s gonna be okay. Dean it is…” She muttered, staring up at him and running her hands over his chest to his shoulders. “Believe your own words, okay? Castiel and I will patch him up; he’ll be fine. I don’t like it either but it’s my fault for being there. I’m gonna fix it.” She promised, avoiding his gaze until she felt his lips on hers once more, making her moan lightly at the contact.

He ordered her to stop saying that it was her fault and she rolled her eyes, “No different than you taking the blame.” She pointed out, poking his chest before hooking her finger into the collar of his tee and pulling him back to her level. “Tired?” She questioned between heated kisses, laughing when he responded on how he couldn’t possibly be when they slept the day away. “Mmm well maybe I could fix that too.” She murmured suggestively.

Dean growled as she lightly tugged his lip with her teeth as she backed out of his grasp, winking at him when his breathing caught and she knew her added angel gusto was getting to him. It wasn’t something she used on him before but the look on his face made her rather pleased to use it to tease him. She walked away, swaying her hips and hoping to distract him from his heavy thoughts for the time being. It wasn’t like it had been long since they last had each other but sometimes she just couldn’t help herself, craving that closeness with him. “Coming, Lancelot?” She quipped from down the hall.

Dean watched his girlfriend meander down the hallway towards his bedroom, his darker thoughts and worries burning away in the wake of his intense desire for her. He quickly followed after her, catching up and rushing her inside his room, gripping her waist and pulling her against him to seal their lips as he kicked his door shut with his foot behind him.

He wasn't sure if it was just the stress of the past days making his temperament more volatile or what but all Dean knew for sure was he wanted Aleah so much he could hardly think straight, see straight. The hunter ravished her mouth with his, grinding his hips into hers and backing her against the wall with a thump, growling at how painfully restrictive his jeans had become in so short a time.

The brunette carded her fingers through his messy short cropped hair, her chest rising and falling against him and her little sounds muffled by his hungry lips were unraveling his higher brain functions. All his focus was narrowed to her sweet form pinned against him, all his efforts were centered on removing her clothes quickly so he could feel every bit of her soft skin that he could and get inside her.

He yanked her top off and fumbled impatiently with her bra clasp, nipping and sucking at her throat. After a few seconds the hunter growled with frustration and extracted his pocket knife, neatly cutting her bra off her body and her surprised gasp only turned him on more. He couldn't even be bothered to put his knife away again, opting to slam it's point into the wall an arms length away from Aleah's head, grinning ferally at his lover and capturing her lips again in a rough kiss.

Aleah started trying to undo his pants but her motions lost focus when he bent to sample her full breasts with his mouth, nipping her soft flesh and teasing her rosy peaks to rigid points with his tongue and teeth. She moaned loudly and he nearly came just from the sound, he had to tense all his muscles and remind himself that he was capable of pacing himself, even when he was so insanely turned on like he was.

Dean straightened back up, meeting Aleah's gaze and taking a few ragged breaths trying to calm himself a bit while he unfastened her jeans and pushed them eagerly off her hips. The brunette cupped his face and told him between shaky breaths that she liked this wild side of him. He smiled and kissed her hard and deep, his hand slipping beneath her panties and dipping into her soaked core. He drew her slickness up to swirl rapidly around her clit, making her cry out brokenly and grip his shoulders tight to keep her balance as her legs began to shake. 

Aleah wasn’t even sure if her ploy would work but the idea of trying had popped into her head long ago when she realized what Eris could do with her own abilities. She wanted him to want her so immensely that it drove him a little crazy and much to her surprise he didn’t disappoint, chasing her down and pushing her into his room a little rougher than he might normally. His attention whole heartedly on her body, having her in every manner he could, his eyes dark as he ravished her mouth, swallowing every moan she offered.

She gasped as her back and shoulders crashed into the wall behind them, moaning harshly until he broke away only for a few seconds to start tearing off her clothes. She flinched as he drew out his blade, flicking it opened and easily cutting through the fabric of her bra, letting it fall from her front as he drove the knife into the wall. “Jeez…” She gasped, eagerly trying to work opened his pants but he hardly let her have any control, pressing her hard into the wall and closing his mouth around one pert nipple, making her cry out and lose focus on her task entirely.

She panted heavily as he straightened back out and nearly tore her jeans opened, pushing them off her frame and she stared at him with hunger in her gaze. “I like this side of you…” She muttered through her ragged breathing, enjoying that he wasn’t acting like he might break her. She might not have been the most experienced lover but she was learning, wanting to take new leaps in their love life. She lost her train of thought as he grinned and kissed her roughly, his strong hand finding her center and dipping his fingers inside her slick center. “Oh fuck…” She cursed, sliding her hands up his frame to desperately grip him so she wouldn’t fall as he worked her over with his daft fingers.

Aleah’s body slumped down the wall but his tight grip on her with his opposite hand and his body pressed tight against hers kept her from falling, her knees wobbling as he brushed her clit. Her head lulled back and her body arched forward, riding his hand, hips jolting against his fingers to drive them deeper inside her body and it wasn’t long before her vision blurred and she cried his name as she came around his fingers. He growled like an animal, meeting her eyes and it was evident that he was fighting his own desire for the time being, clearly her touch worked on him, drove him to the point of want without him even realizing, if he did he was too focused on fucking her in any way that he could to address it for now.

He withdrew his hand and much to her surprise, the hunger he had for her willed her to test her own limitations and push past the boundaries. She snatched his wrist before he could suck off his fingers, taking each digit slowly into her mouth and licking them clean, hearing him groan and playfully complain that he had wanted to taste her too, making her laugh. She cupped his cheek with her opposite hand, letting his fingers slip from her mouth so she could speak, “Eat me.” She ordered playfully, seeing his pupils dilate right before her eyes and he slipped down her frame obediently, tearing opened the sides of her panties as he mouthed at her through the fabric.

The brunette’s fingers carded through his hair once more as he exposed her to his mouth, his rough hands forcing her legs apart and he hitched a thigh over his shoulder, offering a better angle for him to devour her, his tongue delving into her core and lapping at her nectar, sounds of pleasure escaping her with each flick of his tongue and brush of his lips against her lower body. He sucked her clit and eagerly ate her out until she was a trembling mess above him, tugging his hair almost in request for him to let up but he didn’t, not until she came against his tongue like he so clearly wanted.

Dean had never enjoyed his lover's reactions to his ministrations this much. He devoured her greedily, humming against her flesh as she came but not letting up his pace, garnering another orgasm from her right on the heels of the previous one, his own body on fire with want for her as she screamed his name and pulled his hair. 

He felt her starting to slump forward and quickly rose to catch her up in his strong arms, her pleasure making her boneless and it appeased the primal instinct in him that he had been the one to make her melt. Dean carried his lover to his bed and lightly tossed her on the bed, making her giggle at his hurry to shed his shirt, jeans and boxers in seconds flat.

He was so wrapped up in his need for her that he didn't for a second consider anything like protection, leaning over the bed and gripping her thighs, yanking her forward to the edge of the bed and burying himself to the hilt in her slick heat. Dean groaned at how good she felt around him, bucking his hips up into her rapidly and grabbing one of her long legs to force it up by her head, opening her up so he could drive even deeper inside her.

Aleah writhed and screamed beneath him, her hands twisting in the sheets and her face contorting with pleasure as he took her, telling him to fuck her harder and he obliged with a broken growl. The hunter slammed into her core, past all rational thought only focusing on how incredible she felt and sounded and looked, his every sense ablaze like he had never experienced before.

He scooted his knees up onto the bed forcing her upwards, driving into her center and gripping her face roughly, wanting to see her eyes glaze over with ecstasy as they fell over the edge together. Her walls flexed and fluttered around him as she came undone again, Dean moaned her name and came deep inside her, suddenly noticing through the haze of his mind-blowing orgasm that Aleah's blue eyes were faintly glowing.

He slumped against her utterly spent, realizing three things at once in the wake of his high: first, he had just had the most amazing orgasm of his life, second, he had just had that amazing orgasm inside of his girlfriend with no protection, and third, his girlfriend had used her angel mojo to drive him so wild he hadn't been capable of making a rational decision like putting on a condom.

"Aleah..." Dean panted, raising himself up enough to meet her gaze as he slipped from her body, his body still hypersensitive to her touch but he shook his head a bit trying to clear his mind. "Did you... Juice me up just now?" He asked, his mind and body still reeling from their shared high.

Aleah screamed in the wake of her orgasm feeling Dean slam up into her tight heat and bring her over the edge with ease. Her inner most muscles flexed around his length, drawing him in deeper and he forced her to meet his gaze, coming inside her body and heightening her pleasure with his own. She gasped at the sensation and his pace slowed until he was spent, everything flooding to both their minds.

She was holding him and he her as they both panted heavily, trying to come down from their mind blowing orgasms and despite the ache between her legs she hungered for him still. He pulled out of her and she whimpered at the loss of him inside her body, his seed dribbling from her body and mixed with her own desire. She sat up to meet him half way, trying not to smile at his question. “No…” She lied, his heavy breathing and the darkness in his eyes making it hard for her not to tug him to her and get him going again.

She reached for his face and he pulled back, raising his finger in a scolding manner at her as he asked her again if she used her ‘special mojo’ on him. The half angel bit her lower lip, “Kind of… I mean just a little bit to see what I could do…” She started and he shook his head at her, looking like he was trying not to laugh himself but he also seemed concerned, making her think he was upset with her. He commented on how that wasn’t exactly the best way to go about getting him to take her, “Well, I mean I only intended to heighten what you already wanted so in my defense the things you did were stuff you thought of on your own I just… ‘encouraged’ you to act on them.” She flushed red, letting her hands fall to her sides on the mattress as he hovered above her.

Dean stared at her and made mention of she should have at least reminded him they needed to be smart about this and she nodded in understanding. “I know but seeing you like that kinda… got me going and I didn’t exactly think about it either. I’m sorry, baby.” She whispered, worrying her lip again and slowly reaching to touch his sides, brushing her finger tips over his frame and staring up at him. “It felt different… I don’t know, liked it better I guess. I mean it’s always… amazing but having you, well y’know—“ She blushed as she stumbled over her words not sure how to tell him how she liked him coming inside her like that. “Are you mad?”

Dean's mind was racing, he'd had far more than his share of angels and demons alike messing with him and so his instinct was to bristle at her behavior, even if it had resulted in something that felt so incredible... He mentally chided himself for having trouble not focusing on the issue rather than what they'd just shared. He could tell by her blush and worried tone of voice that she understood she had been a bit out of line, but that didn't mean he didn't want to cross that line, as long as he was aware and consenting to it.

"No, I'm not mad-" He started, furrowing his brow and trying to think of a way to articulate how he felt. "Look, Aleah- that was... Pretty freakin' amazing, I'm not gonna deny that, but..." Dean chuckled, gently cupping her face and brushing his thumb over her cheek, trying to put her at ease. "But you did kind of hijack me. I didn't even stop and think once about being responsible, and I learned the hard way not to act that way anymore." He gently chided her, tipping her head back to face him again when she tried to look away from him.

"Hey. I'm not saying I'm not open to letting you take over like that again from time to time, because let me emphasize that that felt awesome, but it's something we need to agree on beforehand, okay? Just like any other kind of stuff you might wanna try in bed. Let me know you want to work your mojo on me first, and we'll do it. I trust you. But we've gotta get you on birth control or something then, if neither of us are gonna be in control enough to take precautions. Okay?" Dean chuckled kissing her lips lightly though even that small contact was enough to make him start burning for her again with all the excess lust still flooding his body.

 

Aleah fidgeted beneath him, letting her gaze drop from his own, focusing on the tattoo on his chest and anywhere else she could manage besides his eyes. She felt bad, really she did but she hadn’t exactly thought of it that way. He didn’t let her face away from him for long, sensing her closing in on herself for having done such a thing despite him saying that he enjoyed every second of it. “Sorry.” She said again in little above a whisper when he made her look at him but his next words partly cut her off.

She stared at him, blushing lightly when he said it was awesome, nodding at his terms none the less. He was right, she couldn’t just decide those kinds of things because she wanted it, they needed to agree to it. He mentioned birth control and she felt a little stupid for not having even considered the idea in the first place since they had been going at it like rabbits since their first night together. “Okay.” She muttered against his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling his lingering want for her.

She kissed him again, a little deeper each brush of their lips, closing her eyes and laughing when he asked if she was trying to mojo him again. “No, just hasn’t worn off yet I guess.” She answered, grinning into their next kiss. As she touched him she could feel what he did, her senses heightened and she knew she shouldn’t be messing with her abilities quite as much as she had been. He wasn’t lying when he said he liked it… more than liked it, he wanted it again.

“Not gonna ‘juice’ you again unless you want me to but… I really want you again.” She purred, reaching between them to stroke his length, hearing him groan a response. Dean chuckled but it was evident that he felt the same, her free hand pushing at his shoulders from one side, prompting him to switch places with her.

Dean shifted and helped guide Aleah's motion so she could roll atop him, his breathing still ragged from his earlier pleasure and only roughening further from the want in his lover's eyes and her hand firmly stroking him fully hard for her again. "Hold it." He murmured, reaching over to his bedside table and rummaging for a condom, handing it over to her and watching with a crooked smirk as she rolled it onto his erection.

He slid his hands up her narrow arms and over to cup and fondle her breasts, tweaking her stiff nipples and savoring her little mewls in response. It seemed like when she used her power to crank up his dials, it affected her in much the same way. "All right. Give me your best shot Princess." He teased, slipping one hand up to grip the back of her neck and tug her down to capture her lips in a hungry kiss.

The brunette eagerly responded to his kiss, and when they broke apart for air her bright eyes had that same faint glow to them like before. Dean felt the change in the chemistry between them almost like a tangible change in temperature, his heart started beating rapidly and he felt like he might burn up from the inside out if he didn't have his way with the lovely creature sitting astride him.

Aleah shifted a bit and guided his throbbing length inside her, moaning loudly as she sank down on him fully. Dean tensed and gripped her hips hard enough to leave marks, guiding her motions as she began bouncing up and down in his lap. Again he felt the more rational parts of his mind shutting down, everything narrowing to pure sight, taste, sound and touch. The hunter braced his feet on his mattress and pounded up into his lover, matching her movements and losing himself to the primal rhythm of their bodies.

Aleah arched back suddenly, bracing her hands on his shins and taking control of their pace completely, slamming herself down onto him rapidly, making him hit her in all the right spots like he'd shown her back in that hammock on that crappy boat when they went after Eris. She rode him hard, her head lolling back and her sounds getting louder and higher in pitch the closer she got to her release.

Dean tensed and thrust into her as hard as he could with her pinning his legs, bracing one hand on the flat plane of her lower belly while his fingers on the opposite hand rapidly brushed over her clit. Aleah's voice cracked from the added sensation and her walls clenched hard around him, milking him dry and making his brain short out from how good she felt even with the protection on.

The half angel buckled as she came down from her high, falling back on the bed between his legs and panting desperately as she rode the last wave of her orgasm. They lay panting at opposite ends of the mattress for a few minutes, Dean was the first one to gather himself enough to speak again.

"Holy... Fuck." He panted, amazed that he could lose himself so utterly like that. He sat up and gingerly pulled out of Aleah's heat, realizing part of why it had felt so good again was because at some point the condom hadn't stood up to their vigorous activity and was in tatters around him. He chuckled breathlessly and quickly removed it, cleaning himself up a bit with some tissue and leaned over his lover to smile down at her flushed, almost intoxicated looking visage.

"Yep. Definitely birth control. Tomorrow." He chuckled, working his hands beneath her and easily lifting her up, helping her to shift so she could lie down with him at the the head of the bed instead of the foot. She sprawled over him, her body damp with sweat like his and giggled, agreeing with him that it was probably a good idea.

Aleah took Dean’s words to mean he approved of her using her mojo to benefit them both, heighten their pleasures to a mind boggling extent. She sunk down onto him and moaned harshly at the feeling of him buried inside her body once more, her hands braced on his chest as she rode him at a steady pace, his grip on her likely to leave marks but she was far past caring. Her blue gaze flickered down to meet his own apple orbs, eyes glowing and mouth agape as he thrust up into her body in time with her motions.

She leaned back like he told her before, bracing her hands on his shins instead so he could hit her in all the right places. She gasped, her voice and breathing catching as Dean’s fingers found her sensitive clit and her walls clenched tight around him, drawing him in deeper and milking him dry on the peak of her own pleasure. She rode out her orgasm atop him, the sensation of him clearly filling her up again heightened it further and her body went slack, falling back between his legs and panting heavily.

The brunette carded her fingers through her hair with a shaky hand, her orgasm so intense she could hardly move let alone speak. She heard her lover curse, just barely around the humming in her ears; the glow in her eyes fading as he withdrew from her body. She shifted to look at him, cleaning himself up and coming to the realization that while they might have remembered protection it hadn’t exactly made a difference in their prevention. She smiled as Dean rolled and scooped her up, lifting her against his chest and pulling her with him to lie at the head of the bed instead.

Aleah hummed, tracing her hands over his sides as he cradled her atop him, giggling at his comment. “Yea I’d say that’s not a bad idea if we’re gonna keep this up. Better bare…” She quipped, biting her lip and rather liking the closeness without a condom. Dean groaned his agreement and shifted her weight, her legs entangling with his as she rested over his chest like she often did after they had each other. He kissed the top of her head and she smiled at the gesture, her breathing slowly evening out to a normal level again as they lay together.

It wasn’t long before she had fallen asleep to the sound of her lovers breathing, much to her surprise she had worn him out with their activities. She woke the next morning, having shifted in her sleep to where she was at the very edge of the mattress, snuggled tightly into Dean’s covers, his strong arm slung around her body, the other she was using as a pillow for her head, feeling him pressed up behind her and keeping her warm and protected with his body. She sighed contentedly, shifting tighter against him and drifting off once more. When she came fully awake Dean had gotten out of bed somehow without waking her from her deep sleep, it was still early as she watched him, dressed in his jeans slung low on his hips, eyeing the small blade that had been driven into the wall just near his bed.

Aleah giggled, rolling slightly and sitting up, rubbing her eyes as she spoke, “Do you not remember that?” She questioned, catching his attention and drawing it away from the pocket knife he was trying to wriggle out of the wall. He shook his head and commented that he thought he got a little crazy but didn’t recall this actually happening. The brunette brushed her hair with her fingers, wrapping herself in his comforter and padding lightly to his side. She picked up the bra he had cut through with the same knife and showed it to him. “Sixty dollars you owe me.” She teased, making him arch a brow at the cost.

She laughed again as he blamed her for it, rolling her eyes and shaking her head at him. “I turned you on, riled you up… I hadn’t intended for you to cut me out of my friggin’ clothes. You. Owe. Me.” She said, poking his chest with one slender finger and leaning up on her toes to kiss him softly in greeting though he still didn’t seem to agree. Aleah gave a playful little pout and hummed in thought, “So you won’t get me a replacement?” She asked again and he responded in the negative, claiming she had plenty to make up for it and he would know considering he had seen most all of her collection by now.

“But you could pick it out. Anything you want, dress me up.” She purred, stepping into his space and handing him the garment and pushing past him to get to his dresser, nabbing a pair of his bottoms and one of his tattered band tees he only wore at the bunker or rather… she only wore at the bunker. He seemed to be contemplating the idea, staring at her bra in hand while the other pried the blade from the wall, flicking it closed.

He seemed to like the trade off, her wearing something special for him and maybe it would be kind of fun to take him out with her, let him pick something she knew for certain he would enjoy on her. Dean smirked and asked if she was going to make wearing his clothes a habit, “Probably. I need to remember to leave more than a couple pairs of things in your room considering I don’t even see much of mine anymore anyhow.” She pointed out with a smile, wrapping her arms around his abdomen and kissing his chest. She rested her chin against him, looking up at his scruffy face, “Come shower with me? Then we can go out, cover all the bases and we can test my ‘angel mojo’ again later on.” She stated suggestively as he bent to her level, kissing her slow and deep as he mumbled his agreement against her lips.

Much to Dean's impatience even a full week later Aleah and Cas didn't have Sammy back up to a full tank. His injuries were extreme, the sigil had done damage of the physical and spiritual kind. Castiel could probably have healed Sam on his own a little faster, but they all felt it was important now for Aleah to hone her abilities as much as possible. 

The second Sam was coherent enough and at least able to sit up, he had insisted on completing his work translating what they needed for the ritual, and once he had all the information Garth took off to make arrangements for the group of hunters he'd gotten to agree to participate in this angelic shindig, leaving them to finish up the healing and recovery process.

A day or so later, Dean and Aleah were in the kitchen preparing lunch. The lanky hunter called and Dean was anticipating very different news when he picked up the phone, his expression going sour when Garth started to speak. After a short conversation the elder Winchester hung up and sighed in frustration, crossing his arms over his chest and meeting Aleah's gaze when she looked up from the soup she was making for Sam and asked him what was wrong.

"Apparently only about half the hunters Garth was counting on to help are planning on sacking up and helping us." Dean growled, swiping his hand over his face and ambling over to the fridge for a beer. He flipped the cap off and took a swig, his mind racing for other options. Even with luring a rival angel faction to the site, they just weren't going to last if they only had six or seven hunters up against the kinds of numbers Castiel was anticipating.

Aleah crossed the space and slipped her arms around his waist, trying to comfort him and quietly murmuring that they would think of something. The hunter shook his head, hugging her back but pulling out of her grasp because he knew this wasn't the kind of job they could half-ass with a skeleton crew.

He picked up his phone again and dialed Garth back, rolling his eyes when his friend answered in his usual cheesy manner. "Look, I know you said you called everyone. But did you call Barret and his group?" He asked, knowing by Garth's hesitance on the phone that he was lying when he said he hadn't bothered with that loose cannon.

"Yes you did. But he turned you down, didn't he?" Dean said in a clipped tone. He knew full well what a bastard Barret Willis was, but he also held a lot of influence in the hunter network. If they could get him to come around, he'd sway a lot of skilled people to participate in their cause. Garth answered in the affirmative, and Dean nodded. "It sucks, but we need him." Dean commented, looking back at Aleah who was trying not to look worried while she finished fixing Sammy's food as she listened.

"He and my dad went way back. I can talk to him, get him to come around. I don't like it either, but he'll bring muscle that we need Garth." Dean half argued half insisted with the lanky hunter to see his way. Garth finally agreed, but told him that Dean would need to go and talk to him personally to convince him. "Yeah I know. I'll head for Texas at first light. Pick you up on the way." Dean responded, saying his goodbyes and hanging up the phone.

He smiled crookedly at his lover who was obviously waiting for more details on what was going on. "Looks like I gotta make a road trip, go convince an old bear to fight on our side." Dean told her, stepping into her space and kissing the top of her head.

Aleah pouted at the idea of Dean having to leave, not really a huge fan of the idea but it was the only way to get more on their side. She forced a smile and nuzzled into him as he kissed the top of her head and she wrapped her arms around him. They needed all the help they could get in this fight and when Dean said his good byes early the next morning she put on a smile, didn’t argue for him to stay or take her with him, she knew she needed to be there to fix up Sam as needed considering Castiel was opting for her doing it more than him.

\---

Aleah spent the next day or so with Sam, fixing him up as needed and keeping him company while he finished up his translations. She was going a little stir crazy knowing Dean was going to be gone for a few more days while she was stuck here. It was an adjustment not having him around and if you’d asked her how it was a few months ago when she first met him she would have been happy to see him gone but nowadays it was tough when she was so used to having him there.

She was fairly certain it was driving Sam and Cas crazy as well, asking her uncle for extra training sessions just to pass the time or making Sammy watch movies with her until she felt tired. Sleeping alone was the worst in her eyes, having the entire bed to herself with no Dean to curl up against. She slept in her favorite flannel shirt of his every night he was gone, taking up his side of the bed and the scent of him surrounding her and buried deep in his pillow she nuzzled turned her on, thinking about him… hell she craved him. The brunette hadn’t gone this long without her lover and the back of her mind images of their last encounter flashed back to her and she bit her lip in thought.

She lost count of the nights she spent without him and instead found another way to please, to get her need for him out of her system and while it might not be as great as the real thing it still satisfied her. By the end of the week she had fallen into a routine, propping herself with her head neatly on his pillow, dressed in his deep green and black plaid flannel and a pair of emerald panties that matched, something she still couldn’t fall out of habit of. She sighed heavily as she lay down, only partly covered by his sheets, taking in his scent and closing her eyes.

Aleah’s arousal heightened as her fingers caressed her inner thighs, tickling her warm skin and imagining her lover tracing up between them. She mewled at her own gentle touch, trailing her fingers up to the few buttons she fastened earlier on his shirt, undoing them and running her slender digits up and down her frame. She had only just discovered how to get herself off, how to rile herself up by her own hand, cupping and fondling her breasts in either hand, her legs falling open as she tweaked her nipples and worked her way back down to hook her thumbs in her panties, tugging them off slowly, grinning at the feeling of being bare in his bed again.

She slid one hand down her abdomen to her center, caressing her slick folds, gasping lightly as she worked herself over, tapping her clit and dipping two manicured fingers deep into her body. She bent one leg at the knee, opening herself up more fully and adjusting her hand to stroke her walls just how she liked, her opposite hand pinching and pulling at her full breast. The half angel moaned, picturing Dean hovering over her, his mouth on her body, nipping and sucking her breast working further as his strong fingers hooked inside her core. “Yes… baby…” She breathed, her chest rising and falling with her ragged breathing.

Her fingers worked faster and faster by the second, the hand on her breast opting for swirling over her sensitive clit, the combined sensations driving her crazy. Three fingers buried deep inside her, her juices soaking her own hand as she felt herself nearing the brink, working herself harder as she cried her lovers name and begged for more.

She was entirely caught up in what she was doing, getting herself off to have even noticed anyone had joined her until she heard her own name muttered from a mouth that wasn’t her own. Her blue eyes flew opened and her hitched breathing paused for the moment, the sheets tangled around her legs, only partly covering her as she spotted Dean standing just inside the doorway, watching her every move. “Shit…” She cursed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment that she had been caught with her hand quite literally down her pants and then some.

A smirk played on Dean’s face at the sight of her, seemingly unbothered by her antics but that didn’t stop her from apologizing, “I-I thought you weren’t gonna be home for… Oh God… How long have you been standing there?” She questioned, withdrawing from her body instantly despite that she was riding the edge as Dean stepped forward and commented he had been there long enough and was rather pleased at what he stumbled upon. He reached out and snatched the sheet before she could use it to cover up and she furrowed her brow as he told her not to stop just because he was there, teasing that she should at least have locked the door.

“I—What?” She questioned uncertainly as to what he was saying, he wanted to watch her. Her cheeks turned red but when Dean confirmed that he did in fact want to see her get herself off she bit her lip, eyeing him from where she was positioned and dipping her fingers into her core once more, slowly building herself back up as he climbed onto the bed, doing nothing but gazing at her as she played with herself making her heart race even more. 

Dean had pushed himself to drive without hardly stopping, surprised by how anxious he was to get home and not only check on Sammy but just be able to see Aleah again, hear her voice in person not just on the phone and wrap his arms around her. More than that, he hadn't slept well the whole trip because he missed having her slumbering form against him, missed all the ways he could blow her mind and she his between the sheets.

He rushed down the hall, keeping his footfalls soft so he wouldn't wake anyone that was asleep, going first to poke his head in Sammy's room and smiling slightly when he saw his brother sprawled comfortably on his bed, snoring lightly and looking much less strained than when he'd left.

He silently eased his brother's door shut and went to check in on his lover, opening her bedroom door a crack and peering into the dark room. His brows furrowed together when he realized she wasn't there, but his face quickly transformed with a pleased when he considered that she had probably taken to sleeping in his bed while he was away. Perhaps she had missed him more than she let on when they spoke on the phone most evenings. 

He went down the hall to his own room again silently turning the doorknob but he paused in his motion when he heard a faint moan from the other side of the door. A devilish light filled his green eyes and he grinned wide when he heard Aleah whimper his name, and put together exactly what his little Princess was up to. In his bed no less. Just the thought was enough to get him riled, especially since it had been longer than it had ever been for them without having each other.

The hunter slowly, quietly entered his room, pleased that the lovely brunette reclining on his bed was so lost in her own ministrations that she wasn't aware she had company. While she was partly obscured by his tangle sheets, enough of her lovely body was on display to give him a proper show and he was quite content to simply lean against the wall by the door after he shut it and enjoy.

When it looked like she was getting close to her peak and his name fell from her lips again, he finally decided to make his presence known. His own arousal was getting uncomfortable in his jeans and he wanted to watch her finish up close, get a good look at her as she made herself unravel.

He cleared his throat gently, and that still didn't break her concentration, which made him snicker a bit at how into it she was. He called her name and she jolted with surprise, she was obviously embarrassed though he saw no reason why she should be, and he told her as much, explaining his earlier arrival as well. "You know the door has a lock that's not broken if you're so worried about it." The hunter teased, wandering closer to stand at the foot of his mattress and tugging the sheet away so she couldn't cover herself.

"Well? I believe you in the middle of something before I interrupted. Go on." He prompted with a wicked grin, his own desire making his voice hoarse. Aleah seemed uncertain for a few seconds, but he made it very clear that he was unruffled by finding her in this state and was more than interested in watching her come undone. She bit her lower lip and his sharp eyes tracked her movements as she started working her center once more, her breathing quickening.

Dean sank down to sit on his bed beside her open legs, devouring every inch of her with his eyes from her flushed cheeks to her stiff rosy nipples to her hands working beneath her bright green panties that were soaked through from her pleasure. He watched intently as she wound herself back up, leaning forward and sliding her panties off her legs so her hands had more freedom to move and he had a better view of her wet, tempting center. 

He licked his lips unconsciously and Aleah moaned, the speed of her hands increasing and she didn't take her eyes off him till her head tipped back and she cried out from bringing herself over the brink. Her whole body trembled and she drew out her orgasm as long as she could stand, swirling her fingers over her clit and delving into her core in tandem, her face contorting with ecstasy and making Dean ravenous for her.

Finally after a moment her pace eased up and she slipped her hand from her soaked entrance, quicker than thought Dean snatched her wrist and leaned forward to lick and suck her nectar off her digits, humming low in his chest with want. It had been far too long since he'd last tasted her in his book. Aleah watched him intently, her free hand still teasing her clit lightly and he chuckled as he scooted closer and lifted one of her legs up prompting her to open herself up wider to accommodate his presence between her legs.

"Still want more, huh Princess?" He asked playfully, craning his head down to place a kiss on her inner thigh. She nodded, her blue eyes nearly black with want and he raised one dark brow at her, not moving any further up her leg until he heard her say the words. "Tell me. Tell me what you've been thinking about me doing to you when you've been alone in my bed... I'll do anything you ask..." He murmured, nipping at her soft skin and letting his scruffy whiskers tickle her inner thigh but not venturing any further towards her center.

 

Aleah watched with darkened eyes as Dean snatched her hand and eagerly sucked the slickness off her fingers. She continued to tease her clit as she stared at him, moaning at the thought of what he might do to her. He asked if she wanted more, shifting her leg to settle between them and kissing down her thigh, sending goosebumps over her flushed skin as he questioned her fantasies. Her body arched on instinct, seeking him as she continued to tease her clit until he snatched her wrist, halting her motions and demanding that she voice what she thought about.

“Your lips on me…” She started, taking a few ragged breaths and trying to stay focused as he kissed her thigh for encouragement. Her vision was bleary and she wasn’t even using her angel mojo…. She could hardly focus on talking but he refused to give in until she did. “Your- your tongue against me, letting me… ahh…” She groaned even without stimulation her walls flexed and fluttered, vivid images of him already starting his work flashing in her mind. “Letting me ride your mouth over and over…” She confessed.

Dean smirked, nodding in approval and comprehension but it wasn’t enough so she continued, instructing him in a way to touch her like she had been craving. “C-calloused… fingers on my chest…” She half pleaded and as she spoke his hands slid up her body slowly, gliding over her full chest and in the same moment his mouth found her button of nerves, making her moan and card her fingers through his short hair. “O-oh god.” She panted as he started to eagerly eat her out, his eyes were nearly black with hunger, watching her from between her thighs as he delved his tongue deep into her center.

She tugged his hair and he growled in response, her hips bucking up against his face until the hand caressing her breast and tweaking her nipple took place over her abdomen, pinning her down and keeping her still. Aleah’s hand slung over her mouth, muffling her own cries at how good it felt to have him like this again. Her body trembled and her free hand dug her fingers into the flesh of his arm around her, arching into him as her pleasure mounted and she came in a mere few moments against his tongue.

Dean lapped at her soaked center, cleaning her up with his mouth and when he rose off her his lips and chin were glistening from her pleasure but he hardly seemed to notice or care, letting her up just slightly and kissing his way up her slender frame until he was between her breasts, asking her what else. The half angel swallowed, her mind still racing at the same pace as her heart, still coming down from her high as she tried once more to speak. “I-I want you to fuck me… To show how much you missed me… Any way you want, baby.” She admitted as he tore off his shirt, the restriction in his jeans telling her that he was more than ready to have her.

She took another shaky breath as she looked at him tearing off his jeans and briefs, pleased that her getting herself off had such an effect on him. “Hard.” She emphasized, meeting his gaze to ensure he understood. Aleah was used to him taking control but it was very clear from the get go that he was holding back a lot of times, being sweet to her, taking his time to work her up and she wanted him to take her like she dreamed about most recently, rough enough to leave her aching.

Dean smiled fiercely at Aleah's words, quickly shedding the troublesome layers of clothing keep them from laying skin to skin and nodding when she emphasized that she wanted him not to hold back. Tossing aside the last of his clothes he settled over top of her on his forearms and knees, kissing her ravenously and grinding his throbbing erection against her soaked center, stimulating her still sensitive clit with his hardness.

The hunter took her words to heart, his mouth and hands far rougher than he usually allowed himself to be, he knew he'd leave her soft lips swollen and red marks along her throat and chest from his attention. Aleah was panting and arching beneath him, trying to lift her hips up to impale herself on him but he didn't let it happen not yet. He latched on to one sensitive nipple with his mouth, nipping at her making her cry out and shiver with want as his hand slid down her belly to hold her still while he rubbed his shaft harder against her clit.

The half-angel bucked against him and pleaded with him to stop teasing her, saying in a breathless whisper that she was already close again and wanted to feel him coming inside her when she did. Dean loved hearing her speak like this, the images of her getting herself off thinking of him still playing over and over in his head making him crazy with want.

Dean sat back and pulled Aleah upright with him till she was kneeling on the mattress, her whole body trembling and her breathing ragged. The hunter knelt back on his calves and gripped her firm rear, dragging her up to sit astride him and guiding his length inside her tight sheath. The brunette mewled ecstatically as she sank down onto him, her nails digging into his shoulders to keep her balance in his lap as he began thrusting up into her like mad. She bounced atop him, her face contorting with pleasure and it took everything Dean had not to lose it right away, tensing his muscles and forcing himself to stay in control long enough to make her lose her mind.

He gripped her hips hard enough to bruise and guided her on his shaft, slamming her down to meet his thrusts and groaning roughly at how good she felt. Dean nuzzled into her neck and bit at her flesh, increasing his speed and rolling her hips so he'd hit her just how she liked. Aleah cried out as she found her peak, her walls clenching around him and finally he couldn't hold back any more, exploding deep inside her body with a muttered curse.

His lover rode out her orgasm astride him, her head lolling forward to rest her brow on his shoulder as she came down from her high. He held her tight against him, relishing the feeling of her skin pressed to his and being buried inside her. "I missed you." He murmured against her neck, his own voice hoarse from his release.

Aleah nearly screamed his name as he pounded up into her, driving her to that familiar peak only he could bring, her walls fluttering around him drawing him in deeper with each thrust. He cursed and followed her over the edge in nearly the same moment, coming deep within her body as she slumped forward, their pace slowing slightly until they were both spent. She leaned into his muscled frame heavily, letting him support her easily.

She grinned at his words, knowing exactly what kind of depth they held for her and she held him a little tighter, kissing his shoulder sweetly. “I missed you too.” She sighed, pulling back to look at his face, his eyes glazed over as he looked at her in return. She cared her fingers through his hair on either side of his head, “You’re not allowed to be gone that long… or ever preferably.” She smiled, flushing pink as he shifted their bodies and slid out of her heat, guiding her to lie back and teasing about how she seemed to be doing just fine on her own.

The brunette rolled her eyes and smacked his chest playfully, “Shut up.” She teased, though the way she fidgeted made it evident to him that she was more than a tad embarrassed that she had been caught. He kissed her across the lips and gave her a reassuring smile telling her it was fine but she needed to lock the door just to be sure and especially if she was going to get so far into it that she didn’t notice how long he had been standing watch. Then he resorted to asking if that was a first time deal because she seemed to know what she was doing.

She bit her lip and her hesitation made him laugh at her, questioning how often this occurred and why he hadn’t been privy to it sooner. “It’s not like… I’ve done it a lot… You’ve always been here and sometimes I’d get off the phone with you and kind of… have to.” She admitted, lacing and unlacing their fingers, brushing his palm with her nails lightly and watching their hands fit together on and off as she spoke. “Slept in your bed every night… This was my central location.” She laughed at his response, turning her head to face him once more.

Dean grinned as he mentioned her moaning his name, “Who says I meant you? Dean’s a common name.” She teased in return, kissing him along his scruffy jaw and rolling to nuzzle into his chest. “Nothing beats the real thing.” She sighed.

Dean was amused and pleased to hear about his girlfriend's nightly activities, even more pleased to hear her say that while she had made do without him what she liked best of all was the genuine article. He held her close and feathered light kisses over her temple, cheek and lips. "Well I'll do my best to satisfy then, keep you from wandering with all those other Deans you seem to know." He teased back, running his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion as they got settled in for the remainder of the night.

The pair slept peacefully till late the next morning, Dean didn't let his girlfriend up to get ready for the day until he'd made her scream his name again, and followed her into the shower to do it all over again. It was early afternoon before they came out to find some coffee and something to eat.

Sam had been up and working since early that morning, despite not being fully healed yet he had been putting himself through a rigorous exercise routine trying to get back into peak condition after so long being injured and out of commission. He just got back from a run and was fixing himself a protein shake when Dean and Aleah came into the kitchen, and he could only smile and roll his eyes at their demeanor.

"Morning you two." He said off-handedly, wiping the sweat from his face and neck with a dishtowel and taking a drink of his shake. Dean nodded in greeting and went to pour himself some coffee that had gone cold, not seeming to care much though as he drank it.

"Good to see you up and around little brother." Dean commented, though his eyes were still tracking his girlfriend as she walked over to the fridge to get herself some fruit to eat. He hadn't felt this good since before he left to meet up with Barret, and even lukewarm coffee and snarky looks from his sibling weren't going to ruin his mood.

"Thanks. Aleah and Cas have really been giving it their all." Sam responded, smiling at the brunette when she mentioned him being a frustrating patient, not taking it easy enough. "I promise I'll take it easier once we blow the doors off Heaven. Speaking of that, were you able to convince Barret?" He asked, clearing his throat when his brother still didn't seem inclined to tear his gaze away from his girlfriend and focus on their task.

Dean finally looked his brother in the eye and nodded, making himself think about work and not what he and Aleah had been up to that morning. "Yep. Old bastard is in, he's gotten ten more to commit. So all in all we're looking at a force of twenty six including us." He answered. Aleah asked if he thought that would be enough, and he shrugged. "It's what we got. It'll have to be." He checked the calendar on his phone to confirm the dates they had all agreed to meet in Yosemite. "We better get packed, ready or not we've gotta hit the road tomorrow. You're sure we can do this any day right? It just has to be at sunset?" Dean asked a final time for confirmation.

Sam nodded, downing the rest of his shake. "That's right. According to the tablet the barrier between Heaven and Earth is strongest at first light, weakest at last light." He explained.

Aleah’s legs felt a little wobbly by the start of the afternoon when Dean finally let her out of his room, feeling his eyes on her still and his hand slipping further down her back until she halted him at the sight of Sam in the kitchen. She smiled, far too pleased to have her lover home to be embarassed at the moment. “Morning Sammy.” She greeted in turn, walking past him and brushing his arm gently to get to the fridge.

She smirked at the feeling of Dean’s eyes on her as she bent to dig for whatever left over fruit they still had cut up from a couple nights ago. She pulled off the tupperware lid and smiled at Sam as he praised her and Castiel. She popped a piece of melon in her mouth with her fingers, chewing it before speaking up. “You’re a pain of a patient, Sammy. I swear the more we tell you to take it easy or catch a break the more you disobey.” She scolded softly, licking her thumb and trying not to laugh at Dean eyeing her until Sam forced him to break his gaze with a gentle cough.

The brunette furrowed her brow as Dean spoke about Barret and his time away, she only just realized that she hadn’t asked him what the deal was or how the trip went or where the hell Garth ended up for that matter. She blinked, twenty six didn’t sound like nearly enough when there were likely thousands and thousands of angels alone that could gladly take the other side. “Is that enough?” She questioned, nodding when he responded that it would have to be considering it was all they had they didn’t have all that many resources and there were a number of hunters that the Winchesters had pissed off years ago.

She worried her lower lip, setting aside her fruit bowl and listening to the boys talk more about the details of their ‘adventure’ and it made her heart race thinking it was going to happen so soon that she might have to buck up and fight. She promised her father she wasn’t scared and she wasn’t… not for the reasons she might need to be, she was more afraid that this wouldn’t happen, that it wouldn’t work somehow and the change in her expression must have given that away because she felt Sam’s hand on her shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze and promising that he had read and re-read his notes to ensure that he got everything down and accurate so they could win this and get it done and over with.

Aleah smiled at him and gave a nod, “I know you have. I just want it over with… Guess I wish there was a detour route or something so we didn’t have to go through all of this.” She shrugged and he nodded an understanding, rinsing out his glass and stepping away informing them he was going to shower up and do some more reading just in case then pack up his things so they could head out first thing tomorrow.

The half angel hoisted herself on the counter and Dean’s lips curled up as she popped a grape in her mouth and felt it burst against her tongue. “What?” She questioned with a laugh at the look in his eyes as he pushed forward and set his mug on the counter, stepping between her legs and kissing her, humming at the taste on her lips. She giggled and pushed him away, “Is that how I have to get you to eat something besides all the junk food and beer?” She teased, eating another piece and laughing when he moved to steal another kiss making her roll her eyes. “We’re not getting caught again. Stop.” She scolded, pushing at his chest again and he let up, his hands still on her legs keeping her there.

“You think we’ll be okay? I know it’s all we got but I don’t know… I hope we’re not throwing all these people into a war without knowing the terms and conditions.” She muttered, draping her arms around his neck, gently rubbing the back of it as they spoke. He assured her they would make it, that they could be in and out with no trouble for all they knew. Castiel could be their middle ground, their spy so to speak and could hone in on angel radio unnoticed to see if others were there or planned to be when they would, it wasn’t like they had planned already what day to go so as far as they knew no one else knew of their departure.

That evening Aleah packed up her things, with the help of Dean, she had grown a lot more adjusted to packing lightly and given that this wasn’t a trip she particularly wanted to take she had managed a lot easier to keep her outfits to a minimum. They had a long drive ahead of them and after having her way with Dean one final time that evening she forced him to turn in with her a little early especially since he refused to let anyone else drive his precious car. “So the others… are they meeting us there? All set and ready?” She asked her lover again and he laughed, pulling her to him with her duffle over his shoulder even though she tried to snatch it from him but he insisted on carrying it.

Dean kissed the top of her head and promised that they all had a meeting of sorts, everyone was heading out and set to go. She nodded and let him take her hand, wrapped in the same green and black flannel that she wore most every night he had been away for one reason or another it comforted her, while it was her favorite of his to wear she enjoyed it’s warmth just as much. Sam offered her the front seat one last time after they said their good-byes to Castiel, Aleah holding him a little longer than she might normally knowing he would get to Yosemite much sooner than them to check out the surrounding areas, lay low and be their eyes until they arrived themselves. “Sam you’re like seven feet tall I’m barely classified as five, I think it’s safe to say that you win shotgun.” She pointed out, making him laugh as she climbed over the seat and into the back, hearing Dean groan at her feet on the fabric. Aleah laughed, leaning over the front to kiss her lover and pat his chest from behind. “Your baby will survive. She’s are clean enough.” She informed him and the trio got settled for their long road ahead.

The trio made the long trek to California, though Dean did manage to shave several hours off the trip by driving like the road behind him was on fire and hardly taking any breaks. If possible he wanted them to be the first ones on site, get the lay of the land before they had to deal with anyone else. Dean knew Garth would be coming with a large group and Barret with another, but while a larger party would move slower they both were starting off from closer points.

They finally arrived two days later, renting a little cabin in the park itself and completely angel-proofing it, even when Aleah raised objections since it meant Castiel wouldn't be able to seek refuge with them. The wards were a little rough on her as well, but it was worth it to have a space they felt relatively secure in.

They got unpacked and Sam put everything they would need for the ritual in a small metal box, giving Aleah a sympathetic smile when he set a small knife inside that would be used to slice her hand when the time came for them to cover the artifacts in her blood.

"It's nearly sundown now, I don't suppose we could just make a quick jog up there now..." Dean mused, knowing the answer was no but wishing all the same for this to be over and done with one way or another. He peered out the window, wondering how long it would take Cas to finish checking the place out so he could leave the cabin to hear his report.

"No. We need to wait until Garth and the others get here. And we'll have to wait and see if Barret follows through." Sam countered, referring to their plan Dean had worked out with the older hunter, the man had had several run ins with a faction of fallen angels and he assured them that he could let information fall into their hands that their enemies were gathering at Yosemite. If they were going to have any chance of pulling this off, they would need 'back up' from the other angels causing a fight amongst themselves.

Aleah tried her best to get settled in to the cabin that the boys rented out, unpacking her things to a certain point but stopping when she realized it might not even be worth it. She felt like a downer to them both thinking about the worst but at the same time she wanted to know what they were in for, to know that they would get things set back to rights and she could finally rest easy with her misfit family at the bunker, crack open a few beers and celebrate their victory knowing she was going to survive little longer.

She bit her lip at the sight of the knife though in her eyes that was a lot better than what she had been anticipating previously. “Better than poking me with a needle, believe it or not.” She grinned at Sammy, sitting with her legs folded beneath her on the mattress, watching Dean stare out the window after finishing up the last of the protective sigils around the entrances and Sam dig through his weapons bag. Dean spoke up, asking if they could just go now or rather considering it and the idea alone was both appealing and nerve wraking for the half angel.

Sam responded in the negative and while Dean understood he seemed just as eager to get the show on the road, turning around to look at Aleah with his arms crossed over his chest. He stepped towards her and put a hand on her leg when he sat down beside her, letting her lace her fingers with his own in her lap while they talked about their options which didn’t do much considering they had to wait until they had the rest of their… in the words of Garth, ‘posey’ here to help. “They shouldn’t be too much longer according to Garth anyhow.” She stated to the boys and Dean arched a brow asking how she knew that. She shrugged, “We talk? He texted me about an hour ago.” She told him and he seemed a little surprised by that little known fact. “He’s sweet, Dean.” She defended, leaning forward and offering her lips for him to meet in a kiss.

It wasn’t long before Aleah could sense Castiel’s presence outside the building, feeling bad he was left in the cold but he hardly seemed to mind. With the angel sigil’s his precense was faulty and blurred as though he couldn’t land a proper signal for her to read but she knew he was there outside where she told him to meet. “Cas wants to talk to you.” She stated to Dean and he arched a brow but nodded, getting up to go outside and talk to their metaphoricaly ‘feathered’ friend. When Dean returned he gave the okay that Cas thought they would be safe to make the attempt to perform the ritual that night while they still had time, fearing if they waited it out to long, others might gather. He hadn’t seen many but some of the people along the falls were off putting, their presence different and they spoke ‘angel’ to Castiel which worried him to even be around the cabin for fear they would trace him if he lingered too long in one place.

It was nearing the hour that marked the setting sun when the others started showing up, calling Dean and or Sam to inform them they would be up shortly to meet at the cabin, while it wouldn’t house all of the hunters there was room enough for them to gather and discuss their plans of attack should they need to go about doing so. They already formulated a general plan with a lay out of the land, some protectors of the cabin for them to get back to shelter while others would follow them up to the waters edge at the highest peak point of the falls to cover Aleah’s backside so to speak.

“Castiel said not to use my powers unless it’s the only out. He gave me an angel blade for safety but—“ The half angel started and one hunter spoke up questioning her having abilities as if he wanted to see for himself. She flushed at all eyes on her and Dean came to the defense… hell he had been on edge since the others arrived and a few of which didn’t mind openly eyeing her but each time her lover came to her rescue, brushed them aside and staked his claim with as few words as he could. He didn’t openly say she was his and she didn’t mind but the fact that he was protective of her even with those he knew told her something. She smiled slightly and tucked her blade away, pulling her hair up into a bun like she often did when she shot in the range with Dean or worked on hand to hand stuff with Sam or even trained with her uncle. “We should move soon… When the others come they can watch the cabin, join and cover our tracks. Those that are looking for us will sense our movements as soon as we set foot on the soil and outside of this cabin… We’ll have to move fast to get up there.” Aleah pointed out.

Once everyone arrived and got assigned into their groups, they began hiking up to the top of the falls. The higher they climbed the more the atmosphere changed, there was a high pitched buzzing in the air that put everyone on edge and made many of the hunters less experienced with fighting angels come to a halt, fearful of what lay ahead.

Castiel manifested before them, now back at full strength away from the angel warding on the cabin below. He advised the brothers and Aleah that there was already fighting between the two factions happening, that if they were going to pull this off now was the time. Dean looked back at Garth and all the hunters who had come to their aid, trying to think of something profound or bracing to say but coming up with little.

"All right, listen up! It's time to bust open this pinata. Cas is gonna take Sammy and Aleah up to the ridge, it's our job to keep them covered until the ritual is done. We don't have a lot of ammo so use the angel blade bullets and holy oil molotovs sparingly. First team stay with me, second team stick to Garth, support team follow Barret's calls so you can help when someone gets in hot water. Got it?" Dean barked out his orders, about to turn and lead his group of hunters off when Garth's voice behind him made him stop and he rolled his eyes when the lanky hunter complained that his group was called the Hombres. "Are you friggin' kidding me right now Garth? Just... Watch our backs and your own damn asses, I don't care what you call yourselves. Move out!" The hunter yelled back in exasperated tone, turning back to nod at Sammy and give Cas the signal to transport him and Aleah to their position along the edge of the falls where the ritual would take place as just as the sun set. 

They winked out of sight and Dean led his group up the rocky rise, calling out where to position themselves in a protective circle around the ridge, his voice hardly audible over the roaring of the falls and the now painfully loud feedback sounding over the terrain from the angels that had no hosts battling it out in the air above them. He turned to look up and saw Sammy and Aleah crouching up on the rocks, with their guardian angel in his black trenchcoat standing over them, his eyes scanning the sky.

He couldn't watch for long however, when several of the more corporeal winged bastards started emerging from the treeline, and he knew he and his men were gonna have a hell of a fight on their hands.

The trio ran up the mountain side after close, knowing their route already to ensure they got their in time even if they ended up with a few feathery friends on their tails. The group broke off in to separate smaller rounds and Dean immediately started barking out orders, making Aleah grin as she watched him so easily taking to being in charge. He didn’t give himself enough credit, these people trusted him, waited for his go ahead and followed through without a second thought because they knew that he had best interest at heart.

She couldn’t help but giggle a little at Garth’s claim over his clan, clearly trying to lighten the mood a little but Dean wasn’t having it, telling him to get a move on. He gave Castiel the go ahead and with a final smile in her lovers direction, she took Castiel’s hand, letting him zap her and Sam up to the cliff’s edge where they would have to carry out the ritual in as much peace as they could manage. She hadn’t even realize she had taken Sammy’s hand when they landed in their position, walking the few feet to get as close as they could to the ledge. She seek comfort in his grasp, her big brother and a familiar face, hoping for reassurance and he turned and grinned at her, asking if she was ready to do this and get it done.

Aleah nodded immediately, letting him unhook their fingers and they both looked out over the cliff down to where the rest of the group had started to form a circle around the mountainside, keeping the angels that had already begun to fight amongst themselves at bay. It took less than a few seconds flat for the ‘smug sons of bitches’ to show up willing and ready to fight and the half angel watched for a moment with wide eyes as she managed to faintly spot Dean through the trees moving and taking out an angel that charged at him and his men.

She craned her head, losing focus on what she was meant to be doing and instead trying to ensure that her partner was okay on the ground. “Sam…” She muttered, trying to look for him once more and her foot slipped until her friend gripped her in the same moment that Castiel did, keeping her from tumbling back. The tall hunter gripped her hand and softly but sternly instructed her to stay focused on him and nothing else, Castiel had them covered and the faster they got this done the easier things would be, they could fight after as needed, get out as soon as possible.

Aleah nodded her head at him in understanding, watching him pull out the tiny kit of items and the small blade he would use to cut opened her palm. “Just… tell me what to do, Sammy.” She muttered, waiting as he put the two items they had gathered into her opened palm, he would read the script, perform what was needed and cut her hand, let her blood drench the items as much as possible in order for it to work. She swallowed and made herself stand taller as Cas backed away, guarding their backs as instructed.

Sam tried to regulate his own breathing and heart rate after Aleah nearly tumbled off the cliff itself, getting himself centered and then forcing the half-angel to do the same. They stood at the precipice of the falls and he scrubbed a few symbols on the rocks along the edge of the rift with a stick of charcoal, then straightened back up and cupped his hand under Aleah's open palm to steady her, holding the knife at the ready to cut into her flesh when the moment came.

He held her gaze to keep her from growing more agitated, a confident smile on his face even though he was getting more and more concerned by the sounds of battle both above and below them. "Those marks will start to burn the rock when it's time. Just stay focused, we're almost there." Sam instructed, glancing around and eyeing the setting sun, urging time to go faster so they could get this done and get out of this exposed position.

A high pitched crackling noise pierced the air above them, it felt like the tremendous air pressure might rupture their eardrums and both Sam and Aleah cried out, flinching down instinctively but the tall hunter gripped his companion's hand firmly, holding her steady and keeping her from falling. Castiel turned, his eyes blazing and the angel flexed his own power to drive away the oppressive angel bearing down on them. After several excruciating moments the noise died down to the same buzzing pitch as before, and Cas fell to one knee, his vessel bleeding from the nose and ears from the effort of fending off their attacker with his own spiritual force.

Either that angel signaled others of Aleah and Sam's position or it was just coincidence that there was a break in the hunter's ranks, because only seconds later several angels possessing human hosts came rushing up the rocky rise towards them. Castiel made himself stand and drew his blade to face them, Aleah cried out to her uncle but again Sam made her stand firm.

"Wait Aleah. We have to stay here, it's almost time." Sam said in a tense voice, glancing down at the marks on the stones seeing them just beginning to sizzle on the bare rock. Castiel began fighting, but the uneven numbers and his injuries were too much for him to handle alone for long. Sam gritted his teeth and made himself stay at the ready, hating having to watch his friend fight a losing battle and not being free to help.

Suddenly shots rang through the trees and Dean along with two other hunters broke the treeline, the elder Winchester firing shots as he ran, taking down three of the attacking angels with precise hits to their heads with bullets of molten angel blade. Sam smiled and looked back down at the sigils, seeing them smoke and finally set ablaze. Aleah saw it too and looked up at him, her eyes bright with tears but he could tell she wasn't afraid, not for her own well-being anyway.

"Here goes... Everything." Sam said with an encouraging smile and Aleah nodded in response, looking away and crying out softly in pain as he sliced open her hand with the sharp blade. He closed his own hand tight around hers, forming her wounded hand into a fist around the tiny objects that held such incongruously huge amounts of power.

Rivulets of Aleah's blood trickled from their clasped hands, and after several agonizing seconds that felt more like hours a brilliant, burning light began emanating from the bloodstained creases between their fingers. Aleah screamed sharply, flinching from the pain saying it burned, and Sam's heart bled with sympathy as he used his superior strength to keep her still and her fingers clenched tight around the catalysts.

"Just a little more... The seed has to sprout in your blood, hang on just a bit more..." Sam soothed, his own flesh starting to burn from the energy the objects were giving off as well.

The pair on the ledge were completely engrossed in their task, not seeing the angel wearing the body of a middle-aged housewife running up the hilll towards them, angel blade drawn. Cas called out to Dean to shoot her since he was bogged down by his own foes, but when the hunter raised his gun he realized his clip was empty. Dean drew his own salvaged angel blade and stabbed the enemy barring his path in the gut, tearing off after the angel set on Aleah and Sammy.

He caught up just as she came upon them, leaping forward and taking the woman down at the waist, sending them both hurtling to the edge of the cliff. The hunter twisted his body as they fell and kicked the woman squarely in the chest, sending her flying over the side but she gripped his pant leg and tugged him over with her. Dean heard Aleah scream as he skidded over the edge, screaming as the rough rock bit into his skin and feeling his insides lurch at the feeling of there suddenly being no solid ground beneath him.

So many things happened all at once, that to Sam's eyes it almost seemed as if everything was going in slow motion. Just as the Golden Apple seed sprouted in Aleah's hand the hunter saw the angel about to attack them, and his brother taking her down just inches from them.

He yelled for Aleah to throw the blood stained items over the cliff, releasing his grip and spinning to watch horrified as his brother was tugged over the edge of the cliff after the woman who had attacked. The younger Winchester screamed his brother's name and lunged after him, spreading out on the ground and just catching Dean's wrist with his bloody, blistered hand.

"I've got you!" Sammy cried, his vision flashing red with pain as Dean slipped and he got a better grip on his brother's hand, Dean gripped him back and it was all he could do to clap his other hand around his brother's arm, securing his hold but doing even more damage to his ruined hand. A few seconds later Aleah was beside him on the ground screaming at Dean to hold on. The tall hunter pulled up with all his strength and as soon as she could reach Aleah gripped Dean's jacket and hooked her own burned hand under his shoulder, helping Sam to haul him the rest of the way up as much as she could. 

The three of them fell back on solid earth and the brunette rolled her lover to his side checking the extent of his injuries, ignoring her own damaged appendage. Sam's eyes went wide as he noticed the sky itself seeming to tear open, blinding light bleeding through the atmosphere and he could only guess and hope that this was their spell beginning to work. Either way, they all needed to get away from this ridge and fast.

"Come on!" Sam yelled, scrambling to his feet and helping Aleah stand while Dean struggled up as well, the wind completely knocked out of him and so they helped hold him up as they ran as fast as they could back down the rise. A sudden barrage of energy from behind them knocked them all forward on the ground, and the angels and hunters alike fighting around them were blown back as well. The sheer force bearing down on them was enough to keep all of them immobile for several minutes, it was almost like drowning only instead of water it was sound making them lose track of which way was up.

Dean wasn't sure how or when exactly he blacked out, or how long he was out. All he knew was that when he came to, he was face down on the rocky ground and all he could hear was the roaring sound of the waterfall behind them. He gingerly raised his head, groaning from the effort. Everything hurt and he could hardly take a full breath, but he was alive. There were bodies strewn all around him, it was impossible for him to tell who was alive and who was dead. 

"Sammy?" He coughed, glancing around and seeing his brother sprawled beside him, with Aleah laid out on his other side. To his relief they both looked to be breathing. "Aleah?" He wheezed, reaching out with a wince of pain to lightly touch his lover's cheek, bloodied from a small cut she'd sustained on her brow from falling. 

Aleah’s heart raced as they ran down the side of the peak, trying to keep Dean upright despite her throbbing hand. Sam hardly seemed to notice his own pain both of them determined to get Dean out alive with them, that was most important. She gripped him tight and followed Sammy’s lead out until she felt a surge of energy, something that had to have come from the opening in the sky the tear to the gates or something along those lines.

She didn’t recall much of anything before she crashed to the ground, her head slamming into the rocky floors despite her attempt to catch herself on her arm. From there things were black, a blur of memories both real and some she hoped to be imaginary, Dean tumbling off the cliff and her and Sam unable to rescue him. She watched him fall, stood on the top of the peak and saw every being fighting with her or against her tumble to the earth though that wasn’t reality but a vivid image inside of her mind.

The half angel shifted on the ground, mumbling her lover’s name in an unconscious response to him addressing her. She felt fingers on her cheek and her eyes shot opened, her eyes glowed blue as she snatched his wrist, going into defense mode because she refused to die, she refused to give up the fight and not until she heard Dean’s gruff tired voice insisting it was only him did she let up, gasping for air as she lay in the dirt. Her eyes returned to their normal blue hue and she faintly felt Dean lace his fingers with hers and she winced in pain, pulling away suddenly and startling him slightly. He asked her what was wrong and she looked at her filthy fingers of the uncut hand, her wrist tweaked and she was fairly certain she broke a couple of her fingers trying to ease her fall.

She ignored it as she sat up, groaning at her throbbing head, and feeling sick with pain. “Sam… Is Sammy okay?” She questioned, looking around the space and it hardly looked like anyone lasted through whatever force sent them crashing. Dean nodded in the man’s direction slightly and she could see for herself he was faintly breathing. “We have to go. We have to find Castiel, gather up the others and go…” She muttered, her vision fading again as she looked to her opposite hand covered in blood and muck. She wasn’t even sure this worked, that they had done what needed doing or if they only caused an uproar among the angels.

She promised her father she would be brave, that she wouldn’t be afraid of any of it and right now she honed in on the sound of his voice telling her that she could fix all of this that she could help set the world back to rights and he believed in her. “I can’t zap us back to the cabin but I can get us close, fix up you and Sam there. I can’t hear Cas. Sweetie I’m sorry but we can’t wait around too long for him if the others rise or they send more…” She mused, biting her lip in though. She pushed through her pain, forcing herself to get off the hard ground and she caught Dean worriedly watching her move to Sam and try to rouse him from his unconscious state. “Really tired of healing your sorry ass, Sammy. Let’s go.” She instructed, touching his cheek and bringing him to whether he was ready or not.

She smiled down at him, using her abilities despite what she said, hearing Sam gasp and cough in pain himself. Dean hurried to his feet in pain himself as Aleah started to walk, checking for other hunters that may have survived. Her lover called after her in a hushed tone saying she couldn’t fix everyone when like she said they needed to scurry off as soon as possible, not linger for those that didn’t need it. Aleah shot him a glare and she bent to wake another man who fought along their side. “If we get to go, so do they. What about Garth? Don’t you think our friends deserve to live too? It’s not just the four of us, Dean. That’s why we did this. I’m taking who I can.” She hissed, ignoring the trickle of blood that slipped from the gash in her forehead and down to her jawline.

“I’ll send you back if that’s what you want.” The brunette said over her shoulder, fixing up another enough to where they could manage all the while leaving her own wounds untended, she needed all the juice she could muster up for the others, take them back as Dean watched in anger saying she was only putting herself in more danger by calling to the other angels. Her eyes welled and she knew what she was doing, “You don’t understand. Maybe you can easily have people die for one soul but I can’t.” She stared at him as she straightened out, in the back of her mind she knew this was stupid, the energy would wear on her but she was far past caring.

Dean understood where Aleah was coming from but but he also knew her continuing to use her powers like this was at the top of the 'Bad Idea' list. He exchanged a look with Sammy who was pretty shaky on his feet as well but would manage, storming over to his girlfriend and gripping her upper arm, forcing her to look him in the eye.

"This isn't about me being willing to let people die for the sake of one person. This is about not making the deaths that have occurred be in vain because you're being too stubborn and emotional right now to think clearly." The hunter hissed, tugging her along despite her protests that she couldn't stop yet.

"Aleah!" Dean barked her name harshly to cut her off, "This is exactly what Sammy and I have been trying to tell you since you became one of us. This life, this work- It is bloody, and messy, and dark, and sometimes the hardest part about it isnot sacrificing yourself. It's easy to throw your life away, tell yourself you're doing it for someone else's sake. But all these people, they came here knowing full well what they were getting into, and they did it anyway because they knew it was the right thing to do. Don't cheapen their efforts by using your powers to call more winged bastards down on their heads and guarantee your death and theirs! We're going! Once the heat is off, we'll see what we can do to help but right now we have gotta get the hell away from this area. The angels don't wanna waste time picking off a bunch of unconscious hunters, they wanna kill you. Got it?" He tried to control his voice but it was difficult since he knew exactly what she was feeling.

Sam found Castiel and helped the battered angel to his feet, he gripped Sam's shoulder for support and reached out to Dean who quickly took his hand. Cas teleported them all as close to the cabin as he could get, winking out of sight almost the second they arrived to nurse his own wounds who knew where but likely far away from this site to minimize attention being drawn to this place.

The three of them retreated inside the warded building, Dean finally let go of Aleah's arm and sat down heavily on the floor, leaving the only chair and bed available for his companions. "There. Now we're safe, you can be pissed at me all you want but that was the right call. They're only interested in you, no one else. They'll clear out when they can't find a trace of you then we can go back out there." He said haggardly, wincing as his tattered t-shirt stuck to the bleeding abrasions on his abs and side from sliding off the cliff face.

Sam hated seeing Aleah so distraught, but he agreed with his brother and simply nodded at the woman when she met his gaze, giving her a sympathetic smile. He went to open the medical kit off the table and gently drew the brunette closer, prompting her to sit at the table. "It's too dangerous for you to use your powers here, even with the wards. Let me patch you up for a change Sis." Sam said quietly, smiling at her warmly when she perked up at him referring to her as his sister. He gently turned her burned hand over in his, ignoring his own extensive wounds for the moment and gently cleaning hers.

Dean watched for awhile but felt his vision going hazy again now that the adrenaline buzz was wearing off, he leaned his back against the bed and let his head loll to the side. He dozed off in a matter of seconds, not caring about his own wounds for the moment, just too drained both emotionally and physically to give a damn.

Aleah tried to yell back at Dean to make him back off and pull out of his hold but he gripped her hard enough to bruise if she tried too desperately to yank away from him. Her eyes watered out of anger and frustration and irritation that he was using that stupid tone of his that always got under her skin. She knew it was dangerous that she was being stupid and she screamed at him to let her go when Sam found Castiel, both hunters taking hold of him so he could poof them back to the cabin as close as he could manage and it was no surprise to her when he disappeared altogether going elsewhere to lick his wounds so to speak.

Dean dragged her inside the cabin and she felt that same pull as before when surrounded by sigils like she wasn’t meant to be here, like her being couldn’t decide if to flee or feel trapped here. She avoided Dean’s gaze when they made it inside and he finally let her go shoving her arm in nearly the same moment she pulled away from him. Sam caught her glance instead and pulled out a med kit gently tugging her closer so he could fix up her wounds for a change.

The brunette’s eyes lit up once more with affection and glee to hear what Sam called her. “And thus the tables have turned. About time you returned the favor, Sammy.” She teased, hissing in pain as he cleaned out her hand of all debris. He apologized but laughed lightly, commenting on how she might have to get used to the real deal since she couldn’t just use her abilities all the time like that for fear of risking herself. She supposed he was right, sniffling as he wrapped her hand in a bandage. He finished up with washing her forehead and cheek, pausing to brush the tears off her rosy cheeks giving her a smile again which she returned weakly.

The taller of the two hunters or… now three considering she supposed now she was classified as such, taped up her forehead, telling her if she wanted when they got back she could fix herself up completely. “Builds character. It’s not fair of me to always do that now is it? I think I deserve a few battle wounds too.” She grinned, taking the kit from him and asking to see his torn up arm so she could do the same. Aleah glanced back to see Dean’s chest slowly rising and falling telling her that he was asleep. “I know he’s right… and I know I have a lot to learn still… I guess it takes a certain mind set to be a true hunter. It’s strange but maybe I can redeem myself by saving the angels too; I—“ She started and Sam cut her off much to the same manner that Dean would but a lot less harsh, telling her there was no way of knowing but the only ones they needed to worry about were their own team.

She bit her lip and nodded, taping down the gauze over his appendage and meeting his eyes. They were quiet for a while before Aleah broke that silence, “You amaze me, Sammy. The outlook you have on life and hunting when it’s done nothing but bite you in the ass time and time again… Give me a moment to be a little cheesy but I look up to you Sam. Your drive, your will, the fight in you… Dean might not say it and maybe I forget to too but you’re a great hunter. You’ve done more for this fight than anyone.” She smiled at him, gently squeezing his upper arm. “You’re a good man, Sammy even if you don’t think so.” She assured him, kissing his cheek and thanking him before getting up to sit on the edge of the bed.

Her anger with Dean still lingered, not quite as much when she saw him sleeping, his head lulled to the side and she sprawled on the mattress behind him, watching him sleep for a moment or two before gently touching his cheek. Her fingers ran through his short messy hair, smoothing it out and feeling him instinctively turn his head so she could massage his scalp like she did from time to time to comfort. It was getting dark and she could faintly hear Sam getting ready for bed though she knew none of them would get much rest. Aleah sighed and Dean slowly came to again, his bright green eyes fluttering opened and realizing that she was beside and above him.

“You shouldn’t sleep on the floor… you’ll get a kink in your neck.” The brunette whispered to him, fighting her tears at the way he looked at her. Dean turned his frame ever so slightly and cupped her cheek drawing her down further for a deep lingering kiss until he winced in pain from the new angle of his tattered body. She shifted and reached for the first aid kit that Sam brought with them opening it up and climbing off the mattress to join her lover on the floor. “Or at least let me clean you up a bit and I’ll lie here with you?” She offered hopefully, knowing he wouldn’t stay all that angry with her. He didn’t say much at first as she dabbed some antiseptic on a bit of gauze and started to swipe it over his chest.

Since there was only one twin bed in the cabin, Sam unrolled his sleeping bag on the floor against the opposite wall, all but collapsing onto it in relative comfort, he had slept in far worse places after all. He sprawled out and closed his eyes, listening to Aleah and Dean's conversation since in the close space it couldn't really be avoided, but he tried to keep his thoughts focused on what the brunette had said to him, about his part in all this and that she admired him as a man and a hunter. He only hoped he might actually be worthy of her admiration someday. He didn't last long, even the pain from his injuries wasn't enough to keep him awake for long after everything they'd been through.

Dean hissed through his teeth as he peeled his bloodstained torn shirt off, sitting up a little straighter so Aleah could effectively clean up his wounds. They were extensive but not deep at least, still it stung like crazy and he flinched involuntarily every time she swabbed over the broken skin but made no sounds of pain. The brunette paused to take her jacket off and Dean saw the beginnings of bruising around her upper arm where he'd gripped her earlier.

He raised his arm and gently brushed his fingertips over the marks. "I'm sorry." He murmured softly, his green eyes tracking her face as she glanced up from cleaning his wounds to look at her arm, telling him not to worry about such a small thing, joking that she had always bruised easily.

"Not just about your arm. I'm sorry that I can't make all this..." Dean sighed, not sure how to articulate what he felt but still he felt the need to try, "Easier. I wish this job, our lives, had less rough choices. Less pain. I wish you didn't have to go through so much crap just because of who you are... Because of who you love." He shook his head, his voice faltering and he focused his gaze downward, watching her hand delicately applying antiseptic balm to the abrasions on his abs.

"I think I understand my old man a little better now. Why he was always so rough. So angry. He knew what he was putting his kids through, knew there was nothing he could do to make the life easier or safer for us. I understand that pain, that frustration now." He mused.

Aleah gently cleaned his shallow wounds, pulling away to shed her jacket and her small bicep caught his eyes, reaching out to touch the forming marks. He apologized and she met his eyes, continuing her job of cleaning him up, “It’s okay. Don’t worry I’ve always been one to bruise easily. I’m fine.” She assured him and he kept speaking more in depth about what his words really meant.

She furrowed her brow at him, listening to what he had to say. Her hand paused again, lingering over his abdomen and she shook her head. “Yeah I do have to go through a lot of crap because of who I love.” She assured him, smiling affectionately when he stared at her. “But I suppose that I would even if I didn’t find you or rather… Castiel didn’t drag me to the bunker in nothing but a night gown.” She started, sighing lightly.

“But the good part of it is that neither of us is fighting alone. I don’t want a different life… or an easier life… I don’t want any of that cookie cutter bull shit if it means I can’t have you.” Aleah shifted and took his hand, cleaning that up as well as she spoke to him, letting her words settle with his. “That’s the thing Dean, I do love you… with all my heart I’m yours and I don’t want it any other way.”

“I’m a big girl, Sweetie and I’ll learn as we go. I want to be your sidekick or your partner or whatever you need me to bebecause I want you. I know you wish things were different but the fact is that they won’t be… I see that now and I understand.”

Dean rose his head to meet Aleah's gaze as she spoke, his eyes welling with emotion though he refused to let any tears fall. His throat tightened and he had to swallow hard before he could speak again. He felt that same division in his heart, his selfish need for her clashing with his better judgement telling him she'd be better off without him in her life. He reached up and threaded his fingers through her dark espresso locks at the nape of her neck.

"I love you so much. I'm sorry." He whispered, tugged her down to his level and sealed his lips to hers, kissing her deeply, desperately. She returned his kiss and they sat entwined for a moment, taking each other's breath away. They broke apart to share a mingled breath and Dean gently brushed her hair back off her face.

"Thank you." He muttered, feeling stupid for saying it out loud but he was truly grateful that she was able to love him somehow.

Aleah saw his eyes tearing up, her own following the same path only she let them slip past her dark lashes and stain her cheek again. She followed his prompting leaning forward on her knees and pressing her hands delicately to his chest as he kissed her ravenously. She cupped his cheek in her hand, brushing over his scruffy jawline and pulling back slightly, every so often leaning forward to kiss him again when she craved the comfort of his lips on hers.

She sat partly over his lap, braced gently against him to not disturb his wounds and their kiss broke when he thanked her, his apology processing in her mind. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Not yet anyways.” She joked, pressing her brow to his and closing her eyes, panting lightly to catch her breath from their moment of longing. “I can’t imagine my life without you so don’t you dare scare me into thinking you’re going somewhere.” She playfully warned, tugging him for another kiss.

“I love you too, Dean.” She whispered against his lips, resting her weight against him.

Dean held his lover tight for long while, the pain from his wounds nothing compared to his need to feeling her warmth and weight against him reminding him that she had survived this ordeal. Finally when he felt her starting to nod off he shifted and helped her climb back up onto the bed, sitting on the edge of the mattress and lightly petting her hair. She murmured for him to lay down and join her but he shook his head.

"Someone's gotta keep watch Princess, I'll take the first shift, so get some sleep." He replied, hushing any further protests. As beat up as he was, he knew she was more drained, and more than anything he wanted her to regain her strength. Her eyes fluttered closed and after a few moments she was asleep, her expression peaceful and he smiled as he watched her.

When he was certain both his lover and his sibling were fast asleep, the hunter grabbed his phone and quietly stepped outside the cabin, dialing Garth. It only rang once and the lanky hunter picked up, sounding relieved to finally be getting his call.

"Hey Garth. You and your group make it back to the camper okay? Hear anything from Barret?" He asked, knowing he and his group had parked a beat up old camper a ways off from the cabins and slapped dozens of anti-angel sigils all over it. Garth replied that most of them got back, only a few serious injuries among them.

"Most of you, huh. How many casualties?" Dean asked in a subdued tone. 

 

Aleah sighed as she felt Dean’s hand over her head, lulling her to sleep with his gentle touch. She nuzzled into the pillow, not bothering with climbing under the covers and instead taking to the warmth of Dean’s over shirt still surrounding her. She nodded off in a matter of a few moments, her legs tucked up against her frame, inches away from the edge of the bed and partly curled around her lover where he sat. She didn’t stir when he left, far too out of it to notice him even stand up from the edge of the mattress.

Garth’s phone rang and he quickly answered after only half a ring, seeing it was Dean’s number and lighting up knowing the man finally made a call. “Dean?” He questioned almost uncertainly, sighing on the other end of the line. He sat in one of the bunks of the camper they had parked at the edge of Yosemite Falls as close as they could manage. “Most of the Hombres made it back already.” He assured him with a smile.

“Only a few more serious injuries, most the rest battered and bruised but lots o’ us seen worse in our day.” He shrugged, pausing at Dean’s next question. “Good chunk of Barret’s group went down. ‘Bout three of ‘em I think. Did a head count o’ my own. Only one on my end…” He answered quietly, heading out of the camper where a couple of the hunters were shooting the shit and drinking beer like this was just another day and for most of them it was. This was their life, some had chosen it others had it chosen for them but none seemed too stirred up by the evenings events.

“Cas took off like a shot huh? What about you guys? Aleah? Sammy?” He listed off, fixing the old trucker hat on his head before stuffing a hand in his loose fitting jean pocket as he waited for Dean’s confirmation that they were all okay. “Couple of us saw ‘er… Aleah I mean… Tough chick yah got, picked yourself a good one. I imagine that any of us if we had her know how we’d wanna do the same thing. I wasn’t around not personally but there’s been talk.” He muttered his tone approving of the woman they fought for.

Garth smiled as Dean thanked him for everything through the speaker of his phone in a quieted tone. It sounded almost pained but it meant a lot to him none the less, “That’s what family’s for, Dean. Ain’t no thing.” He promised in his usual overly upbeat tone. “Figure we’ll clear out at sun rise. Most of us wanna get back, clear the area just in case but I figure the less the better, not quite so much chance t’ be traced.”

Dean nodded at his assessment and made an inarticulate sound of agreement, relieved to hear that the body count wasn't nearly as high as he'd been fearing. He looked up at the vast night sky, the stars were vivid out here away from civilization and he could only hope that the worst of this was over now.

"Yeah, send as many of them as you can on home at first light. I'm gonna make a quick sweep of the area, doesn't seem like angels stuck around. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but we're gonna have to burn the bodies, bury what's left before we go." Dean sighed, not looking forward to the task but knowing they had to cover their tracks. Garth agreed, telling him to be careful and that he and a few hunters would help with the cleanup first thing in the morning.

There was a long moment of silence and Dean was pretty sure he knew what Garth wanted to ask but couldn't quite bring himself to do. It was weighing on his mind too. "I'm not sure if it worked or not, Garth." He answered without forcing the man to voice the question. "I'm hoping I can get a hold of Cas, see if he'll be able to tell." He assured the lanky hunter, saying his goodbye and hanging up with the promise to report anything he heard in the morning.

Dean pocketed his phone and ambled off towards the sight of the battle, flashlight in one hand and angel blade in the other, just in case. He came to the treeline and shined his light over the strewn bodies lying on the ground, listening intently and watching closely for any signs of life but not finding any as he got closer. He carefully checked every body, not getting any kind of pulse or response. The hunter wandered over to the edge of the cliff, scuffing the scorch marks on the rocks with his boot and clearing his throat.

"Cas." He called, letting his eyes slip closed as he waited to see if his friend would respond to his prayer. "Castiel. You all right? I need to talk to you, if you're... Able." Dean muttered, opening his eyes again and looking out over the edge of the towering cliffs, watching the water a ways off flowing over the side and feeling his stomach do a little flip remembering how close he'd come to going over the side too.

He heard his friend's rough voice calling his name at his back and he turned, walking down to stand face to face with the angel who looked better but obviously still pretty beat up. "Hey." Dean put away his blade and crossed his arms over his chest, tipping his head to catch his friend's downward gaze as he looked at the fallen around them with sadness in his clear blue eyes.

"How you holding up?" Dean asked quietly, before getting to the issue at hand. He wanted to make sure Cas was all right first and foremost.

Castiel appeared at the top of the peak where Dean prayed for him, his brow furrowed and his gentle blue gaze down casted to the surrounding ground. It pained him to see his brothers and sisters fallen for such a cause. He knew it had to be done but it still wasn't any better that way.

He stared at the man when he forced him to meet his eyes, "I am living." He answered, shifting his weight and stepping closer to his companion. "This isn't what I intended nor what I wanted but Aleah is alive too. That is what is important." He stated in a quiet voice.

Dean gave a weak smile and nodded saying that definitely was top priority in his book, doing something to change her fate or at least keep hef safe a little longer. The hunter questioned what they all likely had been itching to get the answer to. "I do not know for certain... the angel radio is much stronger, I feel... much stronger. Though that could be a mind set I suppose." He murmured.

"It may be some time before I can confirm but I feel the ritual was successful." Castiel finished off.

When the sun rose they did as they said, burying and burning what they could, cleaning out the area. Aleah was leaning against Dean, feeling a little uncomfortable with eyes on her to which she thought maybe it was her being an angel or half angel that caused this in part that made them eye her like they were. Dean rubbed her back as they spoke to the other hunters that remained and she couldnt help but grin as she spotted Sammy chatting it up with Garth and some slender redhead who surprisingly seemed to manage Garth just fine.

Dean kept Aleah close during the day's work, sensing her apprehension when the other hunters they didn't know well were being less than subtle about watching their backs with her around. "Don't mind them Princess." Dean nudged her with his elbow to get her attention. "Hunters are the most paranoid bastards on the planet, it's what keeps us alive. They aren't against you or nothin', they just feel like they need to keep one eye on you 'cuz you're technically not human. Even if you did just save all their asses." Dean explained, his voice getting loud enough by the last sentence so those around them heard his words and hurriedly refocused on their work rather than on her.

Aleah smiled and seemed to accept his words, but she still seemed distracted. Dean followed her line of sight and saw Sammy digging a grave plot and talking with Garth and a pretty redheaded hunter who had arrived from Texas with Barret's group.

His dark brows quirked with interest and he nodded in their direction, smirking as he spoke to his girlfriend, "Hey... Sammy's talking to a lady, and she actually doesn't seem grossed out. Way to go little brother." He said in a lighter tone, chuckling when Aleah chided him for teasing about his brother. "What? Trust meyou don't understand how awkward that nerd is around girls. Especially hot ones. If he sees there's no romantic potential he does okay, but the second there's even a hint of mutual attraction, bam, awkward town." He joked, shaking his head as he got back to his own digging.

Aleah insisted that he wasn't giving Sam enough credit, but got back to work as well as best she could with her injured hand, in better spirits now which pleased him. "You know you don't have to haul ashes around and crap with that hand." Dean prompted, glancing at her bandaged palm. The brunette shrugged saying that if he and Sammy and Cas had the strength to work, then she had find some as well. The hunter smiled and reached out to tug her closer, kissing her sweetly. He was proud of how far she had come compared to when they first met, her character was even more attractive to him than her gorgeous looks.

"All right, I just don't wanna hear complaints about breaking a nail or something." He teased, a devilish grin spreading over his face as she playfully smacked his shoulder with her good hand.

Aleah started helping with digging up graves, cringing at the smell the burning flesh created but most others seemed immune and she wondered if someday she would be too. She ignored every sting of pain as she worked, determined to prove herself not only to the other hunters but to her own family as well. She had a lot to show and while Dean might have been right, she had saved their asses… that wasn’t enough. She had to fight for her place and she would show them that she was every bit as human as them, her partial inspiration being Sam for his determination, smiling as she caught his eyes.

Dean told her she didn’t have to do all that she was and she shrugged, opening up her hand that was wrapped in dirty gauze she could feel her own pulse in her hand and finger tips. She gave him a shrug, “If you three can do it and push through the pain, seems only fair I do the same. I gotta find the strength to become the fourth musketeer, right?” She winked at her lover, laughing lightly as he snatched her wrist before she could get back to her task and he pulled her against him despite their building audience every time they showed affection. Dean hadn’t been the type to be open like that from what she understood but it meant a lot to her to know he wasn’t scared to show to the rest of the guys that she was his.

The brunette returned his sweet kiss, resting her hands at his waist and keeping close as he gazed down at her. She gave him a sideways smile for everything, leaning up and expecting another kiss but instead he teased about her breaking a precious nail. “Shut up.” She scolded, smacking his shoulder and pushing him away making him laugh but he grabbed her again and forced her back into his hold, sealing their lips a few more times. “Behave.” She warned, scrunching her nose and pressing her forehead to his before she pulled away and went back to her task, shaking her head as she felt his eyes tracking her form.

\---

The entire air in the bunker changed almost immediately after they all returned home, things were set to rights or as much as they could be for the time being though as it would seem The Winchesters were still needed and Aleah was still being hunted. Maybe it was less so now but there was still a price on her head, one higher than that of two arch angels’ true vessels. Dean left for a couple nights to meet with Garth in the next town over, mostly for catching up on Garth’s part because apparently he had a few things to tell the other hunter as well as needed assistance on a hunt.

Aleah spent the extra time with Sam, far more relaxed now in this space than she ever had been and he was discussing a possible ‘nest’ in New York. “Why New York you think?” She questioned, sitting curled up at his side and glancing over him with her cheek on his shoulder as he scrolled through an archive on his laptop. He shrugged his opposite shoulder and claimed he didn’t really know, possibly because it was the city that never sleeps, something was always opened, be it a bar or restaurant which meant the vamps could hunt easily at night for drunken prey. “So you think there are a lot?”

Sammy claimed there might not be, with the death count and the word he got from another hunter friend of theirs who had been lurking in the area it didn’t seem to be much more than a dozen… give or take a few. “I think I can handle it.” Aleah spoke up and Sam looked down at her making her shift away from his shoulder and sit up right again as he questioned her wanting to take the case. “Well not alone of course but Dean’s supposed to be home in a few hours. Sammy if it was him would you question him wanting to take this? I’m a hunter too.” She smiled.

“When he comes home we can pack and go together. Maybe he’ll let me drive.” She joked, knowing that would likely never happen but Sam smiled and nodded, telling her he knew he couldn’t pick what hunts she was ready for anymore considering she put up a bit of a fight in California. “Aww. Love you too, Sammy.” She hummed, tugging him by his scruffy chin and kissing his cheek, smudging off the faint line of nude lipstick she left just by his nose.

“I think we can handle it on our own.” Aleah answered when Sam asked about them needing help, “Besides you boys were just a duo for a long time and did it all just the same.” She pointed out and Sam teased that he figured she might answer in the negative, arching a brow knowing she wanted time to be with her lover again. She flushed red and got off the couch, “You can get your own beer then, Bro.” She teased for his comment, hearing him call out an apology and she rolled her eyes at her best friend.

 

Dean hardly arrived back at the bunker when Aleah told him about a new case Sammy had found in New York City. It looked like vamp trouble, and according to what his little brother had found out from Garth, there weren't any hunters in the immediate area that weren't already working a job. It didn't seem too hairy though little did nowadays to the elder Winchester considering what he had been through. Clearing out a nest of bloodsuckers seemed relatively tame compared to going to Hell or opening Heaven's gates after all.

The brunette was obviously eager to go out on a hunt with him, what she considered to be her first official hunting job since the whole Eris and Yosemite thing had been kind of forced on her whether she liked it or not. So after some prep work, the next day the pair were on the road headed to the big apple. Dean still refused any help with driving, there were a few things in his world he simply hated and letting someone, anyone that wasn't him drive his baby.

Aleah busied herself with navigation duty, commenting on the fact that she missed her car that had gps built in as she messed around with the big unfolded map in her lap, trying to pick out their next turn from all the winding roads as they drove closer and closer to New York state. Dean chuckled and shook his head, gently patting his steering wheel. "Don't listen to her baby, you're fine just the way you are." He told his car as if it could hear and comprehend him. "We don't need any fancy gadgets to get us where we're going." He added, smirking when Aleah scoffed at him.

They pulled off for the night after a long day in the car, Dean handed Aleah one of his fake credit cards and quirked his brows at her when she gave him an incredulous look. "I'll park the car, why don't you go get us a room Princess?" He told her, amused by her apprehension now that the moment to essentially lie and steal their way into accommodations for the night had arrived. "You said you wanted an authentic hunting gig. Not exactly a lot of money in this job, so go in there and give it your best shot." He prompted, feeling strangely like what it must be like to encourage your nervous child to attempt something for the first time, like riding a bike or going to school.

She took the little plastic card from him and bit her lip. "Just be confident. Hell, flirt a little bit to distract them if you need to. Just get us a room with a king size bed, huh? I'm beat and I wanna sprawl." He told her with a little laugh, shooing her out of the Impala and going to find a parking spot.

Aleah took the card from Dean’s hand feeling a little tired herself though she imagined not quite as bad as her lover likely was. She bit her lip and gave a nod not really liking the idea but he was right she had asked for a real hunting experience though insisted on if there were any cheap boat houses they wouldn’t stay there again. She wanted a real bed which Dean seemed to be slowly appreciating and wanting to accommodate that the longer they were together. “Kinda feels like you want your distance.” She teased, “Maybe I should get a separate room so you can sprawl all over all you want.” She grinned, climbing out of the Impala and taking her small purse with her.

She padded across the pavement and Dean flipped the car around the corner to find a close parking spot she knew he had to visually see his ‘baby’ otherwise he got a little tweaky thinking she was missing. The thought made her grin as she heard the Impala rumble and clink and she had to admit that she loved the car just as much as he did regardless of what she said. It took Aleah little more than a few minutes to talk to the front desk clerk, asking for an upgrade with a brush of her hand over theirs and a quick bat of her dark lashes and here Dean said her getting dolled up even to a minimum wasn’t worth it. He wanted her to flirt her way to the top so she did just so.

The half angel came out of the office with a smile on her lips and a well played giggle as she let the door close behind her, tucking her hair aside and meeting Dean by the trunk of the car where he was waiting for her. He grinned seeming rather pleased that she looked happy clearly meaning she had been successful and he asked her about the room. “One grade below their Honeymoon Suite. Which means a decent sized tub and shower combo, king sized bed and a mini fridge, complimentary on demand film of our choosing.” She smiled sweetly, handing him his card back with a delicate arch of her dainty wrist as Dean stated his approval and questioned if she spent that five minutes or so in the closet with the guy.

“Nope. She was just easy to persuade. Good thing we didn’t send you in, hmm?” She quipped, flushing red when he stared at her for having flirted with a chick no less to get them good accommodations. “What? You said do what it took so I did. Now you can sprawl all you want and I can take a bath in the… hopefully clean enough tub.” She sighed, grabbing their overnight bag from the trunk and swinging the duffle over her shoulder while Dean snatched up the weapons bag and stated his approval.

Aleah dangled the keys from her fingers for him to take pointing in the right direction and Dean paused, asking if she was sure she didn’t want to invite her new friend instead. “You’re sick.” She laughed, fighting the blush of her cheeks and leading him up the stairs of the nicer motel she picked out on her phone. She practically danced up the steps letting him open the door with the key and push it open for her, so it wasn’t the grandest of all places but for what ‘Anthony Wayne’ and his ‘assistant’ could afford it was nice.

She dropped their stuff at the door, pleased to see there were at least clean sheets on the bed and a television that would keep Dean entertained for a bit while she cleaned up. “Maybe the Princess should be the one to pick accommodations all the time. I bet you thought I could do it didn’t you, Sir?” She giggled, watching Dean dump off his own stuff and kick the door closed, falling face first onto the mattress. He groaned and made a comment she could hardly understand as his cheek buried into the covers. “Agreed.” She laughed even though she had no idea what it was he said, walking over to join him when he patted the spot next to him. She dropped down and lay on her back, turning her head to look at him with a smile playing on her face. “Not so bad for a rookie.”

 

Dean flopped down on the mattress, sinking gratefully into the comforter and sighing as the tension from the long day of driving eased out of his muscles. He called for her to come join her on the bed, though with his face pressed into the blankets even he couldn't make out his words and he was the one who had said them. But with him patting the bed beside him she got the message and came to stretch out beside him.

He raised his head at her comment, smiling and shaking his head in acknowledgement. "Not bad at all. We'll have you shaped into a regular con artist in no time." He quipped, groaning as he rolled over and made himself sit up. He tugged his beat up flannel button down off and hunched over to free his feet from his boots and socks. He could feel Aleah's eyes on him but pretended not to notice, standing up and tugging his shirt off, giving her a view of his muscled back and more when he shrugged his jeans off and left them in a heap at the foot of the bed.

He turned to face her in just his black briefs, smirking when he caught her biting her lower lip as she looked him over. "Care to test out that 'decent-sized' tub? I could go for a soak." He asked, turning to head into the adjoined bathroom without waiting for a response. The tub didn't disappoint, it looked plenty big enough for two and the hunter started the water filling while he shed his underwear and the few accessories he wore like his watch and rings.

Aleah still hadn't joined him by the time he climbed into the tub and relaxed back against the porcelain but he was confident she'd be along any minute with how she'd been devouring him with eyes a few minutes ago. Just as the tub was nearly full, finally his lover appeared in the doorway and it was his turn to get an eyeful.

The half-angel came in and leaned one arm up on the door frame, smiling at him with a light blush in her cheeks. She wore nothing except a pair of lacy black panties, a skimpy bra to match and... A pair of mile high red stilettos. Dean's green eyes raked up and down her lovely frame, growling his approval though he couldn't resist teasing her a little bit. "You packed those shoes for a vamp hunt, huh? Guess the saying is true, you can take the Princess out of the castle..." He let his voice trail off, smiling at her mischievously as she made a face at him for his comment.

She clucked her tongue at him and pretended to turn to go, saying if he didn't approve then she could just go find the hotel clerk again and ask her opinion. Dean sat forward in the water and splashed the backs of her legs a bit, making her squeak and giggle. "Oh I approve. I definitely approve." He commented, his voice low and rough with want as he looked her over from the back side as well. "But I'd approve even more of you taking that off, nice and slow, and joining me." He added, his eyes dark with desire and his arousal growing just from the sight of her.

Aleah enjoyed the view of her lover slowly shedding his clothes, making her bite her lower lip and sigh with want. He took off with mention of the tub she managed to ensure they got. He took off and she smiled, watching him leave in his briefs that hugged tight around his firm rear. He offered for her to join but she had something else in mind, slipping out of her clothes and wearing only her lacy under garments, tugging on her strappy stilettos before trotting in moments after the stream of water stopped, hearing Dean get settled into the water with a pleased sigh.

She walked into the opened door and blushed pink as she leaned into its frame, bending her knee and cocking her hip giving him a nice opened view of her nearly bare frame. She bit her lower lip once more, hoping she tempted him in the way she wanted until he commented on her attire and teased her for it. She pouted at him and turned easily on her toes to exit once more, “Well maybe I’ll go for a walk then? Find my hotel clerk downstairs and see if she approves since you don’t.” She hummed, laughing as he splashed her legs lightly. “Hey!” She scolded, whirling back around to look at him as he spoke.

“Mmm now that’s better.” She purred, “Nice and slow huh?” Aleah mused, running her hands over her slender frame to tease, her fingers gliding around to her back in an exaggerated fashion as she undressed herself before him. She unhooked her bra and slid it off her front, seeing his pupils dilate and the hunger in his gaze alone was enough to make her slick with desire. The brunette massaged her chest and hummed at her touch, knowing now it drove him a little crazy to watch her touch herself in such a matter. She let her fingers ghost over her skin down to hook in her panties and sliding them down inch by inch until they pool off of her thighs and onto the floor by her heels.

She tucked her hair aside and stepped out of them, moving forward to where Dean was practically drooling over the side of the tub. “Shoes too?” She questioned laughing as he responded that he really didn’t care either way while she propped her foot on the edge of the tub and started to try and unstrap the shoes from her feet, humming as her lover leaned forward to start grazing on her calve. His fingers unfastened the buckled on her ankle, eyeing her open and exposed form and she smiled as he pulled the heel off and tossed it onto the tiled floor, dragging her leg over him and into the water and she stood above him, her opposite foot taking the others place on the side of the porcelain bath.

Dean’s gaze flickered between her legs and he licked his lips hungrily and she knew full well he was resisting the urge to sit up and eat her out until her fingers carded through his short hair halting him with the touch of her hand. “Other shoe baby.” She instructed and he smirked, biting at her opposite toned calve as he slipped the shoe off of her and as he dropped it over the side she slipped to her knees over him gasping as she felt his erection brush beneath her. “That for the vamp hunt too?” She teased and he chuckled with his lips close to hers until she met them in a slow hungry kiss, grinding her bare sex against his.

 

Dean hummed against Aleah's lips, tensing and letting his hands wander up and down her curves as she began grinding down on him. They broke apart for breath and the hunter smiled at his lover. "Nah. I give those vamps a different kind of poke." He joked, trailing one hand down her front and under the hot water, brushing his fingertips over her clit and riling her up with his touch.

Aleah mewled and began rocking her hips in time with her labored breathing, raising herself up enough to press the tip of his shaft into her, slowly sinking down onto his length making both of them groan with pleasure as she canted her hips to his, taking him completely. Dean gripped her hips and guided her up and down his length, thrusting his hips up in time with her movements and watching raptly at the way his lover panted and bucked atop him.

Aleah leaned forward and kissed him deeply, drowning out the last of his coherent thoughts as they moved together in the heated embrace of the water, sloshing it over the sides of the tub but not caring. She pulled back a hairsbreadth and whispered to him how good he felt. He tucked his head down to nip and lick at her soft throat, lightly at first then suddenly sharper, making her flinch and moan with pleasure as he left his mark on her.

The brunette leaned back and braced her hands on the sides of the tub, bouncing up and down in his lap rapidly. Dean matched her pace and began teasing her clit again with his calloused fingers, clenching his muscles tight to rein in his own release until his lover came undone.

"Come for me Princess..." Dean growled, speeding the motions of his fingers and panting brokenly as her inner muscles clamped and fluttered around him almost on command. She came hard around him and he followed her quickly over the edge, spilling deep inside her with a low curse. Aleah's motions slowed until she finally rode out the last of her climax, drifting forward again in the water and pulling off of him with a little mewl. He shifted a bit against the back of the tub so she could lie against him in the water, cupping his hand and spilling hot water over her bare shoulder in an absent rhythm.

"Good call on the bigger tub." He complimented, chuckling at the pleased humming noise she made and kissing the top of her head.

Aleah gasped and writhed above Dean as his fingers worked over her clit and she rode his thick length driving her up further and further. She felt his body tense beneath her as he fought his release and instructed her to come for him and in nearly the same second her inner most muscles flexed tight around him and groaned his name in ecstasy as she came hard around him, milking him dry and feeling him explode deep inside her.

She rode out her pleasure above him until she was spent, her motions slowing to a halt and she settled against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her brushing water over her frame absent mindedly making her warm up a bit not that she needed it with the aid of his comforting frame and the exertion of their activities. She hummed pleasingly at his comment about the tub, closing her eyes as he kissed the top of her head. She could hear Dean talking but she was only half listening the sound of his voice soothed her allowed her to relax like nothing else did and she heard him chuckle at the fact that she kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

They lay like that entwined for a while, rinsing themselves off and drying off to get ready for bed. Aleah wrapped in a towel as she brushed her teeth and didn’t bother getting dressed in anything but her panties and the button up he wore previously. Dean grinned and they climbed in bed together, facing back to back and she felt his body heat up against her own, rolling over and spooning up against his hard back. She kissed along his shoulder blades and heard him groan, his hand reaching around behind him to grip her making her giggle as he yanked at her panties. She let her hand trail around to his front, tugging his ear with her teeth from behind and groping him through his briefs until he couldn’t stand it and rolled over to face her, meeting her lips softly at first.

Aleah’s hand slipped into the hem of his bottoms, gripping his hardened length and his fingers in turn swirled around her clit through the fabric of her panties. She smirked at him and pumped him faster, his fingers shifting to dip into her core, shoving her garment aside to get to her and fingering her as she worked him over. She pressed up closer to him, her bare breasts just near his chest, breathing heavily and meeting his gaze as he smiled at her softly, groaning in the back of his throat as his hips jolted forward into her hand. It wasn’t long before he had her riding his hand in time with her own motions on him, coming around his fingers in nearly the same moment his seed spilled over her hand, their lips meeting in a slow deep kiss as they came down from their highs. “Night, baby.” She whispered with a smirk as their hands with drew and he shifted to clean himself up a bit.

Eventually the couple drifted off, having their fill of the other for the night and the next morning Aleah woke up to the sound of Dean in the shower rinsing off the last of their love making from the night before and she grinned, getting out of bed and padding over to the bathroom where she heard him singing some old classic rock song she only knew because he serenaded her time and time again with it. She searched for her toiletry bag she left in here last night, hearing Dean call a good morning to her asking if she was up for a shower. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” She teased, shaking her head and digging through the small green and gold bag she used for all her essentials, hunting for something that was… rather important for them both. Her eyes went wide, hardly hearing Dean when he whined that he joined her bath the least she could do was shower with him since he was lonely and all. “Umm…” She started, jumping when he yanked opened the curtain and stuck his head out, half covered in suds asking her what was wrong.

Aleah shook her head, forcing her best smile, “Nothing just looking for my face wash.” She lied, “Rain check on the shower?” She asked, zipping her bag back up and hastily retreating out of the bathroom as he called he would hold her to that this evening then. She waved her hand in understanding a tiny smirk on her face despite her worry, trying to avoid worrying him as well. The brunette tucked her long espresso locks behind her ears and knelt in front of her and Dean’s clothing bag, digging through the duffle and pulling everything out to look for her birth control pills. She bit her lip in thought trying to think if she even remembered to pack them at all.

She couldn’t find them anywhere, squeezing her eyes shut as she recalled having them set on the foot of her bed for her to snatch up. She put them there so she would remember when she grabbed the rest of her things but that was stupid on her part considering she spent most nights and days in Dean’s room. “Shit.” She cursed herself, her heart racing but… it was only one time… one night, they wouldn’t be here long. One pill wouldn’t make a difference she internally comforted herself, jolting again when her lover appeared at the door wrapped in a towel and he arched a brow asking if she was okay and why she was so jumpy.

“Just getting kind of overwhelmed… with the hunt.” She lied again, feeling like she was going to be sick for how easy that was not to tell Dean what was really going on in her mind. He stepped up behind her when she straightened out and kissed the top of her head as he passed by her promising she would do fine. “I know I will. Guess I just wanna get going so I can get out there.” She shrugged.


	3. Chapter 3

Dean slammed the rusty metal sliding door of the warehouse shut. A rough laugh of triumph escaping his lips as he leaned against the wall. Every last vamp that had been squatting in the abandoned industrial warehouse was dead, and all things considered he felt like he and his 'rookie' partner had acquitted themselves well.

He looked over to his left where Aleah leaned against the wall also, having proceeded him out the door. "So? What'd you think?" Dean asked, wiping blood spatter off his brow and cheek with the back of his sleeve. Dean knew well and good that he wasn't a normal, well-adjusted nine to five type guy, and if Aleah was gonna stick with him full time she'd have to get used to the fact that he got a real sense of satisfaction from killing a bunch of dirt bag monsters on their own turf.

Aleah looked him over, panting heavily from her exertion. She had only taken out two of the thirteen vampires in there but considering it was her first live close combat session he thought she'd done really well. The brunette kept staring at him, searching his face and reaching out to slide her hand up his chest and grip his shoulder. For a split second he thought she was going to get angry, maybe for enjoying the fight so much but that doubt quickly burned away when she stood up on her toes and sealed her lips to his, kissing him wildly.

Dean immediately responded to the contact, tangling the fingers of one hand into her hair and the other gripped her firm rear, driving her up against him. He growled against her lips and took control of the kiss, plundering her mouth and making her moan. He knew this wasn't exactly the best place to be making out with his girl but the rush of the adrenaline was still fresh in his system and it was making that much more riled. After a few heated moments they broke apart and gasped for breath, and Dean couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her reaction.

 

"So... I'm gonna take that as a positive review of the experience?" He asked, tugging at her hips making her grind against his growing arousal, but then his better sense finally kicked in and he realized that Aleah's eyes weren't just looking extra bright in the full moonlight, they were just... Extra bright. "Aleah." He said firmly, gently pushing her back and cupping her face to look closely, making sure he wasn't imagining it.

"Turn it off. You're glowing baby." He warned her sternly, shaking them both out of the angelically charged high Aleah had pushed them into. The hunter doubted very much that it had been intentional, this was Aleah's first real fight where she had to be in the fray itself, and she had likely been feeding off her powers a bit unconsciously for added strength and protection. The brunette blinked a few times and her face paled with shock as she realized it too, and that cemented his suspicion that she hadn't been letting her mojo bleed through on purpose.

She started to stammer out an apology, looking around the sky above them as if a score of angels would come crashing down on their heads any second. He took her hand, looking around too but so far the night seemed quiet and clear. "Come on, we need to get back to the hotel room, put up some extra wards just in case." He told her, taking off at a fast jog so she could keep up with her shorter strides, towing her along behind him back to where the Impala was parked.

They drove in tense silence, both worried that they would be attacked unprepared any second. Aleah said she could hear chatter on Angel Radio but that they didn't know where exactly in New York her signal of power had come from, which was some comfort at least. He glanced at her and saw her eyes were now brimming with tears, she started apologizing again for losing control and Dean cut her off.

"Don't be sorry, you didn't do it on purpose. Just remember for next time, you've gotta put a lid on that stuff outside the bunker, rely on your own strength, okay? We're gonna be all right. It's all right." He soothed, patting her thigh and squeezing her fingers tight when she slipped her hand beneath his for encouragement. 

 

Aleah pulled back for breath gripping her lover and groaning as he ground against her desperate to have him and she hardly knew why except it was Dean. Her Dean and he looked damn good damp with sweat from hard days work but then he looked at her pushing her away and talking about her eyes. "What?" She breathed.

Dean explained she was glowing and needed to calm down and as she looked at him she realized what it was he meant she was honing her angel mojo without even knowing or meaning to. "Oh god I'm. .. I didn't..." She stuttered. She looked up to the sky as though they might start attacking and her first thought was to get Dean out. He gripped her and said they needed to go and she followed quickly to the impala.

They climbed in the car and for a good chunk of time everything was quiet at least in the car that was to say. She felt her eyes welling though as she listened in on angel radio her body felt numb as she concentrated. It took her a little more focus to pay attention like that but then she dropped back, "They felt me... but it wasn't enough of a signal that they can tell where exactly. I think the protection thing on my side makes things a little fuzzier unlike for you and Sammy where it wipes you off the map with your ribs etched like that." She muttered quietly.

"Dean im so sorry... I didnt even know I was..." she whispered, her voice cracking as tears slipped down her cheeks. He lay his hand on her thigh and much to her surprise he soothed her rather than got angry for her losing control like that. The half angel nodded her head at his words, slipping her hand under his to hook their fingers together.

She bit her lip with worry as they pulled up to the hotel and by then she was crying feeling stupid and hating herself for losing it both then and now. Dean dragged her into their motel room weapons in hand and he pushed her further into the room taking out his paint he used so often and marking up the walls viciously as he muttered things in Latin and a few other languages she didnt comprehend.

She watched him finish up and her breathing was heavy as he looked at her, shaking her head. "They're already here in New York. Dean they know we're together. They know I'm with you..." she sobbed, fearing more for him than herself and he snatched her wrists pulling her against his frame and letting her calm down in his arms telling her she needed to not freak out. "I'm sorry I put you in danger. I didnt want to do that... Baby we need to get home." She told him.

Dean released his tight grip on her and cupped his girlfriend's face, forcing her to look him in the eye. "Hey hey hey, listen to me. Aleah, listen to me." The hunter repeated himself a bit more firmly to keep her focus and keep her from dissolving completely into tears.

"Me being with you? That's old news Princess. The angels have known for a long time that a Nephilim has been kicking around with the Winchesters and their favorite runaway angel Castiel. I need you stay with me, all right?" He told her directly, waiting till she nodded and kissing her on the forehead for encouragement.

"Now I'm gonna get packed up, I need you to sit down, take some deep breaths, and see if you can get any more specific info about where the God Squad is looking for us. I don't like leaving without making sure we cleared all the vamps out, but hey- bigger, more pissed off fish." He kept talking as he began moving around the room shoving items in bags and getting them ready to clear out.

Aleah stayed frozen for a moment but seemed to collect herself to his relief, sitting down cross-legged on the end of the bed and closing her eyes. He tried to remain quiet as he packed up, hoping she could pick up some useful chatter that would let him know the best route to make their getaway undetected.

He got all their things collected and came to squat down at the end of the bed, gently putting his hand on Aleah's knee to rouse her from her almost meditative state. "Hey Princess. What's the good word?" He asked with a crooked grin, trying to alleviate some of his lover's stress. Unfortunately Dean was more than a little accustomed to fleeing for his life, so it was easier for him to maintain a calm front.

Inwardly he was worried, but he wasn't going to let Aleah see that, not right now. She responded quietly that there were eyes on the city, but they were only watching interstates going south back out into the states. He nodded, kissing her cheek as he rose back up to his full height and offered her his hand to stand herself. 

"Alright, basic haul ass tactic: If the bad guys are going one way..." He said and made a pointing motion forward with his hand, "You go the opposite way, as fast as you can." He hooked his hand back in the other direction for emphasis. Aleah quirked her dark brows at him and he chuckled. "Ever been to Maine? It's very... Postcard." He said as he opened the door to their hotel room and peeked out both ways, fairly sure they weren't in immediate danger but feeling extra cautious nonetheless. 

Aleah questioned his plan to take them even further away from the safety of the bunker, and he made a tsking noise at her. "Oh ye of little faith. It's just temporary. We go hide out in the last place the God Squad would expect us to go, and then once the heat's off, high tail it home." He explained under his breath as they quickly strode down the hallway to the elevators.

Aleah sat on the edge of the bed nearly in a trance as she listened to angel radio while Dean did his own thing. He gave her plenty of time to bathe herself, her eyes still watery but she knew he was right she couldnt freak out on him now and they knew she was with him before but this was different. It was only him, no back up just the two of them.

Deans hand on her leg pulled her back and she gave a weak smile as she told her bit of information she had gathered. He quickly worked up a plan in his mind standing up and kissing her cheek as he voiced them going the complete opposite way that their home was. "Dean I don't know..." she murmured uncertainty but he packed up their stuff as though he already knew this would work.

Aleah sighed, shaking her head a little and watching him peek out the door leaving the bill and the mess behind to get to the elevators him tugging her by the hand all the way out to the impala. Her heart still raced with nervous energy and again she felt her lovers hand on her leg. It was odd how she felt safer in the car Dean grew up with, her boy at her side even though she knew the place wasn't truly safe if she had to choose anywhere to rest... maybe her last rest... she would pick here, leaning as close to him as the seat would allow.

Dean tore off like a rocket and the brunette clung to his fingers until she started drifting off. "Don't let me sleep long." She whispered softly and her eyes fluttered closed hearing him chuckle and promise he'd wake her when they stopped next for gas. She nodded and slowly fell asleep in the front seat.

Aleah stirred when Dean was at the passenger door reaching for her and gently rousing her where he knelt outside. She blinked and looked around at where they were not recognizing the location and coming to recall what they had needed to do, run away. "Where are we?" She asked and dean answered that he took them as far as he could manage without falling asleep at the wheel. She smiled and unfastened her belt as he said he didnt want to leave her in the car sleeping while he went in to get them a room.

She nodded and followed him out of the car, tiredly taking his hand and laughing to herself. He looked at her and asked what the hell she was on to be giggling right now. "Nothing... It's just kinda feels like were running away together. Super romantic... minus the feathery bastards on our tails." She smiled, hugging his arm, "Maybe next time it'll be on less extreme terms huh?"

Dean gave his girlfriend a sideways grin as they walked. "Yeah, that would be nice... But dont' hold your breath, things are usually pretty crazy when there's a Winchester involved." He chuckled, leading her up to the small hotel he'd seen a sign for a ways back up the road. It turned out to be a restored old home with only four rooms for rent, a far more 'quaint' place than what the hunter usually chose.

There was bearded man bent over with age at the front desk who greeted them in a raspy voice. Dean booked them the best room, dubbed the 'anniversary suite' and shrugged at Aleah's surprised expression. They retreated up the narrow staircase and the hunter spoke over his shoulder to her, "There see? This really is like a romantic getaway." He flashed her a cheesy grin. He stopped her outside their door after he unlocked it with the old fashioned brass key, scooping her up and carrying her over the threshold making her giggle.

He set her down and went back to bring their bags in, glancing around at the floral wallpaper and gauzy curtains hung around the four poster bed. He went about his now well versed routine of supernatural-proofing the room, wincing at some of the more garish knickknacks strewn about. 

"Wow. Can you really take any of this seriously with all this frilly stuff everywhere? Doesn't exactly inspire a lot of sparks flying in my opinion." He commented as he hefted Aleah's bag up onto the padded bench at the foot of the bed so it'd be easier for her to get in and out of.

Aleah shook her head at him and came to wrap her arms around his waist, admitting the decor was a little dated but it was still very romantic. Dean looked down at his girlfriend and chuckled. "If you say so Princess." He craned his head down and kissed her tenderly. The contact was soft at first but quickly grew more heated, Dean was about to slip his hands under Aleah's shirt when there was a knock at their door and both of them jumped.

Dean sighed and kissed Aleah's forehead, stepping away from her and drawing his gun. He held the weapon behind his back and opened it just a crack, relaxing marginally when he recognized the old man from the desk. He gave Dean a small stack of local takeout menus and a complimentary bottle of cheap table wine that apparently came with the anniversary suite, which the hunter had enough good graces to at least make a show of thanking the guy for.

He shut the door again and turned to smile at his lover, holding up the bottle and pamphlets. "Ready to be wined and dined Princess? I could even light those candles on the table." He asked with a wink and a laugh.

Aleah tensed a little ways behind Dean, her hand hovering near her bag for the colt similar to her lovers that lay just beneath her few tops, readying herself to snatch it up if needed. Dean answered the door and she relaxed at the rough sound of the old gentleman’s voice from the front desk, giving a smile as her lover thanked the man and closed the door behind him. She eyed the bottle of wine in his hand and laughed lightly. “Did you do this on purpose? Trying to pretend it’s no big deal then you turn into Mister Suave… Smooth talker?” She teased.

Her heart fluttered a little at the thought, while he might not have truly planned it this way, he didn’t exactly seem to mind the more affectionate side of things for the moment. “Candles would be nice.” She grinned, taking the menus from him and making eye contact before turning and padding away. “What sounds good?” She questioned, flipping through them to see their options. She heard the wine bottle clink against the bedside table as Dean came up behind her, running his hands along her hips and looking over her shoulder at the pamphlets before saying he knew what he wanted already, brushing her hair aside and grazing on her slim throat making her hum in response.

The brunette nudged him gently to keep focus, “We need to eat. Real food.” She chided, glancing over her shoulder at him when he rose off her neck to meet her gaze. “Because I know you and if I don’t get a burger in you soon you won’t be very fun… I need you energized.” She winked, kissing him repeatedly across his full lips. He groaned lightly, turning her around and pushing her back until she collided with the three drawer dresser claiming he could work up a bit more of an appetite. She laughed lightly as he captured her lips again and easily lifted her into his arms, her legs hooking around his waist, grinning at him as she held his face.

She halted their kisses for only a second, “There’s a condition.” She muttered, meeting his green eyes as he arched a brow in question and she cocked her head to the few candles on the table and then the dimmer switch on the wall. He sighed and asked if she was serious, her hand gently smacking his chest, “Yes I’m serious. Excuse me for making you work for it.” She teased and he hauled her still on his hips towards the candles position, one hand on her rear keeping her up around him as he dug into his pocket and flicked open his lighter in one smooth motion, lighting a few of them and almost immediately the delicious smell filled the air of their room.

Dean moved again and she laughed at the little bounce in his step, clinging to his frame and teasing him for carrying her around the room like he was. He turned the lights down low and for a second she thought he might find all of this a bit ridiculous when he looked at her again but the look in his green orbs said something entirely different. The half angel shifted in his arms, cupping his face in her hands and giving him a gentle smile as he took her to their borrowed bed, kissing him slow and deep until he lay her back onto the mattress.

Dean had never been a 'romantic' guy by any stretch of the imagination, and that had always suited him just fine. But he did have to admit that he felt pretty good about how happy he was making his lover with the room and candlelight and such. Even if it was a lot to him he realized it wasn't really high-class romance, but for now it would have to do.

The hunter laid his lover on the mattress, feathering kisses over her face and throat, keeping his contact light and soft. Aleah's breathing hitched when he swept his hand down over the swell of her breast, and he smiled against her flesh when her hands grasped at his shirt trying to pull the garment off of him. "Easy baby..." He chided her teasingly, pressing her hands back onto the floral coverlet and continuing his languid grazing of her flesh, licking his way down to sample her cleavage.

He let his hands wander over every inch of her, finally sitting back to tug his own shirt off and then help her out of hers. Dean leaned back down kissed over her chest, making goosebumps rise on her skin with his light touches and breaths. He tugged the satiny cups of her bra down and sucked and nipped at her breasts, making her mewl and arch up into the contact for more.

He added pressure with his teeth and tongue, one hand slipping down the flat plane of her belly to tickle at the edge of her jeans, making her shiver. Aleah's breathing was growing shallow and he was grinning from ear to ear at the way her anticipation was getting the better of her. Dean's own arousal was getting hard to ignore, his jeans getting painfully restrictive as he sampled more and more of her sweet body.

Dean eased his way southward, leaving a trail of kisses down her abdomen, nipping lightly at her hip bone as his deft fingers unfastened her jeans. His green eyes stayed focused up on her face, enjoying her eager expression as he tugged her skinny jeans down and off. He pulled his own jeans off just for simple comfort then got back down between her legs, his fingers brushing lightly at the outside of her thighs as he began to prod and mouth at her center through her panties.

Aleah moaned, her hands playing with her full chest and riling him up more, but he forced himself to maintain his slow pace as he teased her through the thin fabric. Finally his lover reached down with one hand and pushed the material aside for him, pleading with him breathlessly to put his mouth on her. He loved working her up and hearing her need for him, and so he immediately complied.

Aleah tried to tear of Dean’s shirt but he refused to allow it, halting her and chiding her in a gentle tone. She groaned her slight annoyance but at the same time she loved how slow and sweet he was being. This was different, for both of them in a number of ways. His pushed her hands to the mattress and kissed along her chest, rising up to pull off his shirt and then shedding her own. His mouth found her bare chest, pulling down the fabric of her bra and exposing more of her to him.

She mewled as he continued his venture further south and his fingers danced along the hem of her jeans. Her body arching out of instinct towards him, wanting him to continue and seeking his touch. Her breathing growing more ragged with each point of contact as he her skinny jeans off of her hips and tore off his own, settling between her legs again. He mouthed at her center, her panties soaked through with want. She moaned at the brush of his lips, playing with her chest and she couldn’t stand it, pushing her panties aside to give him better access, “Please…. Dean please I want your mouth on me.” She begged, her fingers of her opposite hand still teasing her chest for added stimulation.

Dean’s lips found her core and he followed her instructions immediately, swirling his tongue over her button of nerves at the top of her entrance making her gasp at the feeling. She panted heavily and carded her fingers through his thick hair, pushing up against his face as he delved his tongue inside her body, working her in the way only he knew how and driving her up to the edge in only a few moments of attention. She tugged his hair and cried his name, her toes curling and her free hand gripping the pillow beneath her head as she came hard against his mouth. 

The hunter didn’t let up, growling against her center and not until he had her shaking from her repeated pleasure did he finally rise off of her. He smiled with dark eyes barely visible with only the candle light and the dimmed over heads, climbing up her body and his arousal was evident in his briefs, tugging off her panties completely and reaching around her to work off her bra so he could have her bare. “God I want you…” She groaned, pushing his briefs off of his hips and taking hold of his length in her hand as he met her lips in a deep kiss, slow and thorough contact.

Aleah hummed as ground up against his tip hearing him moan in response, cupping her face and ravishing her mouth with his own. He pushed forward until he was buried deep inside her body, making her cry out taking him to the hilt. He moved slow inside of her, a pace she wasn’t used to but him stroking her walls at a languid pace he managed was driving her crazy. She wanted to order him to take her rough but at the same time she didn’t, wrapping her arms around him and holding him close as he took her.

 

Dean sighed with want as he pressed himself as tightly against her as he could, pumping in and out of her slow and deep. He kissed her shoulder gently and his fingers found hers, threading them together. He lightly pressed their hands into the bed above her head, and when there eyes met the look they shared was one of tenderness more than passion.

Aleah spread her legs wider and wrapped them up high around his waist, panting brokenly and not breaking his gaze as he pushed into her slow and steady. She matched his rhythm, a subtle yet powerful current like being out on a boat water. This time wasn't so much about release and climax, it was simply about being together, and they both felt that.

After a few heated moments they both climaxed with Dean's lips pressed against hers, the hunter humming into her mouth as her inner walls milked him dry in her pleasure. He rolled off of her and gathered her up against his chest, taking a few deep breaths to regulate himself as they wound down from their high.

For a long while neither of them said a word. They simply basked in the intimacy of the moment, every so often one or the other would shift or make an idle caress over the other's bare skin.

Finally Dean was the first to break the silence. "You know I've got you, right? No matter what happens, I'll be on your side Princess." He murmured. He wasn't even sure where the words came from, he just felt he needed to say them. Maybe because he knew how shaken she had been by her powers slipping and exposing them, he wanted to reassure her that even if she felt she was her own worst enemy, he'd be there for her.

Aleah moaned lightly as Dean pushed in and out of her heat driving her pleasure up with each slow deep thrust of his hips. Her legs wrapped higher around his frame, meeting his gaze her mouth agape slightly as she breathed heavily through her peak, coming together. His lips pressed to hers, riding out their shared highs until he was spent, pulling out of her and rolling over to his back on the other side of the mattress and while the bed was large enough to each take a side they didn’t as always, his arms around her and their breathing steadying slowly with each loving brush of skin.

Her eyes were heavy though she didn’t exactly feel tired just content in his grasp, brushing her fingers over a long scar on his abdomen in an absent minded manner until she reach the edge of it near his ribcage. He broke their comforting silence and she didn’t mind, shifting to glance over at his face. Her eyes watered slightly at his words, giving him an adoring little grin of understanding. It wasn’t like him to reassure when it wasn’t really ‘required’ but he must have known she still had some lingering fears in the back of her mind. She hadn’t really realized how much she needed to hear something along those lines.

“I know.” The brunette whispered back, rolling slightly to the side so she could lean up and reach his lips, pecking his lips. “And I’ve got you too. Always.” She promised, draping her arm over his waist to hug him over to her. He rolled and laid on his side as well, kissing her sweetly, their bare bodies entangled together atop the covers. “Thank you, Dean.” She murmured with a smile.

They lay together like that for a few more sweet moments until she sat up, reaching over him for the pamphlets on the table just near the head of the bed, flipping through them again. “I don’t know about you but I want pizza. Can we order something?” She asked, looking over the back of one menu for a number to call and feeling Dean sit up as well, tugging her to sit between his legs so he could look as well. She leaned back against his chest and he kissed the top of her head telling her she could have whatever she wanted. “Don’t tempt me.” She joked, sighing as his arms slipped around her again clearly he was craving the affection as much as she was.

Aleah ran her hands over his legs on either side of her, whimpering lightly as he held her. “You make it really hard to want to do much of anything, sweetie.” She berated with a laugh, reaching over his leg to grab the phone on the table, dialing out for food, laughing when Dean leaned over her and tried to encourage the delivery driver to bring him a case of beer as well. She ordered their food and they spent a good time in bed to pass the time while they waited for their food.

They both sat bare, the covers over their bottom halves absently talking to one another and Aleah couldn’t recall any time they simply spent just chatting. “It’s quieting.” She muttered to him when he asked how the feathery side of this gig was going. “It’s actually kind of frightening how quiet it is out there right now. I know they’re still looking in New York, doesn’t seem like they’ve caught on to our departure.” She shrugged and he reached out to touch her cheek sensing her hint of worry and telling her they didn’t need to talk about all this, best not to keep it on their minds anyhow.

“No it’s okay. It’s still an adjustment and with the sigils and the distance… I think it might just be harder for me to reach out. Have you talked to Sam anymore?” She questioned, knowing her lover had called on the road to let him know something went south, he feared giving details in case someone somewhere was listening. Dean shook his head but said he would as soon as he got the chance and felt okay enough to do so. She nodded, taking his hand in her lap and fiddling with his fingers above the covers.

“It might not be on the greatest terms but having this kind of time with you means a lot to me, Dean.” Aleah murmured, leaning back against the headboard and extending her legs out flat. She tucked her hair behind her ear, “I appreciate all the effort you’ve put in to this because… you didn’t have to do all this for me. Not just to keep me safe and all that but making it worth a little more than that I guess.” She grinned.

 

Sam blocked Aleah's high kick with his forearm, easily absorbing the blow though it would likely leave a bit of a bruise in the morning. He used her own move against her, changing his stance and grabbing her ankle to yank her off balance, sending her to her back on the mat hard enough to make her cough and gasp for breath. He gave her a moment to get her breath, then bent and extended his arm out, offering her a hand up. 

They were both sweaty and flushed from their workout, but in good spirits as they sparred. Sam still didn't really feel right about actually landing strikes on the woman, even if he was only going at it about 40%. But after what she and Dean had told him about her losing control of her powers in actual combat, they knew she needed to be practicing her fighting with some real force behind it, or she wouldn't really be able to hone her control.

Dean simply hadn't been able to stomach sparring with Aleah after knocking her out cold with a hit to her jaw in their first session, so Sam had taken over this part of her training completely. It had only been about three weeks but he was pleased to see that they were both leaving their workouts with bumps and bruises, and today was the first match without wearing any kind of protective pads and it was going well.

While Dean and Sam were both excellent fighters, they tended to rely on being able to take hits and muscle their way through rather than on technique, so the younger Winchester was trying to show her as many dirty and underhanded tricks as he could to help the petite woman even the odds in a fight.

"Good work Al. Time for a break?" Sam praised her, walking to the edge of the mat and stooping to grab his water bottle and hers. He tossed her drink to her and she took a few long swigs. She stretched and winced, and even though she'd already told him a hundred times not to he couldn't help but apologize.

"I'm sorry, you all right? I didn't-" He stammered, but she cut him off and smiled, insisting that this rougher training was exactly what she needed and to stop worrying. He nodded, but he didn't think it would ever quite sit right with him even if the logical side of him knew the only way Aleah was going to improve was by training in a more 'realistic' way like this.

They sat for awhile and cooled down, talking about going to shop for ingredients for dinner and other inconsequential things. Dean had left that morning to help Garth with a job and wouldn't be back till the next day or maybe the day after, so the pair were taking advantage of getting to plan a healthier dinner without the elder Winchester's bellyaching.

After another hour or so of training they split off to get cleaned up and ready to head out. Sam was waiting for Aleah to finish getting ready when his phone went off. He checked it and saw he had a picture message from his brother, a few Enochian symbols scribbled on a bar coaster. The text below the photo simply read, "No Cas, need asap." Their angelic friend was touch and go to get a hold of ever since Heaven had been reopened, trying perhaps in vain to get his winged brothers and sisters to stop killing each other.

Sam sighed. He could probably find the symbol's meaning, but it would take time, especially since he had no context as a starting point for them. But... They did happen to be holding a prisoner who could read the dead language proficiently... For the right price.

Aleah padded out in her clean jeans, the dark material a little more tattered around the hems and despite having been just washed had splotches of grime on them and gentle wear and tear from hunting and such things. She found Sammy in the living room staring intently at his phone and her brow furrowed, “What’s with the frowny face, Sammy?” She questioned, her heart beating a little faster knowing that Dean wasn’t home and was one of the few that would ever text Sam anyways.

He looked up instantly and turned his phone around for her to see what the image was he was looking at, Enochian symbols that Dean for one reason or another needed to be translated. “What do you suppose he needs those for? Think they’re leaving a trail or something?” She mused, about to move to sit next to Sam when he stood up and she looked up at him when he answered he wasn’t sure but when his text was urgent like that they needed to get on it just to be sure.

She nodded and followed him to the hall asking if he was going where she thought he might be headed and with little spoken he confirmed, saying he couldn’t research as fast as he could give blood. She sighed but went with him anyways, “You sure you can’t just find it in a book? Cas has to have something written down right? The basics?” She questioned and he shook his head at her saying it was a dead language for decades and he only knew of a few people that could easily translate and seeing as they couldn’t call any angels for help he had to go to the next… best thing.

He led her down to where Crowley was chained up to a chair, asking one last time if she really wanted to join him. “Yes. Stop doing that I don’t need quite as much protecting as you boys think.” She quipped and they stepped into the tiny darkened room, Sam flicking on the small overhead light and Crowley hissed in annoyance at being disturbed.

“I swear you three only come around when least want to see you. It’s like an ongoing trend.” The King whined, wriggling his fingers as he saw Aleah walking a pace or two behind Sam. “Hello, bestie. You’re looking as lovely as ever.” He smirked, hardly responding when Sam told him not to talk to her just like he warned before. “Well that’s not nice now is it, let the girl speak for herself, Moose. Where’s our boyfriend, love?” He asked her to which the half angel glared at him.

Aleah had learned or she was learning not to let anyone get under her skin especially this creature before her. She held the kit in her hands and his eyes tracked right down to it, “Funny. I thought we’d already saved the world. It’s always something with you three.” Crowley shook his head, sitting forward in his chair as much as the chains would allow as Aleah spoke up and said they were down to two, seeing him lean around to search for Dean. His expression changed, “Ahh. No surprise he’s out looking for his other bit of angelic ass. Don’t feel bad, love; we’ll take care of you. One big happy family.” He smiled crookedly.

“Can we like tape his mouth shut or something?” Aleah asked her adopted brother who seemed just as annoyed by the man speaking. Sam stated they would be quick, in and out and over it to send Dean what he needed of them. He rolled up his sleeve and the brunette took the syringe out of its case as he slapped down the phone in front of Crowley on the table who leaned to get a better view of the image as Sam demanded him to translate it.

“Maybe later.” The Demon King said in a sing song voice, “You’re interrupting my chat with the lady. Mind your manners, Sammy.” He tsked, watching her as she still opted for sticking the needle in Sam’s arm. “You know the offer still stands… It’s up for a bit of bargaining but a single drop of your blood is worth gallons of a Winchesters. I can give you much more much faster if you comply. You’re working hard, you know I could help you put a cap on your abilities, slow your grace or rid you of it for good. All you have to do is give me a little taste.”

“That’s not what we’re here for.” The half angel leaned a little over the table, staring at him though she felt like she might faint from nerves. “You look down your nose at me but fact is I’m a lot better than you. You’re right I have been working at it and you and I both know I could snap your neck in an instant if I so desired and I’m getting rather close to that point if you don’t stop asking to fix me.” She warned, turning again and seeing the faint smirk on Sammy’s lips for how she had taken to scolding him like that.

Crowley still smiled, “Apologies. I thought you might want my assistance in ‘fixing’ that manner. You wouldn’t want to risk Junior now would you? Give them the same fate as their mum? Seems unfair.” He shrugged, knowing he had her attention now and he could practically hear the change in her heart beat. Something she must have already been worried about. Sam looked at Aleah and guided her to draw his blood and ignore the man’s words while she did so.

The brunette extracted a bit of his blood and gave it to Sam to drive into the other’s veins. “Ooh or perhaps you’re building a little army of winged squirrels?” Crowley hummed, seeming rather intrigued. Aleah’s demeanor changed each time he spoke and she tried to keep her hand from brushing her stomach the thought had been in the back of her mind the last few days but she had been late before. “You don’t know do you? I sensed a third… felt a little like your boy. Makes sense now considering. Can I put in a formal request to name it after its uncle Crowley?” He questioned right before Sam screamed at him to read the symbols and shut up, driving the needle into his neck. He hollered in pain and did as he wanted, telling him their meaning and Sam drew back once he finished injecting his veins. “Oh I like it when you get forceful, Moose.”

 

Sam growled in annoyance, not acknowledging the demon king's final statement, hurriedly gathering up his supplies and hooking his free hand around Aleah's bicep, towing her out of the room since she seemed frozen to the spot by Crowley's words. He had learned a long time ago when dealing with the demon that it was best to blow off pretty much anything he said and get whatever was needed from him, but this... This was low, even for Crowley.

He led Aleah back upstairs, letting her go briefly to quickly text his brother the symbols' meaning. As soon as he did he turned his attention back to the brunette, gripping her shoulders and catching her gaze that was still shell-shocked. "Al? You okay?" He asked softly, shaking her shoulders gently to pull her back out of her mind and acknowledge him speaking to her. She stared up at him, her blue eyes watery and and her lower lip trembling.

"That wasn't just a shot in the dark Crowley took to get to you, was it?" He asked, his eyes flicking back and forth between hers. "Are you... Are you pregnant?" He asked, a hesitant grin playing at the corners of his mouth.

Aleah was frozen in her spot hardly registering Sam dragging her out of the basement area and out to the living room. Not until he gripped her did she come back to, looking at him and shaking her head. "I-i don't know... we've been really careful." She muttered thinking about how she forgot her birth control pills on the vamp case a few weeks back.

She fidgeted when Sam didnt say anything obviously waiting for more of an explanation. "I forgot my pills and we...." she flushed red unable to say the words to Sam even. She hugged her arms around herself feeling like she might be sick especially with the way he was looking at her. "I should've told him. I didnt tell him I hadn't taken them a couple days. I just thought or hoped that it was still in my system I guess." She whispered through a shaky breath.

"Sammy I don't know for sure yet." She murmured when he asked if she was going to tell Dean. "I had the assumption in the back of my mind but I kind of hoped avoiding it would make it impossible?" She felt tears slip down her cheeks and Sam was quick to wipe them away with a promise that they'd find out for sure.

 

"Hey, it's okay." Sam murmured, wiping away the half-angel's tears and giving her an encouraging smile. "Dean won't be back at least till tomorrow, why don't we pick up a test while we're out and make sure." He suggested, patting her softly. She nodded and let him lead her back to get her purse and they headed out for items for their dinner.

Sam and Aleah quickly gathered their groceries, but the tall hunter left her for a moment at the checkout line. He jogged back just in time to pay, adding a bottle of prenatal vitamins to the pile next to the test. Aleah gave him a nervous look and he shrugged, resting his hand against the small of her back. "Just in case." He explained, turning his attention to the cashier to pay for their items.

Back at the bunker dinner was much quieter than normal, but Sam didn't push his companion for idle conversation. He could only imagine the apprehension she was feeling, if he was already this nervous about the outcome of the test himself. Ultimately if she was pregnant, Sam saw it as a good thing, something to be celebrated. But with his own scars from being a child brought up in the hunter life still raw as much as he might like to think otherwise, he knew it would be an exceptionally great challenge for his brother and friend to handle.

They finished eating, doing the dishes, and getting most of their food for the next morning prepared. Aleah was wiping down the counter that was already spotless, clearly stalling. He put away the last of their cut up vegetables for lunch tomorrow and came to stand beside her. He rested his large hand on her petite shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"Probably best to get it over with." He prompted, smiling at her when she looked up at him. Aleah nodded and he walked with her to the washroom, stopping to lean against the wall opposite the bathroom door. "I'll be right here." He reassured her, nodding at her to go in and take her test.

Aleah looked up at Sam when he approached and encouraged her to go and get the task done with, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. She still wanted to believe that if she put it off that meant she wouldn’t be pregnant if she never saw the results for herself. She nodded anyways and let him guide her back to the bathroom until they reached the door and he let her go, leaning against the wall just outside promising he would linger. She smiled weakly at him, ducking inside and closing the door.

It took her more than a few minutes to gather her thoughts enough to actually tug her jeans down and go through with this. She didn’t know why it seemed as silly as it did to her probably because she was so willing to deny it for fear of what it meant that she hadn’t come to accept it might be possible. She sat and heard Sam call through the door after nearly ten minutes of waiting asking if she was doing okay. “Fine just… trying to pee.” She answered quietly and through the door she heard his deep laugh at the way she phrased her answer.

It was quiet again but when she finished, zipping up her jeans and setting the little plastic stick that held her fate on a bit of toilet paper near the sink. She opened the door again and Sam was just where he said he would be after she washed up her hands. He put his arm around her and kissed her temple in a comforting gesture, letting her lean against him as he set a timer on his wrist watch for the few minute it took to get their answer. Sam’s watch beeped and made her jump and he squeezed her lightly against his frame, encouraging her to straighten back out from where they sat on the hall floor together fidgeting in anticipation. He offered his hand and she stood up with him, “I don’t really want to look at it.” She confessed and he led her back into the bathroom.

He asked her what she wanted it to say, if it mattered to her the outcome and she shrugged once more, “I don’t know. Sam I really don’t know what it is I want to see.” Part of her wanted this, to have Dean’s child but she also thought of what Crowley said, dooming their child to a fate no better than her own. And what her lover said about never wanting to put a kid through the kind of shit his own father had to he and his baby brother. Sam encouraged her with a gentle squeeze over her bicep asking her if she wanted him to look for her and she shook her head, leaning around him to pick up the little white test, holding it up to see what it read.

She pressed her free hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out all the sudden, shaking her head at herself for being so stupid. “I should’ve told him… He told me he didn’t want this, that he wasn’t the kind of guy to settle down and have a family and I knew that going into it..” She sobbed, sounding more angry at herself than anything else but she couldn’t help the warmth in her heart as she let her hand drop to rest over her stomach, her eyes filled with tears. “He’s gonna be mad at me, Sammy. I lied to him. We promised not to lie to each other no matter what.” She whispered, squeaking slightly as the taller man tugged at her wrist and yanked her against his large frame for support, it went without saying that the test was a positive. He understood without making her voice it directly.

Sam held his adoptive sister close against his frame, saying nothing for awhile letting her cry herself out. Once she got over the initial shock he gently eased back and swiped the tears from her flushed cheeks. She gripped on tight to his wrists, using him for support still as she sniffled weakly. "Trust me, he isn't going to be mad at you." Sam assured her. "Surprised? Oh yeah. But mad? No. This is a good thing, Aleah. A happy thing." He insisted, craning his head down to kiss her forehead.

Aleah smiled, seemingly relieved by his words but still doubts plagued her, and she started rambling about all the things he and Dean had shared with her about growing up hunters, not to mention the added difficulty of a child that would inherit some if not all of her angelic nature. Her voice broke when she spoke of condemning their child simply because she was it's mother. She was starting to work herself up again and he cupped her face firmly, hushing her and making her take deep breaths.

"Hey hey hey, even breaths, all right? That's it..." He soothed, breathing with her a few times getting her to focus and stay calm. "I know it's going to be... Tough." He tried to use the nicest description possible for the situation. "But your baby won't grow up like Dean and I did. He or she will have you, Dean, me, and Cas looking out for the. They'll have your blood in them yes, but that's not just gonna make them a target." He insisted, referencing her own worried term for her baby being an target for the angels.

"Having you for mother is gonna make that kid strong. Make them kind, smart, resilient. No one could ask for a better example, a better mother, than you Aleah." He said with a tender smile, nothing but confidence for her in his eyes.

Aleah rambled off multiple times she recalled both Sam and Dean telling her about how tough it was being the child of a hunter, growing up in this life and how hard it is to get out of it even if you want to more than anything. They accepted their fate for what it was because they had to. She sniffled as he comforted her, still holding her face and promising that Dean wouldn’t be mad, nowhere near it. “Sam he told me he didn’t ever want to force this life on anyone, don’t you think that means his own kid.” She muttered and Sam shook his head at her insisting that likely would change, his whole view would change when hearing this because he loved her. “Thank you, Sam.”

She nodded at him and he put his arms around her again knowing she needed it just a little longer to process everything. He pulled her out of the bathroom eventually after she threw her things away, his arm over her shoulders and guiding her back out to sit with him and watch a movie to take her mind off of things. They spent the evening watching movies and bridal shows that she liked and she was pretty sure Sam did too. She was drifting off with her feet in his lap, her head on the opposite side of the couch and she laughed all the sudden when he brushed the bottom of her foot with his finger tip and even through her sock it tickled. “Hey!” She squeaked, tugging her feet away and kicking him gently to scold. He chuckled at her getting huffy for it but she smiled anyways as he said she was falling asleep telling her to go to bed with the day she had.

“Okay.” She agreed, sitting up from the sofa and heading around the couch. She stopped and wrapped her arms around Sam from over the back of the sofa where he sat, kissing his cheek and feeling him brush her arm before she let up. “Night, Sammy.” She called, turning on her heel again to go to Dean’s room pausing when her adoptive brother yelled over his shoulder for her to take those vitamins he bought her. She rolled her eyes and picked them up from the washroom in the hall on her way back, shaking her head at his thoroughness.

Aleah was restless in her sleep that night, wondering how she might come about telling Dean the news. She hoped he would take it well or at least be gentle if his response was negative. She ran her hand over stomach subconsciously wondering about their child if they would have her blue eyes or Dean’s apple green ones, get his strong jaw, maybe her small nose and his thick lashes and freckles. She managed maybe an hour or two of solid sleep, getting up to the smell of breakfast cooking which meant Sam was already up and around probably went on his run and back within the time she managed to wake.

The brunette smiled, dressed in her sweats and a tee as she met the hunter in the kitchen. “You must’ve been up early even by your standards.” She commented and he turned around with a grin to match hers, shrugging his shoulders and moving to the stove to pour hot water into a mug for tea he made for her. “Sam, seriously?” She questioned as he pushed it at her, claiming she needed to be even better about her consumption of good foods for the baby. The mention of her kid made her chest clench and her stomach do a little flip, “I want my coffee.” She whined, looking at the pot brewing which likely was more for Dean than it was for Sam.

The towering man ran his hand over her back as she stepped closer to see what he was making, his heart healthy breakfast sandwiches which were quite good in her eyes but knowing his thought process and reasoning for doing so… He asked if she was going to tell Dean when he got home and she sipped from her warm mug, shrugging her small shoulders and without her even saying her answer he scolded her, saying he deserved to know. “I know he does. I’m not saying I won’t tell him I just… not right now, okay? I don’t know when I’ll tell him.” She murmured, looking to her mug rather than up at his face because she knew the look he was giving her that said he thought she was wrong about this whole thing.

“Sam I’m gonna tell him. Just not within seconds of him coming home.” She snipped, leaving him to cook in the kitchen alone and taking to watching television on her own until he brought her food out along with another prenatal vitamin and a glass of water, sitting with her anyways. They ate up their food and it was early afternoon by the time Dean made it back to the bunker, hearing him sigh as he walked in through the front. Aleah stood excitedly forgetting her worries for the moment because her lover was home again, safe and sound. She stood up from the couch and walked towards the front of the bunker, smiling when he greeted her with the nickname he gave her long ago, opening his arms for her to slip into. She hugged him tight and he laughed asking what was with the death grip hug, “Sorry…” She muttered, laughing lightly and letting up her hold on him as he bent to kiss her.

Dean was pleased if surprised by his girlfriend's enthusiastic greeting. "Guess I need to go away more often. Too bad I didn't find you in my room though..." He commented, making the half-angel blush and thump his chest since Sam was in easy overhearing range. He leaned down to kiss her and she returned it, but as he pulled away and got a better look at her, he could tell something was off.

"You all right Princess?" He asked curiously. She quickly nodded and responded that she was fine, turning away but he caught her arm, not willing to let go what he'd seen in her eyes that easily. "Aleah." He spoke her name softly, concern in his expression. He didn't ask her directly again but it was clear that he wasn't letting her go till he got some kind of answer from her.

"She came along with me when I got the translation on those symbols you sent me from Crowley. He got under her skin a bit. You know how he his." Sam's voice broke into their silent exchange suddenly as he rounded the corner and came to greet his brother. Everything he'd said was technically true, though of course it wasn't the real issue. He knew his adoptive sister didn't have the best poker face, especially when it came to Dean, though he wasn't sure why he was covering for her when he knew she just needed to come clean as soon as possible.

Aleah looked back at Sam gratefully and nodded, reiterating what the taller hunter said, that she was still rattled from her run in with Crowley. "I'm sorry Al. But that's why we keep telling you to avoid that son of a bitch, you know? He's a bastard." Dean commented as he kicked his boots off. The younger Winchester shot her a meaningful look when Dean bent to pick up his duffel off the floor, raising his brows insistently at her and looking back at Dean. She understood exactly what he was urging her to do and shook her head, telling him with her eyes to let the matter drop and quickly smiling when her boyfriend faced her again.

"Well I for one am starving. And I need a beer. Anyone else need one?" Dean asked as he ambled off making straight for the kitchen. Still Sam didn't prompt her out loud, not wanting to risk his brother hearing something that would force Aleah to tell him but he just gave her another adamant look. The brunette muttered a curt 'no' under her breath and his features fell with disappointment because he knew exactly how putting this off would only cause her more pain. She seemed to see his hurt and modified her statement to 'not yet.'

Sam wasn't satisfied with that either however. "Sure! I'll take one!" He called after his brother, jogging to catch up with him in the kitchen so that if Aleah lingered away from them there was no excuse of him being the one sidetracking her from spending time with her returned lover. Dean cracked open a cold bottle and handed it to his sibling, opening his own and holding up a third for his girlfriend when she joined them in the kitchen, looking uncomfortable.

"Princess?' Dean prompted, cracking her bottle open as well before she responded fully expecting her to take him up on the drink. He held it out to her with a smile and she bit her lip, her eyes darting to Sam who shrugged and raised his brows at her again.

Aleah smiled at Dean as he kicked off his shoes and stated his hunger, heading straight for the kitchen and brushing past her and Sam. She was going to follow right after him and avoid any talk with the taller man next to her but he was quick to slow her with a look that spoke exactly what he wanted it to, itching to push her into confessing to Dean what her real issue was. “No.” She snipped, rolling her eyes at his hurt expression, “Not yet, Sam.” She scolded him, letting him jog after his brother.

She crossed her arms tight over her full chest and tried not to glare at him for how adamant he was being with this. He was right and she hated that he was right, walking a little slower but eventually making it into the kitchen with the other two. She lingered in the entrance, eyeing the third beer in her lover’s hand. He offered it to her and she bit her lower lip, looking to Sam as though he might save her from this one too but he didn’t, not this round. “I-I can’t…” She muttered.

Dean chuckled and questioned since when couldn’t she hold down a beer or two, “My stomach is just…. It’s been weird.” She shrugged, giving him another smile though with the look on his face he saw right past her. Sam cut in with a stern mention of her name wanting her to tell him the truth as to why she couldn’t take the drink. “Sam.” She snipped in return and he licked his lips, making a tiny noise of frustration for her being so stubborn at the moment.

The eldest hunter set the beer down on the counter and looked from Sam down to her suspiciously for their behavior. He said her name much to the same fashion that his brother had, making her eyes water already. She swallowed hard, unable to meet his gaze as he asked what was going on with them both. She tucked her hair behind her ear and cleared her throat, “Dean… I’m pregnant.” She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Dean almost felt like he was watching a show starring people pretending to play his brother and his girlfriend. They were acting like themselves, and yet not- something was definitely off here and now he knew it wasn't just a simple matter of Aleah being hurt by something Crowley said to her, and Sammy was wrapped up in it.

"Aleah..." He began, looking back and forth between them with an incredulous expression, "All right somebody wanna tell me what the hell is going on with you two?" He blurted, setting down his girlfriend's unaccepted beer and staring at the brunette. His intense green eyes went wide at her quiet words, his jaw going slack as he struggled to process them.

"You're..." He stammered, looking back at Sam and his little brother smiled, nodding his head to corroborate the woman's statement. Dean sputtered in disbelief, setting his own bottle down and rushing over to his lover, one hand loosely gripping her hip and the other on her shoulder. He looked her over frantically, almost as if he expected to find some glaring outward indication of her condition and Aleah couldn't help the weak half-chuckle that escaped her lips at his behavior.

"Well, are you, I mean are you all right? Can half-angels have babies? Do you feel okay? Do you need to sit down?" The normally gruff hunter asked, his words tumbling over each other in his uncollected state.

Sam laughed and took a few steps forward, clapping his hand on his brother's shoulder and snapping him out of it a bit. "She's fine, Dean. Just look at her." He said gently, watching with a pleased grin as his sibling looked his girlfriend in the face and she dared to offer Dean a tiny, hopeful smile. "Congrats, man." He added warmly, laughing again at his brother's uncharacteristic fluster.

"I- Thanks. Oh my god." Dean finally seemed to gather his wits and surged forward to catch his lover up in a tight hug, lifting her up off the ground making her squeal and laughing a bit himself because he didn't know quite else how to let these foreign feelings out of his system. He finally set her down, a huge grin smacked across his face. "A baby? We're gonna have a baby?" He said again, another happy burst of laughter escaping his chest when she nodded more vigorously and told him yes again. 

 

Aleah stared at Dean, blinking rapidly to clear her worried tears waiting for his reaction and while Sam might not have forced her into it he didn’t exactly keep her from hiding her secret for very long. Though she had to admit saying the words aloud felt really good. He rushed forward and touched her hip and shoulder, his eyes darting from her belly and over the rest of her frame almost as though in search of an injury or a sign of confirmation.

She was about to speak up when Sam came along, clasping his hand over Dean’s shoulder and pulling him back from his thoughts for a moment to talk about Aleah’s well being. She smiled at them both, her gaze more on her boyfriend than the other as he tried to create some sort of sentence. He scooped her up suddenly and she squealed with laughter as her feet left the ground, clinging to him so she wouldn’t fall out of his grasp.

He set her down and she nodded more insistently, “Yes. Yes we are.” She giggled, her eyes welling for an entirely different reason, pleased to see he was taking this so well. “You’re not upset?” She question with a half glance back at Sam who smiled because well he had been right about Dean’s reaction. Dean gripped her face in his large hands and shook his head claiming he couldn’t be. He leaned forward and captured her lips in a ravenous kiss full of extra energy and affection. She hummed into the contact, melting against his frame until Sam cleared his throat from where he lingered near the counter, beer in hand.

Aleah flushed pink far less than she might have if she wasn’t so distracted by Dean looking at her like he was. He eased up a bit with a question on how it happened, making her bite her lip again. “I might have… missed a few days…” She confessed and to her surprise he started chuckling, his hands gliding over her sides near her belly as though there might be a change and while there wasn’t outwardly it was obvious in their mind, their mentality.

“And thanks to Sam who happily waited for me to take a test, vitamins in hand when the positive showed.” She grinned, letting Dean hug her again, completely out of character especially with his baby brother around to see him in this manner. “So three weeks… and we’ll have to tell Castiel but I wanted you to know first. The only reason Sam knows is ‘coz Crowley sort of… knew. We went to get a read on those phrases you sent Sam and he mentioned that he felt like you were there… in his… creepy manner.” She told him the story about how she was told she was pregnant and the test was only confirmation. “Who knew the bastard could tell the truth.” She laughed.

Dean's smile bent a bit at the mention of Crowley, not liking the idea of that rat bastard having any contact or even an inkling of his unborn child. But he was too overwhelmed by the whole notion that he was having a child to dwell on it for long, giving his girlfriend yet another tight hug.

He let her go and turned to his brother, giving Sam an appreciative grin. "Thanks for being there for her Sammy." He said with a bit more seriousness and the taller hunter nodded, grabbing his beer and tipping it towards them in a kind of salute. For the moment the bombshell topic was put aside, and the three of them caught up a bit while Dean ate. He told them about his hunt and why he'd needed the symbols, and Sam and Aleah told him about how her training sessions were going. Sam felt the need to apologize again for being rough with her now that they knew she was pregnant, but both Aleah and Dean dismissed his concern, assuring him they weren't upset since he had no way of knowing.

It got late more quickly than any of them expected, Sam checked his watch and his brows raised in surprise. "Well I think I'm gonna turn in guys, it's almost midnight. Give you two a chance to... Talk." He told them, getting up from the table. Aleah stopped him and quickly sprang off her chair to catch him up in a hug, thanking him against his chest for his support and even for nudging her to tell Dean sooner rather than later. He chuckled and hugged her back. "I love you Al. Congratulations again." He murmured, kissing the top of her head and waving good night to Dean on his way out.

Dean smiled up at his lover from his chair, waving his hand at her to come and sit on his lap. She did so and he tucked her up close against his chest, his large hand resting over her still flat abdomen. "I know we've got a lot to talk about. To worry about. Prepare for." He said in a solemn voice, now that the initial excitement was passed he had some space in his head to consider some of the heavier realities of their situation. 

"But I just want you to know that no matter what, I love you. And him. Or her... You know." He stammered, smiling up at her warmly.

Aleah pulled away from Sam with a smile as he kissed the top of her head, waving a hand at him in return when he opted for leaving. Dean gestured for her to come join him in his lap, tugging her lightly and letting her get settled in comfortably with her arm looped around his broad shoulders. His hand spread over her absent belly as he spoke about how they needed to discuss a few things and she knew that for certain… there was a long list of things that needed to be talked about.

She waited for him to finish, smiling at his words and pressing her hand over his, giving him a nod. “I know.” She murmured, in the same fashion she had the other night, understanding how deep his love for her ran and knowing it wasn’t often that he voiced it like this hence his little flustered way of saying it or rare occasion when he did. She shifted in his lap and pressed her lips to his in a sweet lingering kiss. “We love you too. I know they’ll love you like I do.” She assured him, running her fingers through his hair that was mused from his adventuring.

“I don’t suppose maternity leave in this line of work is going to be easy.” She laughed, feeling him chuckle out his reply, shaking his head but promising that while she wouldn’t be kept in the dark she also wasn’t going to be training much anymore or hunting for that matter. Aleah nodded a little saddened by the thought, “Kind of sucks when I only just started really but I figured as much.” She shrugged, “I think that it’s worth it.”

Dean’s hand ran lightly back and forth over her stomach and she laughed in her nose at his gesture. “Here’s hoping that they don’t come out with wings or insta-angel mojo or singing Led Zepplin songs.” She said the last bit in a teasing tone, nudging him a little with her elbow. “I think it’s a little hard to plan for since we won’t really know if they’ll even be anything… like me… until they’re more developed or even until he or she is here.” She muttered as Dean tossed back the rest of his last drink and putting the bottle on the table. “Hard to imagine myself pregnant…” She mused. “I think we’ll be okay… all three of us, ‘specially with a daddy like you.”

Dean flushed with an unexpected surge of satisfaction, knowing that Aleah wanted him as the father of her child felt... He wasn't sure if he'd ever felt so close to a decent human being. Being worthy of protecting and raising their child in her eyes made him happier than he could've ever imagined.

"I'm gonna do everything I can to keep you safe and happy. Both of you." He promised, slipping his hand up her back to hold the back of his lover's head, tipping her face in to meet his in a deep kiss. They stayed like that for awhile, softly kissing and touching, till the brunette finally slipped off his lap at his prompting and he stood, taking her hand. They headed back to his room for the night but it was quite awhile before the couple actually slept. 

The next morning Dean was cleaning the weapons he had used on his job, three dismantled guns strewn over the table on a protective cloth. He was humming an old Beatles song under his breath as he worked, not even conscious of it he was just in such a good mood it came out.

Suddenly Castiel appeared on the other side of the table, looking a little roughed up but Dean had definitely seen him looking worse. The angel's sudden arrival startled him but he didn't even get mad like he usually would have, instead simply nodding at his friend in greeting. "Mornin' Cas. Where have you been? I was praying to you the other day. Like... Constantly. Nothing." He prompted, half his attention on the angel and half on his task.

The tall trench-coated man briefly apologized, telling Dean a bit about the struggle being waged in Heaven. He didn't seem hopeful for a peaceful solution anytime soon and that wasn't exactly good news. It was enough to take the edge off Dean's good mood but he still was feeling a lot better than he had in a long time.

"Well hopefully all the little feathered friends can learn to get along now that they have their playground back. Just keep your nose clean, all right? And let us know if we can help." Dean responded, shaking his head and chuckling a bit when Cas reached up and rubbed his nose on the back of his hand, inspecting his skin for some kind of dirt or mark quizzically.

Aleah came in and said good morning to her uncle brightly, dressed in her usual morning attire of sleep shorts and one of Dean's flannel shirts. Dean turned and bent so she could kiss him lightly, wishing him good morning as well and chiding him for not waking her. "Yeah well I woke up early for some reason, didn't wanna cut your rest short." He answered, his gaze flickering down to her belly and back up to her face.

Castiel spoke his niece's name and she turned to face him, asking him how things were going in Heaven but the angel seemed more focused on what was right before him than more celestial matters at the moment.

Aleah smiled when she spotted her uncle had only just zapped on into their home, glad to see him whole even if he did have a few bumps and bruises. She greeted him and wandered the few paces out to Dean, waiting for him to hunch down enough that she would kiss him. “Morning. How come you didn’t wake me when you got up?” She questioned with a little arch of her dark brow. Dean’s answer and the flicker of his gaze to her abdomen made her smile broaden, between him and Sam already after less than two days of knowing she was pregnant she wondered what they would be like when she was far larger than now.

“Aleah.” Castiel said nodding his head gently to her and she responded in kind, squeezing Dean’s forearm she had been grasping and moving over to her uncle instead. She questioned how things were going in Heaven, if it was getting any better but Cas seemed far more distracted, his brow furrowed as he looked his niece over proudly. “That is not of import. Aleah, you are doing well?” He asked and she stared at him uncertainly with a question like that.

The brunette’s eyes darted back over her shoulder to where Dean stood silently asking him if he already told Cas without her being there. Her boyfriend shook his head, trying not to laugh when she jumped at the feeling of the angel’s hand on her flat stomach. Aleah refocused on him, watching with curious tear filled eyes as the man who had grown to be somewhat of a father figure to her, brushed his thumb to the left of her belly button, his hand moving like he was searching for the right angle. “Cas?” She muttered to grab his attention and he met her eyes nearly as brightly blue as her own.

“Apologies but I had to see for myself if the little one was alright as well. Hardly developed but already strong…” Castiel told her gently, his brows knitting together once more at the look Aleah was giving him. “What is wrong?”

The half angel laughed and shook her head at him, “Well you’re no fun.” She teased, putting her hand on his, “Guess there’s not a need for me to work my way around it. Dean didn’t tell you did he?” She questioned with a half glare back at her lover who raised his hands in mock defense saying Cas would vouch for him.

Castiel smiled, giving a throaty chuckle and shaking his head. “No. I simply knew because the third soul was far too small, too… innocent to be Sam’s and Garth would never read as a Winchester. Their pull is much more powerful.” He explained, sighing as he looked to her flat abdomen again, “But they are well. And you are happy because it is Dean’s… as am I.” He assured her, his gaze flickering to the hunter whose hands slowed his task of cleaning his weapons to pay attention to what they were talking about.

Aleah nodded her confirmation and very quickly surged forward, throwing her arms around Castiel and he responded to her hug far less awkwardly than he might have before but this girl held a special place in his heart whether he had wanted her to or not. “Thank you, Cas… for everything.” She whispered close to his ear, her voice quiet and gentle as they hugged. “I love you.” She muttered to him pulling back and kissing his cheek before he nodded at her proclamation. He might not be great at affection or expressing it, or saying it out loud but the look in his eyes told her enough. “Even if you did ruin it when I wanted to sit you down and tell you though I should have known you’d sense it.” She laughed.

Castiel smiled once more and looked her in the eye, “I’m sorry next time I will pretend.” He told her, hearing her laugh when she didn’t seem convinced of a next time. “You know the danger of having a child, Aleah. You have lived it. I know you are worried but your strength over powers that. There is not guarantee that your child with develop the same abilities as you. They will still be considered Nephilim… Though as only a quarter angel it will be a far smaller price on their head but given that they are also a Winchester that… changes things. With the same blood as Dean there is chance they are a proper vessel to an archangel or may be used as substitute.” He stated matter of factly.

Dean dropped down his pulled apart gun to come to Aleah’s side telling Castiel they would take what came, gently nudging him away from his girlfriend to instruct him to go easy on the horror stories, not to freak her out. “I am not attempting to frighten her. Inside she knows but only to a certain extent. There is nothing that says your infant will be born with ‘angelic features’… but Aleah is much more powerful than even you know or have seen especially for that of a half angel. She will fight for them as you will. I have nothing but faith in you both, Dean; do not misunderstand my words of warning.” He muttered in his usual monotoned voice, startled slightly by the hunter's arms suddenly around his vessel, patting Cas' back and squeezing him out of appreciation. Castiel responded with a returned pat albeit a little awkwardly but he gave one none the less, the tiniest smile playing on his lips.

Dean and Sam were on the last leg of their long trip back to the bunker from the job they had worked in West Virginia. They were comparing their experience against what their father had left recorded in his journal about fighting Rawheads. As far as they knew from what John had left behind the best way to kill them was electrocution, but the one they'd just taken down had been seemingly immune to the volts and hadn't gone down till they'd decapitated it and burned it to a crisp while it was still twitching.

"I dunno Sammy, seems like a lot of the things that go bump in the night are harder to take down than they used to be. It's weird." Dean commented, his eyes trained on the road.

The younger Winchester nodded, flipping his dad's book closed. "I agree. But nothing we've come across seems to be connected in any way. I guess we've just gotta start treating every job like something we haven't encountered before, just in case." Sam mused.

"Well maybe you should start one then." Dean proposed, making his sibling look at him curiously.

"Start one what?" Sam asked, his brows quirking questioningly.

"A journal. You know, make detailed accounts of what we come across, expand on his words. You're pretty much an unofficial 'Man of Letters' anyway, so start updating the database." Dean elaborated, glancing at Sam in the passenger seat. Sam digested his suggestion, a ghost of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.

"Yeah. I guess that's not a bad idea." Sam responded, looking down and gently running his thumb over the worn cover of John Winchester's legacy to his sons. He wondered if someday it would be his words bound in a beat up old journal that would point his niece or nephew on the right trail, or arm them with the knowledge they needed to stay alive for a hunt.

Fairly soon after their conversation ended the guys got back home, a little after midnight. They quietly brought their things inside and said their good nights. Dean made a beeline for he and Aleah's room, wanting to check on his lover. The brunette had moved into his room shortly after they'd found out she was pregnant, though it wasn't much of a stretch since she had already been spending pretty much every night there anyway. Now four months later her vacated room next to his was going to be converted into a nursery for their little one. They had already picked out a few things for the baby and stored them in there, though it hadn't really come together yet there was still plenty of time.

Dean silently opened their bedroom door and slipped inside, setting his bag down and smiling at the sight of his lover lying stretched on her side on their bed. She was sound asleep, the bed table lamp still on and one of those "What to expect when you're expecting" type books open and resting against her small baby bump. Her dark rimmed reading glasses were askew on her pretty face. 

Dean softly padded over to the bed, gently removing the glasses from her head and setting them on the nightstand. He plucked the book from under her hand as well, green eyes skimming the page she had left off on about being in the 17th week or so of pregnancy, which was about where she was at now.

His eyes widened as he read that now was the time when it was possible to find out the sex of the baby, and also to start watching for being able to feel the baby's movements for the first time. He and Sammy had only been away for about a week, he wondered absently if she had felt the baby move for the first time yet. The hunter smiled and set the book down on the table by her glasses, leaving her side for now to go shower after his long trip and get ready to fall into bed next to her.

He came out of the bathroom ten minutes later, still damp and wrapped in a towel. Aleah still looked like she was asleep and he smiled at her again, crossing the room to open his dresser and get a fresh pair of briefs to sleep in. The sound of Aleah's voice behind him made him pause and turn to face her, so he had woken her up after all.

Aleah heard her lover come in faintly but it wasn’t enough to pull her completely out of her restful state not until she heard the water turn on in the bathroom attached to their bedroom. Most all of her things had been moved into Dean’s space already and after she told him she was pregnant he had insisted they make their little arrangement a little more permanent with talk of the room beside his becoming somewhat of a nursery for the baby.

The brunette’s blue eyes blinked open and she rolled onto her side to see Dean standing at the dresser on the wall to her left making her smile at the sight of his taut frame nearly bare with only a towel covering the bottom half of him. “Not entirely sure I’d bother with those briefs of yours, Lancelot.” She teased in a sleepy voice making him turn around and grin at her. “Thought you wouldn’t be home until tomorrow, Sweetie.” She muttered, resting back into the pillows, nuzzling Dean’s like she almost always did when he was away.

He shrugged his shoulders and stripped out of his towel, tugging on his briefs and adjusting the elastic on his hips before he padded over to her and climbed in bed, hovering over her frame but keeping his weight off her as he mentioned that she sounded disappointed. She laughed, “You and I both know that’s not true at all. Just means to me that you spent far too many hours in the Impala or you finished up earlier. Either way I get more time with you and I guess I’m okay with that.” She teased, letting him kiss her softly at first but the contact quickly turned into a little something more, making her moan lightly into his mouth.

Dean pulled away his hand tracing over her growing belly and she watched him intently as he seemed to be waiting for something. “I haven’t felt them yet…” She said with a note of disappointment in her tone, knowing that had to have been what he was hoping for. “All the books say we should be able to soon but… there’s also chance there won’t be much of anything until close to week 25.” Aleah sighed, reaching up to brush her fingers through her boyfriend’s damp hair.

Dean’s green eyes flickered up to meet her soft blue gaze in the low light of the bedside lamp. He nodded over to her glasses and book and asked if that was what she did all week, lie in bed looking sexy in her reading glasses. “You weren’t supposed to see those.” She laughed lightly when he practically growled that he was glad he had making her roll her eyes. “Not all week just most of it… Sam’s been giving me some light reading here or there to keep me busy since training days have kind of slowed a bit, y’know?”

“I take it you skimmed through a bit too?” She bit her lip looking up at him and slipping her arms around his neck making him linger over her frame. Dean seemed the type of man before that might shy away from her while pregnant but she could only assume that since it was his and he loved her he hardly seemed to pay any mind to the change. He nodded at her question, his eyes growing hooded as she scratched her nails over the back of his head in the same way she always did to relax him. “I haven’t any idea where to go or… who to talk to about the baby. We might just have to be surprised with everything… I don’t know.” She murmured under her breath, she hadn’t been to see a doctor, not since day one for fear of what might be seen inside her belly, what everything might cause but from what she could feel inside her being about her child they were healthy and Castiel often confirmed that for them which was more than a little comforting.

“Did you think about names at all?” The half angel questioned but Dean’s lips found her throat and she craned her head to the side letting him absently sample her flesh as he responded in the negative. They both were nervous about the whole ordeal but excited at the same time which only made her feel guilty the more she thought in depth about it. The hunter kept up his attention, his lips following down to her cleavage, giving her an approving grin when clearly he realized that not only was her stomach growing but Dean’s favorite of all assets were too. She gently smacked the side of his head and he muttered something about liking her playing rough. “Dean I’m trying to talk to you.” She scolded with a laugh though her resolve was slipping.

"I know you're trying to talk to me. I'm trying to make it difficult for you." Dean chuckled against her throat, trailing his lips up to nibble at Aleah's ear while his hand swept over her chest to cup and fondle her breasts that had only grown more distracting to him lately. He tweaked her sensitive nipple through the fabric of the tank top she slept in, making her mewl and stop midsentence when she tried to respond to his comment. 

The hunter shifted to one side of his lover's body, drawing her back to rest against him and let him support her weight. With her back against his chest he continued to fondle her full chest, wringing little gasps from her as he did so. It seemed that now her breasts were even more sensitive than they had been before, he wondered absently just how close to the brink he could drive her stimulating her breasts alone. The idea was tempting but for now he wanted to explore all of her.

His mouth continued to graze on her throat, his hand moving down to lift her leg up and back to rest over his legs, opening her up for him while still supporting her weight for her. Now that her belly was growing Dean was trying to be as mindful of his lover's comfort as possible, he had always assumed that once women got pregnant they stopped wanting to have sex and anything he could do to keep Aleah from turning down that road, he would do. Dean's calloused hand slipped over her hip to firmly stroke her center through her little sleep shorts, making her arch into his touch and sigh his name wantonly. She finally gave up on trying to continue their conversation, whimpering softly as he touched her.

The brunette lifted her arm up behind her to card her fingers through his messy hair, humming with need and when he slipped his hand beneath her shorts and panties he grinned at how wet she already was for him. He pushed two strong fingers inside her, pumping in and out of her core and grinding the now throbbing bulge hidden by his briefs against her rear instinctively. Aleah's fingers tightened in his hair, it had grown a bit so there was just enough for her to hang on to as he increased his pace with his fingers driving her nearer to her peak.

He drew her slickness up to swirl around her clit, turning his fingers in rapid circles and back and forth motions till Aleah was moaning loudly on every exhalation that she took. The brunette told him she wanted more, that she wanted him inside her, grinding her backside up against his erection for emphasis and he groaned low in his throat from the stimulation. Dean withdrew his hand from her center and roughly tugged her bottoms down, his desire getting the better of him when he had resolved to be a bit more gentle with her while she was pregnant.

He pulled her clothing down just enough to grant him access from behind, freeing his own thick length from his briefs and guiding his tip between her slick folds. His hand slid back up her body to pinch and caress her breasts under her tank top, thrusting into her tight heat with a rough sigh against her neck.  
"God you feel good Princess..." Dean murmured, biting down on her neck and driving into her rapidly. Aleah arched back against him, crying out his name and trembling from head to toe. Her leg started to slide off of him and he quickly reached down to hold her steady, keeping a firm grip on her thigh as he pumped in and out of her in time with their ragged breathing.

Aleah moaned and reached down to flick her own fingertips over her clit, adding that extra stimulation she wanted and it turned him on even more to watch her touch herself. "Yeah baby, make yourself come... I wanna feel you lose it." Dean panted roughly, driving into her harder and exploding deep inside her core the same instant her walls clenched around him in ecstasy. He drew out her orgasm until he was completely spent, kissing her shoulder tenderly as he slipped out of her heat and eased her leg back down off of his hip. 

Aleah’s fingers swirled over her clit, the added sensation making her gasp and move against him in time with his thrusts up into her body. Her opposite hand clinging to the hair on his head to keep herself as steady as she could manage and he held her weight for assistance, appreciating that he was completely okay with helping her out when she could only maneuver in certain ways with her growing belly. He was gentle usually, for the most part anyways since she found out she was pregnant but knowing he wanted her at all was comforting and drew up her desire even more to think he wanted her always.

His words made her heart race and she quickened the pace with her fingertips until she clenched around him, coming together, her body arching into him as he rode out their high inside her body. He gently eased her leg off of him and kissed her shoulder, making her hum pleasingly as he slipped from her heat. She sighed and slumped in his direction, lying with him for a moment as she gathered herself from her vision blurring peak, her grip on his hair letting up as his arms slipped around her to caress her lovingly.

“God I missed you, baby.” She muttered, doing her best to roll over, his arm guiding her gently to face him as though she might just suddenly fall off the mattress. The brunette smiled and sealed their lips in a long lingering kiss as he adjusted himself and shifted to help her tug her panties back up. She giggled at how sweet he had become, even more so since she started showing, “I almost forgot to ask you how the hunt went.” She murmured kissing him again before pulling back to let him talk. Dean shrugged claiming it was fine when she asked how Sam had been holding up since he hadn’t been back into the swing of things all that long. She bit her lip when Dean questioned how she was doing not hunting, “I’m holding up. Just never got the fair chance to get out there that’s all. But… I’m really glad to be having your baby and that’s what matters.” She smiled.

They drifted off in each other’s arms, the next morning waking a little later than they might normally to venture out and get breakfast once Aleah had showered up and got dressed in one of Dean’s button ups which was an on going trend even more so now. She buttoned it up as she walked, wanting the extra warmth and she could feel her lovers eyes on her as her hands brushed over her chest when they stepped into the kitchen. “Stop.” She scolded, flushing pink and nudging him lightly. Dean smirked and mentioned something about her sensitivity in regards to her chest last night. “Not uncommon. Also natural for them to increase in size, Dean and it’s not for you.” She laughed, brushing her finger over his nose and pushing past him to get to the kettle already set out on the stove likely by Sam.

Dean seemed to be itching to ask more about her enlarged breasts but Castiel appeared with Manny in hand, smiling down at the cat he had nearly adopted as his own. “Morning.” Aleah called to him before her lover could open his mouth again, giving him a look to drop the subject for now, his favorite subject the past couple months. “You know you should just keep him. He hardly comes by Dean’s room anymore… I think he likes you best.” She mentioned, stepping forward to kiss the cat on top of his head and then Castiel’s cheek.

Cas grinned, “I could not. I have grown rather fond of the feline as well but he is yours. He is merely good company to me.” He mentioned, looking to Aleah as he stepped over to the fridge. “Apologies I have to get him a saucer of milk first. He has been requesting all morning; I fear saying no too often will damage our bond.” He stated, pulling the door opened and grabbing the carton of milk, setting the cat on the counter top while he got him a tiny bowl to drink from, pouring it out for him and Manny happily lapped it up while Aleah shook her head at him for spoiling the little guy.

Aleah watched him for a moment or two until he stepped towards her, his hand over her belly like he had done numerous times. “She is well.” Castiel mentioned absently, his eyes on the swell of her front and his hand traveling uncertainly as though trying to get a good read. “You are worried for her? As always.” He questioned, hearing Dean’s voice from behind him muttering ‘she’ in the form of a question. “Yes.” The angel’s brow furrowed as he confirmed.

“Castiel you can feel that it’s a girl?” Aleah asked, gripping his wrist and waiting for his answer, her eyes watering.

“Not quite as strongly but yes she is female and quite content in there.” Castiel mentioned with an affectionate smile down to her abdomen. Aleah gripped him tighter and he met her gaze seeing how excited she suddenly was, “Can you not sense her?” He asked and the half angel shook her head claiming she could but not to that extent. “Well perhaps because my abilities are far more developed then. You did wish to know, correct?”

Dean came to stand by his girlfriend as Castiel told her the news, that the child she carried was a girl. Aleah enthusiastically thanked her uncle for the news, throwing her arms around his neck and laughing happily. The hunter waited eagerly for his turn to embrace her, gathering her up as tight as he could with the swell of her belly in the way.

Aleah pulled back, her eyes brimming with tears and that bright smile across her face that he loved to see so much. She asked him if he was happy it was a girl and he nodded. "Are you kidding me? I'm happy either way, all I've been hoping for is that the baby, that she's healthy." He responded, craning his head down to kiss her sweetly. She giggled against his lips, returning the contact then freeing herself from his grip, telling him she wanted to go find Sammy and tell him the news.

Dean nodded and let his hands brush down her back as she scampered off, going to the fridge to grab a couple beers to celebrate regardless of the early hour. He opened the first bottle and handed it to Castiel who fixed him with a quizzical look. "Come on, Cas! This is great news, have a drink with me." He said jovially, cracking open his own bottle and holding it up for his friend to clink their bottles together.

Castiel started to explain though they both already knew that consuming alcohol would have no effect on him and that he didn't understand why humans did things like this to commemorate events in the first place. Dean sighed and tapped his beer against the one Cas held anyway, taking a swig and chuckling again with mirth. "Just do it will ya? This is awesome news." He prodded his friend, grinning from ear to ear when the angel relented and took a drink. "That's better." The hunter praised, drinking from his bottle again and wandering out to the library with another unopened bottle for his brother since he assumed that's where Sammy would be.

When he found the space vacant his brows knitted together and he called Aleah's name first, then his brother's. He waited a moment to hear a hollered response back and got nothing, turning to Cas when the angel joined him in the room. "Can you sense where they're at with your mojo?" Dean asked, his muscles starting to tighten with concern when his companion's features grew confused. He reported that he couldn't sense either Sam or Aleah's energy anywhere in the bunker, taking a few steps forward to set his bottle down. 

"What? What are you talking about, that's impossible!" Dean snapped, panic rising in his chest and he set his own bottle down, every alarm bell ringing in his head as he scrambled to get his phone out of his pocket and try to call both of them. Neither one of the two most important people in his life answered.

\---  
Sam winced as he opened his eyes, the light was painfully bright in contrast to the darkness of being out cold for he didn't know how long. The last thing he remembered was being in the library of the bunker, looking for a specific book when Aleah came bounding in with a huge smile on her face. She had taken his hands and started to tell him something, something about the baby....

The hunter's mind reeled and he sat up enough to empty the contents of his stomach onto the grass he was sprawled in, slowly becoming more aware of his surroundings as his faculties came back online. He was in an open field, looked like pasture land but he had no idea where. It was cold, especially in his flannel pajama pants and white undershirt that were now damp and covered with dirt and loose grass.

"Aleah?" He called, memory flooding back to him and his worry growing as he recalled his adoptive sister suddenly screaming in pain, clutching her pregnant belly and him having to reach out to keep her from falling. At that same instant was when he'd blacked out, or so it seemed since he couldn't remember anything else after waking up out here. He glanced around and spotted the brunette lying on the ground several feet away, he yelled her name louder and rushed over, turning her from her side to her back checking her body for injury.

She roused at him moving her and he felt at least a little relief since she didn't seem to be in pain. He helped her sit up, asking if she was okay and she told him she was fine as she looked around, shock coloring her features. She asked him where they were and he looked around again himself. "I was kind of hoping you could tell me. Did you 'angel-poof' us out here maybe? It looked like you were in pain back in the library, are you sure you're all right?" He reiterated, his hand gently resting on her belly in an unconscious protective gesture.

Aleah booked it down the hall as fast as she could to get to Sammy in the library, eagerly taking his hands and trying to tell him the news but she had hardly got the words out when she nearly fell in excruciating pain. Sam muttered her name for explanation but she could hardly manage any words at all only sounds of distress as she tried her best to cling onto him in return. She didn’t know what happened next but she felt them move, the ground leave from beneath her feet and that was it until she heard Sam once more.

The brunette’s eyes opened at his touch, rolling onto her back and trying to sit up, feeling a little dizzy herself. She looked him over with a concerned air about her, “I’m fine. Sam, w-where the hell are we?” She questioned, glancing around the unfamiliar place for some sign of life or even something to help her recognize. Her gaze flickered back to him as though he might actually be able to explain this all to her considering she didn’t think she had any part in this sudden departure, his hand over her belly and she wondered if someone else had managed into the bunker.

She shook her head, still feeling surges of pain but they eased far more than before, “No. I-I don’t think I did at least I don’t remember even trying to.” She replied, laying her palm just near his as though it might ease any flutters she felt while her daughter might not be moving around quite yet she still felt what was like her stomach grumbling when she was hungry, the tiniest signs of life but not enough that it made a difference or was able to be felt on the perimeter of her soft skin. “I’m fine, Sam really. I think the baby… I don’t know she moved or-or something and maybe it startled me into honing my abilities. I didn’t mean to.” She defended quickly, gripping Sam’s wrist as though he might suddenly get angry her eyes pleading with him not to leave her there or grow upset though she didn’t image he would. She always had that fear, that she would hurt one of the boys that she endangered them always.

Aleah started to state a quiet apology and her body arched once more the added energy getting to her and her unborn child by some means. “Sam I’ll get us home I swear. Let me go… I can’t guarantee that’s where we’re going.” She half laughed and Sam told her to fight it her eyes glowing blue like they often did when she was honing her abilities. “Don’t you think… that I’m trying?” She hissed through her teeth and he refused to let her go.

She thought about Dean and Castiel and the bunker, their home, their trademark, the Impala, anything that he told her to focus on to get them back home and nowhere else, refusing to let her go. “I cannot tell where they have headed, given that the child is a part of Aleah her protection symbols make both their beings difficult to track… Far different when they’re within—“ Castiel’s voice was in and out of her ears like he was far away but she could still reach him though it sounded like he was at the far end of a tunnel trying to make contact.

Castiel was standing in the center of the library his voice stopping midsentence when he felt like Aleah was with them once more only she wasn’t, not that he could see. “Dean she is trying.” He said to his companion who was still trying to reach her on her cell as well as Sam’s. Without much else he vanished in a blink not taking Dean with him and appearing in the middle of an opened field. His blue gaze flickered all around the expansive space for them, the strongest presence he felt being that of the smallest Winchester. He surged forward in the longer grass towards them. “Aleah.” He spoke her name loud enough for her to know he was there, getting the attention of both the hunter and his neice.

The trench coated angel knelt when he reached them and Sam gave him a nod to indicate he was ready for the return flight home, putting his hand on Aleah’s shoulder while the other pressed to the tall hunter’s head. They flashed back instantly, a surge of power in the bunker where Dean was nearing the edge of a complete freak out having his entire family leave without him and having no idea where they ended up. Cas kept the brother’s at bay, easily scooping Aleah up to sit her on the lounge chair in one corner of the room her breathing heavy and as soon as he felt Dean’s presence the angel raised his hand and halted him with his powers. “Not now. I’m sorry Dean she has to focus.” He said in a stern tone of voice.

Aleah panted, her heart racing as Castiel stood near her head, holding her face in one hand and telling her to stay put, keep herself planted here. “Far too much excitement, you are disturbing her.” He explained, hearing Dean ask what he meant, questioning if his daughter was causing these sudden changes. “Yes. I’m afraid so. She is… quite powerful.” He said trying to fight his grin but unable to help it, the proud look in his eyes to know she was so strong already. The brunette took a slow deep breath and the pain eased.

 

Sam and Dean came to hover just behind Cas as he worked to soothe Aleah and exchanged an alarmed glance at the angel's words.

"Hold on a second, you're saying that the baby transported us out to... Wherever that was?" Sam sputtered, running a hand through his hair and listening with an expression of shock that matched his sibling's as Castiel went on to explain that was exactly what had happened, and that they had been transported to a field in Oklahoma. He seemed almost proud of the fact, expanding on how the unborn child had access not only to her own budding powers but Aleah's as well, which made her powerful enough to do things like what had just happened.

"Well obviously the baby doesn't know what she's doing, is there any way for us to... I don't know, control her mojo or something? Till she's born at least or more preferably till she's old enough to know when and where to use her powers?" Dean asked, grateful that his girlfriend's pain seemed to be going away but still on the verge of a full on freak out as scenario after scenario ran through his head of how this could go bad.

The angel was hardly paying attention to either Winchester male, a slight grin still on his face as he gently soothed away Aleah's discomfort and took her hands, placing them on her belly with his resting over top of them. Aleah asked him if the baby was going to be all right and he nodded, starting to explain to her that he was going to help her connect with the life inside her and give her ways to soothe and subdue the child's power to prevent things like this from happening in the future.

The brothers watched but it was obvious that the two more angelic members of their family were lost in their own little world, and there wasn't much of anything they could contribute in the process Cas spoke of. Sam could see Dean was still extremely agitated, and he figured there was at least one member of their family he could help right now. He gently cleared his throat and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, tossing his head to one side indicating that they should give Cas and Aleah some time to themselves to work on this.

Dean reluctantly followed and they went into the kitchen, leaning against the counter and for a long while neither of them said a word.

"You okay?" Dean asked finally, not looking at Sam but they both knew what he was referring to.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The trip was a little rougher than when Cas or Al does the transporting, but I'm good." The younger Winchester responded, watching Dean out of the corner of his eye, trying to think of words that might comfort his brother at least a little. "Dean, look... I know you're worried. There's gonna be a lot of extra complications along with the regular ones having a baby brings. But... It's gonna be okay. Castiel is here to help you, I'll do whatever I can, Aleah is strong..." Sam said quietly, but Dean cut him off in a bit of a rough tone considering how charged his emotions were at the moment.

"Yeah that's all really great, Sammy. Meanwhile I'm helpless. I can't protect her from this. I can't do anything to make this okay. How am I supposed to be the father Mari needs me to be if I can't even keep her safe while she's still in the goddamn womb?" Dean ranted, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Uh... Mari?" Sam asked, a little light coming into his eyes despite the heavy subject matter at hand. Dean looked up at his brother suddenly, blinking with surprise as if he hadn't even realized himself that he'd called his child that.

"Oh, um... It was just... I mean Aleah keeps asking me to think of names I like and I thought if it was girl, maybe we could call her Marilee. Kind of after mom, or something, I dunno. It's just been on my mind." Dean said, his tone and manner suddenly embarrassed. Sam chuckled and patted his brother on the back.

"No, no- Marilee's good. I like it." Sam said in a lighter tone. "I think you should tell Aleah about it." He added. The brothers stood in silence again for several moments, till Sam finally spoke up again. "You're gonna be a great dad, Dean. Hell, you had great training- Raising a little freak like me with demon blood in his veins right? This should be easy by comparison." Sam chuckled, relieved to see his brother laugh as well.

Aleah's voice made them look up and Dean hurried across the room to his lover's side, talking over helping her walk from Castiel who had shepherded her as far as the doorway. "You doing better? Is the baby gonna be okay?" He asked, looking from her face to Cas and back.

Aleah sat with her uncle Castiel, their hands pressed gently over her growing belly as he muttered instructions to her, promising that if she listened he could help her become more in tune with her daughter. She nodded and slowly closed her blue eyes, focusing on his voice and doing her best to ‘listen’ to her unborn child. She never expected to have such an ability, to focus enough and feel what another life was… this was far different than when she read Sam or Dean she had to be in the healing process to search which wounds needed fixing while others were required to be left to heal on their own, the emotional scarring she was never allowed to take away.

Listening to her little girl was like hearing her own voice inside someone else’s head or the echo of it… She might not have been doing as great as her uncle could clearly do with her but the attempt was helping at least for the time being. Her breathing slowed after a few moments and her pulse went down a couple notches as well and as it would seem they managed to relax the youngest Winchester enough that Aleah could feel a little more… human again.

Not until Castiel felt the timing was right did he allow his hands to raise from over hers, letting them up from her small stomach with a smile on his face. “I’m glad you find all of this amusing, Cas.” Aleah mentioned with an adoring smile to match none the less.

“This is… A big step for the pair of you and I do not mean yourself and Dean. Your daughter is developing much more rapidly than I anticipated but I’m afraid it is not exactly her human side growing at such a pace. She wishes to… ‘Stretch her wings’ so to speak. Her functioning mind is quite matured for this stage of pregnancy but it is not uncommon for Nephilim; strange to think that your powers took so long to fully develop and yet hers are arriving in the womb.” The angel continued, rising up to his feet and offering his arm for her to take and she did, clinging to his elbow and while she might not be large or even nearing that stage the pain her daughter caused wore her down a bit enough that she appreciated his assistance.

“So if I get to the point where I can hear her then can she… hear me? Hear all of us?” Aleah questioned as Castiel guided her towards the door to find the others. She felt a little strange at the thought, had her own daughter been privy to any sort of activities she and Dean shared on each return home.

“It isn’t about hearing so much as simply understanding. She will understand you.” Cas replied with a small shake of his head. “She is smart but comprehension is another category.”

The half angel smiled at the sound of her lover’s laugh as well as Sam’s coming out through the entryway into the other room. It didn’t take long for them to both lose focus on what they were discussing and come rushing at her. Dean took over for Castiel and the angel easily understood, giving her over for him to walk the rest of the way into the room. She looked up at Dean while he questioned her state, turning to cup his face in her hands and practically squish his cheeks to keep him looking at her rather than the full angel for confirmation. “Dean we’re fine. She’s just… stretching her wings.” Aleah laughed as she quoted Cas, tugging the hunter down soon after to kiss him in reassurance, feeling the tension in his frame ease out even if only a little.

The family of misfits spent a decent chunk of the day together including the addition of Manny who slept on the corner of the sofa curled up near Dean but within proximity to Castiel on the lounge chair. Aleah apologized time and time again when she noted Sam’s exhaustion, the ride she unintentionally took him for or rather that her daughter had, had quite a bit of an effect on his person. He was falling asleep on the couch with a half drank beer in his hand until Aleah took it from him and put it on the coffee table, instructing him to go lie down if he needed. The younger of the hunters smiled at her, squeezing her hand and sitting up to kiss her forehead in the affectionate way he so often did. She grinned back at him and wished him good night and it was no surprise when he left that Dean took her hand as well and shifted to get up himself inviting her to come with him to their room.

Aleah glanced up at him, curiously wondering if there was an underlying reason behind this when she stopped to kiss Castiel good night, thanking him for helping her today and he promised that tomorrow he would continue their training so she could better understand her daughter. With a squeeze to his shoulder and a pull on her opposite hand from Dean she left Cas with Manny in the expansive living space, following her lover back to their own quarters and laughing as he requested she go sit on the bed. “Naturally.” She rolled her eyes, tugging down the sleeves of the button up she wore to keep warm as Dean pushed their door closed and joined her on the mattress where she sat cross legged. She expected him to immediately start on with trying to get her out of as many layers as possible, teasing him for his subtlety but he promised he just wanted to talk… for now. “Oh yea because in bed is where we have our deep conversations.” She joked, inching a little closer to him. 

Dean laughed but he seemed a little nervous to even speak up about whatever it was, “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” She prompted, taking his hand in her lap and absently massaging his fingers and palm for comfort. He promised nothing was wrong, that he had just been thinking about names but hadn’t yet told her when he felt the one he wanted was a little selfish. “What’d you mean? We’re not going to name her Dean.” She laughed again, “Nor are we naming her after any of your Classic Rock bands or singers or what have you.”

The hunter sighed, shaking his head and ignoring what she said to talk about the strength of their infant, the way she already seemed to be and how the more he thought about it the more he felt like the name might fit… Marilee or Mari for short, after his mom. She waited as he quietly said he felt bad wanting it when she had others in her own life that she might want to name their little one after. Aleah squeezed his hand and shook her head, “What like Gabriel?” She suggested, “Dean I didn’t really know him… I didn’t know my Dad like you knew your mom, having his abilities is enough of a form of carrying on his legacy.”

 

"I'd love to honor her like that." Aleah smiled, reaching up to brush his scruffy cheek. She pulled their threaded fingers to her belly. "Marilee Winchester." She repeated seeing his face change at the last name. "Every girl is a daddy's girl... makes more sense to give her your name right?" She shrugged.

Dean and Sam sped down the lonely winding Kansas highway, the elder Winchester at the wheel recklessly taking tight corners at full speed despite the pouring rain that had been coming down on them for the past couple hours. Sam gripped the door as his brother hydroplaned yet again, looking at his sibling with a mixture of worry and sympathy.

"Dude take it easy, it's not gonna help Aleah if we slide off the road and get stuck in a ditch or worse." Sam said quietly, understanding his brother's haste but also fearing for their well-being more than a bit.

"Aleah's been having contractions for almost five hours, Sammy! And Cas still hasn't shown up. We've gotta get back there." Dean snapped, his grip on the steering wheel white knuckle tight as he increased his speed and turned the windshield wipers up another notch to counteract the driving rain. "Check your phone again. Any new texts or calls?" The elder Winchester asked like he had been every couple minutes for the last hour.

The brothers had taken a job one state over, but luck wasn't on their side for timing and Aleah had gone into labor while they were away even though she was only about eight months along. The last time Castiel had been at the bunker he had commented that Mari was developing much quicker than a typical human baby would, but still none of them expected that would mean she'd be ready to arrive that much earlier than a normal baby.

Aleah had called Dean earlier that evening when she started having contractions, telling them that she'd been praying to Cas for the past hour and gotten no response. So Sam and Dean had dropped everything to head back as fast as possible, and with Dean driving Aleah had switched to communicating through Sam's phone. Almost six hours later there was still no word from Cas, and the half-angel's contractions were getting closer together and more intense to the point that it was difficult for her to speak on the phone so she had switched to texting them to let them know what was happening.

"Still nothing." Sam reported, though that wasn't too surprising since it had only been about three minutes since he last checked his phone. Dean growled in frustration, cursing about how Castiel had about the worst timing in the world. "Don't be too hard on him, Dean. He's got a lot on his plate and none of us were expecting Aleah to deliver this early." Sam retorted, trying to calm his brother a bit but it only had a small effect.

"Yeah, I know..." Dean sighed, taking a deep breath but not decreasing his speed any. "All right, text Aleah and tell her we've still got another hour or so. Tell her to hold on." He instructed in a tense tone, willing their friend to answer Aleah's prayers to come to her side and sending up his own silent pleas to the angel to do the same.

Aleah’s contractions had started hours ago, at first far apart and light enough that she hadn’t thought much of them. They started as a pain in her lower back and the top of her stomach slowly traveling downward into her bottom and… other places. She felt pressure nearly all over her lower body by the time she even decided to call Dean and let him know. She had light contractions before, things she read told her it was common to have them early and it be nothing, but these… were different and she just knew that Mari was itching to see the light and join them in the world.

For the first few hours she managed to call with updates to Sam then only texts and slowly but surely as she screamed and cursed Castiel’s name for him to come find her, needing someone there by her side through this, she could hardly manage to sit up anymore. She was smart enough to make it into the closest room she could manage, one that she had taken to on and off since it had a television of its own and was closer to the kitchen for quick snacks and easy tea access when she craved things and was on her own.

She had propped herself up against a few pillows stacked along the padded headboard, her hand pressed to her abdomen as if that might help at all. “Castiel please… Please I need you to be here at least.” She begged out loud, her eyes squeezed shut, tears slipping past her lashes and down her rosy cheeks despite how hard she was trying to be strong. Her phone buzzed and the screen lit up with a message from Sam the preview of it on her home screen said simply, 70 miles give or take. See you in about an hour. Hang on.

Aleah made the attempt at reaching for it when another wave of pain hit her and knocked her back into the covers, her forehead damp with sweat and she screamed until her voice cracked. She didn’t come back from the episode until she felt Castiel’s hand on her, saying her name and asking if she was okay, where Dean was, why he wasn’t here. “He-He… hunt… with Sam.” She panted and while it wasn’t a complete sentence, Cas seemed to understand giving her a nod and promising that she would be okay but Mari was eager. “I noticed. But—Ahh… She’s gotta hold out for her daddy.” She pleaded as though the words might actually be understood by her unborn baby who was coming far too early and much too quickly in her eyes.

“My water broke… think like thirty minutes ago but—“ Aleah informed him as she arched again, her hand suddenly clasping around Castiel’s wrist that was within her grasp, her fingers curling around him tight enough that if he wasn’t an angel himself he might have bruised instantly. “Oh God, Cas it hurts.” She sobbed and much to her surprise he pressed his free hand to her belly and with a faint energy over her being he forced her to relax, to steady her breathing and realize that she could in fact do this.

“Aleah, you have to focus on Mari. It is very important that you listen to her. You are early by human standards but by a celestial being’s view… she’s been ‘cooking’,” Castiel explained making air quotes around the last word he spoke. “far too long. She is not over grown but this experience is not going to be… pleasant.”

“Please don’t sugar coat it Cas. It’s not like I need comfort or anything, buddy.” Aleah quipped feeling another contraction only this time she wasn’t fighting it off as much as she realized now that she had been. “Help me outta my shorts Cas… Don’t you look at me like that. Do it!” She snipped at him through her teeth, her fingers hooking into the fabric in the same moment Cas edged towards the foot of the bed kneeling on the mattress and assisted in undressing her lower half. “Ever given birth before?” She half laughed and Castiel shook his head.

“No but I have witnessed the process on numerous occasions. I am fairly certain that should the occasion arise I could—“ The angel started before Aleah cut him off yelling that this was as good of an occasion as ever. “It would appear so.” Castiel muttered lowly, giving her a smile as she shifted and spread her legs apart at his prompting, her uncle taking to his role as though he had in fact done this dozens of times before, he seemed unworried, maybe because he knew full well that Mari was alright and she was arriving soon. “You will do just fine Aleah. She wants to see you.”

\---

The next hour was a blur of pain and rushing adrenaline, making the desperate attempt at freeing her daughter from her body, holding her legs back by the knees while Castiel furrowed brow and all focused on his task of playing mid wife. She was practically glowing and in more than one sense of the word when she finally heard the cry of her newborn echo through the room as Cas caught her up in his arms, giving her a smile soon after and cradling her against his front cleaning her up and bringing drawing her up towards Aleah to hold instead.

It wasn’t long after Castiel managed to zap the place cleared of all evidence of a birth in the bunker, besides Mari of course when Aleah heard the sound of rushed footsteps to which Cas responded to as well, protecting her at the doorway. Dean tried to rush inside but Castiel pressed a hand to him firmly along the chest, “She is well but you must be in a good mind set. She’s sleeping.” He stated and Dean looked like he didn’t know if he meant Aleah or not. The angel smiled at both brothers and let the eldest past first who nearly dropped to his knees at the sight, his girlfriend with her back pressed to the head of the bed, blankets neatly tucked around her and a rosy cheeked baby nestled against her breast.

Aleah smiled at him as he entered, seeing the tears in his green eyes. She was pretty sure she had only seen Dean cry once or twice before, the man was tough as nails when it came to most everything but this… his daughter hit a soft spot at that much was clear. “I got you a little welcome home present. I hope you don’t mind… I didn’t really have time to wrap it.” She whispered, her own eyes getting watery as he chuckled with her comment.

 

Dean and Sam ran into the bunker and straight for the little spare room Aleah had texted Sam she was in, confronting Castiel at the door. Both hunters were equal parts worried and eager to see Aleah and the baby but the angel barred their progress and made them calm down a bit before being allowed access to the room. Dean proceeded into the room while Sam and Cas hung back closer to the door, allowing the new family to be together first.

The short-haired hunter slowly approached, his face lighting up as he saw both his girlfriend and his baby well and comfortable tucked into the bed. Aleah greeted him and he laughed absently at her little joke, slowly dropping to one knee at the head of the bed and gingerly leaning his elbow on the edge of the mattress so he could peer over and get his first up close look at his daughter.

Aleah pushed back the soft pink blanket Mari was wrapped in, revealing her flushed bare head and shoulder. Despite being a month or so early, she seemed to be the perfectly healthy weight and size of a full term baby. Apparently Nephilim didn't need as long in the oven as regular babies. The infant girl was fast asleep against her mother's chest, her petal pink lips slightly parted and her tiny fingers balled into a little fist against Aleah's skin.

Dean blinked rapidly to clear his tear-blurred vision, leaning as close as he dared and ever so softly brushing the tip of his index finger over Mari's small hand. "Hey baby girl..." He murmured, barely ghosting his hand over the infant's head, as if he feared a heavier touch would break her. "How's my Mari?" He asked softly, his expression brightening further with wonder when the tiny girl opened her jewel bright eyes at the sound of him speaking her name.

Dean smiled at his daughter, fighting to keep his emotions in check and touching her softly, cooing at her and saying her name a few times, amazed and pleased by the way she was staring back at him. Aleah's fingers running through his hair pulled him back to being aware of the world outside his newborn daughter, and he leaned up to kiss his lover tenderly.

"She's beautiful Aleah. You did great. I'm sorry I wasn't here-" Dean began, but the brunette cut off his apology telling him all that mattered was that he was here now. He kissed her again and looked back down at Mari who's eyes had slipped closed again. The brunette asked him if he wanted to hold her, and he nodded rapidly. Aleah lifted Mari up and Dean gingerly took her from his lover's arms, cradling her in the crook of one arm and resting his other hand lightly on her small abdomen to keep her securely against him. He automatically began softly bouncing the little girl in his arms, grinning from ear to ear when the baby looked up at him again. Mari suddenly yawned and he imitated the motion, making the infant's eyes go wide with interest and he kept up the little game of opening and closing his mouth, more than pleased that his daughter seemed interested in him and his antics.

Cas and Sam drew a little closer, the younger Winchester leaning forward to get a better look at his niece and laughing happily in his throat. "She's perfect, Al. She looks like you." He commented, smiling brightly back at his adoptive sister when she thanked him.

Aleah kissed Dean once more when he tried to apologize for his absence, shaking her head at him. “You’re here now. That’s what matters is that you made it to us.” She stated softly, giving him a smile as she offered over their newborn. “Did you want to hold her?” She asked and bit her lip to stifle a giggle at his eager nod, lifting their daughter up for him to take and he did just that, gingerly taking over and holding her weight against his broad frame and she looked tiny by comparison.

She smiled adoringly as she sat up a little straighter to watch him from her position in bed as he interacted for the very first time with Mari. She seemed keen on him almost immediately, forming a bond with the man that fathered her and making Aleah’s eyes well at the sight. She looked to Sam when he approached, nodding at his comment, “Thank you.” She whispered, her voice breaking and her emotions getting the best of her. She was tired from the effort of birthing their child and it was strange not to feel her moving inside her belly any longer, like a piece of her was missing but really it wasn’t. Sam gently brushed the little girl’s head in the same manner that Dean did but let him have his time with his infant daughter while he approached Aleah.

The taller of the hunters sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hand on her leg asking if she was okay. The half angel sniffled and nodded once more, “Yes, I’m fine. More than fine actually. She’s amazing. It’s just—A lot more draining than I ever thought it might be. I’m glad you guys are home.” She answered, taking her adoptive brother’s hand and lacing her fingers with his, clasping her free one over them both and smiling at him. He asked her why she was looking at him like that and she shrugged, seeing in Sam’s face the longing that he had to have a family, the way he babied her from time to time, cared for her and seemed to crave what Dean managed to get yet at the same time he was completely happy for them. “Someday.” She said as a promise and he seemed to get what she was handing him, smiling weakly and leaning so she could kiss his cheek.

\----

Sam got his turn at holding Mari for a while and not until Aleah nodded off while the boys talked and cooed over the newest addition did Dean finally speak up and say that it was probably time they got some much needed rest. She heard him near her ear requesting her to wake and her eyes opened, seeing him holding Mari again and while it couldn’t have been little more than an hour or two since the boys got home she could hardly keep her eyes opened. He gently asked her if she wanted to move to the other room, saying he could put Mari down in the bassinet they had bought not but two weeks ago to put in their room and come back to help her. “I’ll be fine.” She promised, while a little sore it wasn’t too much to handle movement.

Aleah tugged the comforter off her frame and the family walked back to their quarters just as Mari started to stir a bit more, making tiny distressed noises that Dean hushed her worriedly. “She’s hungry.” She mentioned when they reached their door and she took to the top of their own bed, tugging her arm out of her tank top and leaving it hanging loose around her as she stuck her arms out so he could hand her their baby. She smiled affectionately down at her dark haired little miracle and slipped her shirt lower, cooing to her and guiding her to her breast almost expecting a comment from Dean but the look in his eye was entirely different when he scoot up beside her, slipping his arm behind her back watching their little one nurse like it was the most wondrous thing he had ever seen. 

“We did pretty good huh?” Aleah questioned softly, giggling when Dean reached to tug the fuzzy blanket away from Mari’s face as to not disturb her feeding instead her little hand opened and closed around his large finger lightly. “I told you. Daddy’s girl.” She murmured, resting her head on Dean’s shoulder as she waited for Mari to finish up so they could rest though only Dean seemed full of energy, the added excitement from him she hadn’t really seen much before either but it pleased her to know that he was so ready willing and eager to jump into this with her. She had never had a family… not really, it was nice to get a taste of that and to offer it to her daughter. “I love you both.”

The atmosphere in the bunker changed drastically with Mari's arrival. Even with all the horrors they had to face and actively hunt down, it just seemed like everyone was a little lighter, a little happier knowing there was a tiny little miracle in their midst. About a week after Mari's birth Dean had his daughter laying in a shallow bathing basin on the kitchen counter, giving the infant a bath.

He scooped handfuls of warm water over her tiny body, wiping her down with a soft cloth and getting her all clean. The hunter laughed at the way Mari kept kicking her legs and making the water splash up on her front, the little girl seemed amazed by the cause and effect anew every time she did it. He cooed at her and hid himself from her view with the washcloth periodically, making her eyes go wide each time he suddenly came back into her line of sight.

She was still too small to really smile, but she was starting to mimic a lot of their facial expressions and gestures, and it was easy to tell when she was happy or excited like she was now. Dean leaned in close and raised his brows at Mari, waiting for her to do the same and laughing every time she imitated him. Her gaze tracked his face as he bobbed his head from side to side, and her legs thrashed excitedly every time he drew near enough to lightly bump the tip of his nose or place a quick kiss along her cheek or brow.

Dean got her all rinsed off and gently lifted her out of the small basin to rest on his shoulder he had covered with a towel, holding her tiny body against him with one hand while he started getting the bath things cleaned up with the other. A voice behind him made him turn and he smiled as he saw his girlfriend coming into the kitchen.

"Mornin' sleepy head." Dean greeted her, tucking the towel up around Mari and handing the wriggling bundle over to Aleah so he could keep cleaning up. The brunette chided him for letting her sleep in so much, but he just made a tsking sound in his throat at her. "You need your rest Princess. And besides, short stuff and I have a good time together. Don't we sweetie?" Dean responded, stepping over to lightly kiss Mari's rosy cheek on his way to the sink to empty out her little tub.

Aleah got Mari dried off and changed into a little yellow stripped onezie with little yellow duck decorations adorning it while Dean prepared her habitual morning tea and some breakfast. The brunette lamented that she couldn't go back to drinking coffee yet, eyeing his own mug enviously as he took a drink.

"All in good time babe. I seriously doubt we want a caffeinated part angel baby on our hands. I'm just glad her powers seem to have diminished now that she's not backpacking off yours." Dean commented with a chuckle. "Cas said he was going to check her over today, right? See how she's doing?" He asked. They hadn't taken Mari to a pediatrician yet but having a full-fledged angel on call made both of them fairly comfortable since he could assess their daughter's condition down to the molecular level.

Aleah confirmed his question, Castiel had to leave fairly shortly after Mari was born to keep running damage control in heaven, but he had promised to return to check on things in a week's time at the latest.

Aleah padded up behind her lover who was happily bouncing on his heels to keep Mari comforted and soothed in a subconscious manner. She grinned, running a hand through her unnaturally messy hair, mused with sleep, “Morning.” She greeted softly and Dean turned to face her at the sound, greeting her in turn. “You shouldn’t keep letting me sleep in, baby.” She berated him and he defended that he liked his time with Mari as well as she needed the extra sleep with getting up to nurse rather frequently in the night.

She rubbed her tired eye and shifted to take her daughter in hand, drying her off and making little gurgling sounds down to her. She dressed her in a little onesie, cradling her with a hand under either arm and her fingers beneath her tiny head, bending to kiss her sweetly and while Mari had been premature by human standards she looked the size of any other newborn maybe even a little bit bigger. She pulled her up to rest over her shoulder, her little cheek pressed into her shoulder and neck, sighing lightly.

Aleah looked to Dean while he made her tea and he sipped his coffee right in front of her, giving him a pout, “I can’t drink coffee.” She muttered, eyeing his mug and it was no surprise when he didn’t feel sorry for her, making her laugh at his mention of Mari no longer honing her mother’s energy. “That’s what he told me. Likely a little later this afternoon but I’m not sure. He’s still trying to get things ironed out around the rest of the world… Heaven included.” She reminded her boyfriend.

\---

When Castiel did show up it was apparent it would be a quick visit by the rushed way he approached them though when he took Mari from Dean’s arms he slowed and smiled, holding her near. He spoke to her in enochian a language that not even Aleah or Dean knew but for one reason or another the full angel liked talking to her that way best and for all they knew maybe she would pick up on it when she was older and it might come in handy.

He looked her over from head to toe and at first Mari squirmed in his grasp until light illuminated from his fingers against her back and the tension in her little frame eased the distressed noises she had been making stopped and they assumed him to be examining her from the inside out ensuring all was well. “Mari’s quite well. She’s very aware.” He mentioned, laying her out in his arms in front of him, his brow furrowed and Aleah snorted when Mari mimicked his face almost exactly, covering her mouth to keep from completely bursting with laughter when Cas stopped and so did the tiniest angel.

Cas sighed and his brows knitted together once more, “I fear that she will be a danger as you are aware, her abilities were prevalent in the womb. They have subsided greatly, no incident but outside this bunker with no protection… she is vulnerable.” He stated and Aleah stepped closer.

“Well we’re not anticipating taking her out anyways.” Aleah said, defending her child but internally she hadn’t thought about the fact that her powers might just come back one day and her baby could disappear. “C-Can’t you keep her from using them as she grows? Til she’s older?” She asked.

“I’m afraid not, Aleah. If only it were that simple, I had to watch you for years, wait until I felt you again and know you had developed. It will happen and she has made that quite clear before.” Cas responded.

“So what do we do? I mean I can’t carry her all the time and help her control it her whole life.” Aleah stated and exchanged a look with Dean who seemed to start to get what he was implying for the future, should anything happen by accident or otherwise.

 

Dean listened to his friend speak, grateful for his keen insight but not liking the way the conversation was trending. He knew better than anyone that Mari would be a potential danger to herself and those around her until she got old enough to understand and learn to control her powers. Maybe they wouldn't resurface in full force again till her twenties like Aleah's, but there was no guarantee of that.

Castiel spoke of the need for the time being to take at least the most basic precautions, and Dean's knee-jerk reaction was to jolt forward and take his daughter from the angel's arms, making her squall a bit at the sudden movement. He knew exactly what Cas was referring to though Aleah didn't seem to realize it yet. "She's just an infant, Cas!" Dean snapped, though beneath his adamant denial he knew his friend was right.

Castiel said as much, pointing out that it was because she was an infant and therefore totally helpless that they needed to do everything they could to hide her from enemy detection, just like the rest of them. Aleah understood then, speaking out against putting a tattoo on a tiny baby and Dean shook his head at her. "That's not what he's suggesting Al. Mari's gotta get fixed up like Sam and I. Get the protection spell etched into her ribs. He can cook one up for angels and demons." He explained, his hand covering Mari's torso protectively out of instinct.

The angel nodded and stepped forward, reaching out to place his hand on Mari and Dean flinched, clearing his throat uncomfortably. Cas hesitated, reiterating that this was necessary. "Dammit." Dean swore under his breath, looking down at his baby girl and shifting his grip on her to grant the angel access. "I know. Just make it quick, and take the pain away the second you can." He added, holding Mari tight and feeling like someone drove a knife in his gut at the shrill squeal of discomfort and alarm Mari emitted when Castiel touched her.

The angel quickly soothed the child's hurt away, apologizing to them both but Dean and Aleah shared a glance and they both knew this was necessary. "It's okay Cas. It's what we have to do to keep her safe. How long do you think this will hold up?" He asked, and Castiel's brow furrowed. He stated that he wasn't sure, but Aleah broke in and asked what they were talking about, questioning if the sigils were permanent like Sam and Dean's were.

"They are, but Mari's just a baby. She's got a lot of growing to do yet. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before the symbols get distorted enough where we might have to do this again." Dean explained, giving his lover a look of sympathy as she realized what he meant and blinked back fresh tears.

Sam appeared in the doorway, looking around at his family members with an expression of concern. "I heard Mari... Is she all right?" The younger hunter asked, crossing the space to get a better look at his niece.

"Yeah, she's fine. Cas had to mark her, like us." Dean answered, tapping his chest with his fist for emphasis and Sam nodded in comprehension.

"Poor little munchkin." Sam mused, reaching up to gently stroke Mari's head and smiling at her softly. "Is it gonna last you think?" He questioned, immediately thinking of the same concern his brother had.

"I don't know, we'll have to wait and see I guess. Play it by ear." Dean responded, patting Mari's back and craning his head down to kiss the top of her head.

Aleah didn’t like the idea of Castiel marking her baby girl though she was much stronger than a normal child might be that didn’t mean she should be put through any of that. She was nearing tears as she watched her boyfriend hold onto their daughter while Cas laid a hand over her back and etched symbols into her ribs. The process was fast and yet it felt like hours watching her scream like she was, the half angel cupped her hand over her mouth to keep from sobbing knowing she had to watch her little girl be in pain even if only for a moment.

Castiel quickly quieted her with another touch over her cheek to ease the pain, apologizing to them all for having to do that. They knew it needed to be done and Dean cradled his baby girl against his front for comfort, clearly just as affected by having to sit back and watch that. “It is uncertain.” Cas replied when Dean asked how long this would last.

Aleah stepped in and asked for clarification and Dean was quick to answer, to let her know that because Mari would grow it was likely they would have to do this again and maybe a few more times after that to help her stay safe. She nodded with watery eyes, understanding but not liking it at all. It didn’t take long for Sam to show up, concern on his face having heard Mari crying, asking if she was okay. Dean nodded and explained what happened; it was no surprise that he voiced some of the same concerns that the others had, if it would last or not. Dean shook his head telling him they weren’t certain on if the effect would even last, if it would work on someone as small as her and for how long.

\---

Mari was nearing four months old and steadily growing more attached to her father which was no surprise, the man hardly seemed to want to put her down. She was crying and often times it made Dean frantic, trying to decide what it is she wanted while Aleah could very sense her distress. She had a connection with her daughter but on a different level than Dean might have with her.

She stepped over to her lover and took the wriggling infant from his hands, “She’s hungry.” She explained, smiling at him and kissing his cheek as she took their daughter away to be fed. Dean always seemed rather disappointed when she did that, acted like she could read into their babies thoughts and feelings and well she could actually though it wasn’t always intentional it was like listening to someone else talk to her only in her mind and through other senses. She just felt the change in energy and somehow Mari told her what she wanted to make her happy.

Aleah finished feeding their daughter, tucking her into her little crib in their room and watching her sleep from where she sat, cross legged at the head of their own mattress. She reached for her reading glasses on the side table and pushed them up the bridge of her small nose. While her instincts with Mari were often correct as far as her angelic side went there were aspects of her being human, getting sick, things she could eat and when, health benefits of breast feeding verses not so she often kept up on her ‘research’ that Sammy had given her.

She rested her back against the headboard and flipped through the pages of one of her extensive baby prep books when Dean came round the corner. She saw him through the door standing in the hall and he contemplated coming inside until she smiled at him and pat the spot beside her for him to join. “Any leads on that case up state?” She whispered, knowing that Sam and Dean had both still been sticking to their own research and works. Dean didn’t want to get out quite as much as Sammy might have wanted to but he knew he was needed outside the bunker just as much. He climbed beside her and sat down heavily, laying his head over her lap so she could run her fingers through his thick hair until his eyes fluttered closed. He responded in the positive but claimed he wasn’t sure if this was something worth them both taking or if he should just ask Cas to go in his place. “Who would drive the getaway car?” She asked, teasingly, laughing as Dean replied that they would take another car because baby didn’t leave without her pilot.

“You’re ridiculous you know that?” The half angel said, bopping his nose with the tip of her index finger and speaking in a low tone as to not wake their sleeping infant. Dean’s eyes flickered down to her chest in a not uncommon fashion of him eyeing her nearly over flowing bra until she pushed at his head to make him break his gaze. He growled that he liked when she played hard to get, only teasing and she knew it, bending at his prompting to seal their lips in a slow sweet kiss, something that was rare to come by the past few months and she could tell with the growl she so easily evoked from him as her hand ran over his chest to his abdomen that he was feeling needy himself. She had put off being together, partly because Mari but also because she read in more than one place that after you have a baby sex can be… different.

Nothing ever said it was bad but she felt like maybe things would change between them and he wouldn’t want her for one reason or another. She didn’t know the extent but she did know she had turned him down time and time again. He muttered in a rough whisper that they should go to another room, ask Sam to watch Mari just for a few minutes of alone time so he could screw her with only those damn glasses on her face and she pushed at him as he rose to make his assault. “Dean.” She chided softly but sternly and not until Mari choked on her own gurgling cry did he let up off her lap and stop tugging her for extra kisses. She had to admit the idea of getting away for a bit sounded more than a little appealing.

Dean shot up from her lap like a rocket and seemed to have a lingering doubt in his mind as he looked to Aleah as if for her to tell him what to do. “She only cries like that when she wants you, you know.” She stated quietly even though their daughter had woken herself. Dean’s brow arched and he asked how she could tell, “Because she only hiccups like that when she’s wanting your attention.” The brunette continued, fixing her bangs and getting off the bed. She took her lover’s hand and coaxed him over to the crib, “Come here. Close your eyes.” She instructed and he seemed hesitant considering Mari was starting to fall to pieces.

Aleah took one of Dean’s large hands and kissed along the fingers to his palm, “Close your eyes.” She said again even softer and he did, “I wanna show you something okay? It’ll feel different for you…” She dragged his hand over to place it gently on top of Mari’s back, placing her own smaller hand over top of it and Dean questioned what she was doing. “Shh. Just—Really listen.” She instructed once more, focusing her energy to Dean so he could feel what she did when Mari was upset or happy or hungry, letting him connect with their little one’s emotions. Their hands lie there for a few moments and Dean’s fingers tensed and Aleah knew he could feel her trouble with sleeping and her want for her father to comfort her.

The half angel smiled and kept her hand over his a little more firmly, “Her favorite thing is when you hum The Beatles to her. Pick a song.” She encouraged and it took him a second or two, his eyes fluttering open in uncertainty to look at her once more. She nodded and told him to do it and so he did, humming ‘Hey Jude’ the same tune that she remembered he said his mother used to sing for him and Sammy at night rather than a lullaby. His eyes closed again and Aleah’s gaze flickered back down to their hands over their infant girl whose tiny fists unballed and the muscles in her tiny face relaxed as she started to drift back to sleep, the energy omitting from her changing to one of peace, pleased to hear her father’s comforting tune even from a slight distance.

Aleah curled her fingers down over Dean’s lacing their digits and feeling him respond to it and open his eyes to look at them both, slowly finishing up his song only he sang under his breath now rather than hummed it until Mari was completely at rest. “Even babies have nightmares. Surprising isn’t it? But she knows daddy’s are the ones that make those better.” She giggled, seeing the looking in Dean’s eye change when he felt the difference between when he sang and when he hadn’t. “It’s mostly just listening… like Cas taught me. Her cries are different for everything so that helps a bit… I think you could figure it out too.” She shrugged, taking their hands off their daughter so she could sleep without the added weight and instead she pulled Dean towards her so she could hug him. "She loves you.... I know that you felt that too."

Dean loosely gripped Aleah's hands as she took a step back out of his embrace, trying to collect himself after what he had felt being connected to his daughter in that way with his girlfriend's help. "Yeah... I felt it." He stammered, his voice thick with emotion. 

The hunter had never felt anything close to the love Mari had for him. It was so pure, so utterly without reservation or judgement. His baby girl had no preconceived notions about him or the choices he made. Yes her perception was simplified and limited due to how young she was, but still, that pure, unadulterated level of love and trust was something Dean never in his wildest dreams imagined he would experience.

The brunette smiled up at him and led him back to their bed, guiding him to fall back on the mussed covers and curling up against him. The hunter sighed deeply, smiling as he let himself relax and enjoy the moment. There might be all manner of evil crap and bad memories waiting for him just on the other side of his door, but for now he was simply a man at rest enjoying the comfort of his lover against him and the contentment of knowing that his baby girl was sleeping safe and sound right beside them.

The pair reclined in comfortable silence for a long while, till Aleah finally broke the quiet, tipping her head up on his chest to meet his gaze and softly asking him what he was thinking about.

"You... Us... This. It just feels really good." He responded, hugging her close for a second with the arm he had draped around her back. Aleah smiled happily and voiced her agreement, tucking herself in tighter against his frame. Dean's mind began to wander as they laid together, trailing his fingertips back and forth over the curve of his lover's side, trying to stay focused on the pure sweetness and comfort of the moment they had shared but it was difficult with Aleah pressed up against him and it had been a long time since she'd been receptive to his advances.

He understood that Aleah needed a good chunk of time to let her body readjust to no longer carrying a baby, and that as long as Mari was breastfeeding and so tiny and helpless he had to take a backseat as far as getting energy and affection from Aleah and he was perfectly happy to grant that for his daughter. But... That didn't stop him from wanting, from imagining and from missing being more... Intimate with his girlfriend.

Dean felt like he was doing really well with being patient and not making Aleah feel pressured, joking with her when she rebuffed him so it didn't become a point of contention between them while she focused on the baby. He wanted her like crazy, before it was pretty rare for them to go a couple days without having each other, let alone a few months.

After awhile his girlfriend got up to go brush her teeth and change into her typical night clothes of shorts and an old flannel shirt of his, she was pleased that she was finally fitting into her old clothes again and he was just happy that she seemed more relaxed about how her body looked again. He wondered if that was part of why she had been hesitant to try and make time for them as a couple, maybe she worried that he saw her differently now that she'd had a baby.

And really that was true, he did see his girlfriend differently now. Now she wasn't just Aleah, his lover and friend. She was the mother of his child and both she and Mari were his reason for carrying on no matter what this hellish life might choose to throw at him next.

Aleah stopped to stoop over Mari's crib and check their slumbering daughter a final time, walking back towards him and he held up his hand indicating that she should pause. She did, looking at him curiously and asking him what he was doing. He tucked his hands behind his head, taking in the sight of her that he loved so well, bare faced without all her makeup and accessories on, wearing his rumpled shirt and even her reading glasses were a nice touch for variety.

For a moment Dean said nothing, simply looking his lover over from head to toe with a little crooked smile adorning his lips. She asked him again in a more exasperated tone why he was just staring at her standing there and he shrugged.

"You know I think you're amazing, right? And hot. Very, very hot." He responded, chuckling at the deep blush his comment evoked on Aleah's cheeks.

Aleah adjusted the dark rimmed glasses on her face with one hand and wiped beneath her full bottom lip with the other as she padded back out of their bathroom to see her sleeping baby again. She bent over, her fingers steadying near her infants nose and lips her nightly check to ensure she was breathing okay and maybe she was being silly or over protective of her daughter, insisting on her still sleeping within range of them but Dean never said anything though she knew it was high time they put her to rest in her own space considering Sam and Dean had done so much work on making it nice for her.

She whispered a good night to Marilee and took a few steps away, giving her lover a grin until he raised a hand and made her stop walking towards him. She paused, her brows coming together in the middle, “What are you doing?” She questioned a little hesitantly, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear as his eyes raked over her frame. She wasn’t dressed in anything special, sleep shorts and one of Dean’s shirts she could finally button over her stomach and just barely across her chest, leaving an overly generous view of her cleavage as well as long socks she had pulled up nearly to the knee that she often wore before bed or as she slept for added warmth.

Dean didn’t answer her and she was starting to fidget with the way he was looking at her, her cheeks burning hot and the blush and fluster starting to spread to her neck and chest. Only he could evoke such a response from her person, “Dean… why are you staring at me?” The half angel whined her hand darting down to tug on the elastic of her sock and she blushed an even deeper shade of red at his response to her question.

The hunter stuck his hand out and she took it with a bite of her lower lip, slipping into his lap when he sat up. He prompted her to straddle him and she did, letting all of her limbs snake around his frame. He gripped her face gently and made her look at him, questioning again if she understood that he thought she was hotter than hell and he would know. She laughed and nodded her comprehension but he forced her to vocalize it, “I know. I know you do. I don’t—“ She started and he cut her off with a kiss to her lips.

He asked her what was going on, tugging the glasses from her face and setting them aside. “Trust me it’s not… that I don’t want to. It’s just really different. Like we’ll have to… I don’t know relearn each other and what if we learn that it’s not the same anymore. That… heat and drive we both have.” Aleah shrugged, her finger absently tracing over his chest while his hands slipped down to her rear and he held her firmly against him making her groan slightly.

“I read that… it feels different and I haven’t any idea what that means…” She breathed, feeling Dean’s lips on her throat, his teeth grazing over her warm flesh and she tried to keep focus again. “And… what if we don’t… not… the same…” The brunette moaned quietly as the hunter continued his affections as if to kiss away her lingering doubts, kissing down to her breasts and she gasped with want, her eyes slipping closed but she gripped his hair he had let grow a bit, keeping him from venturing further. “Not while she’s sleeping here.” She definitely couldn’t have her daughter within angel radar like this because of the connection they did have. She could shut it off for the most part but it was easier when she wasn’t in the same room as her.

It was no surprise when Dean glanced up at her and offered that he move the crib as soon as possible, arching a brow because really she had been the one who didn't want to let go of her. When she started to say she was uncertain of the idea he kissed her again between her words to remind her what they could have again if they had their space. She giggled at the tickle of his scruffy chin on her smooth flesh and nodded, "Okay. I'm sorry I ventured so far in to 'mommy mode' that I forgot about Daddy." She muttered, running her nails through the hair on the back of his head and along the nape of his neck making him shudder at her touch. She wrinkled her nose at him and fell forward atop him, their foreheads pressed together and he laughed accepting her apology but claiming she needed to make up for it.

The next day Dean and Sam worked on moving things like the crib and rocking chair from the couple's room into the nursery next door while Aleah worked on a few finishing touches in the room like installing the little video baby monitor they had gotten to keep an eye on Mari while she was in the other room. Dean felt like the video surveillance was a bit over the top, but if it made Aleah feel better about moving Mari into the nursery so they could have a bit of their own space, he was willing to go along with it.

Dean thanked his brother for his help moving the big items, Sam made sure they were all settled before going on his planned supply run for the day. The brothers winced a bit and smiled when they heard Mari's shrill cry from the other room. The little girl normally had a very happy temperament but for whatever reason she was being exceptionally fussy today.

"Doesn't sound like a certain little girl is a happy camper." Sam commented, giving Aleah a sympathetic smile when the brunette came into the room, holding Mari and bouncing her gently in her arms, trying to get her to calm down but she refused to be soothed. The woman commented that she could probably sense Aleah's apprehension at moving her away from her and Dean, she seemed to blame herself for Mari's fussing and was looking around the nursery like she might be having second thoughts.

Dean sighed and rubbed the back of his head, not liking seeing his daughter in distress but at the same time he felt it would be better for both he and Aleah and Mari for the girl to get used to having her own room. Sam's gaze darted between the pair and he could clearly tell his older brother was trying not to get annoyed since they had just done all the work of moving things in here only to have Aleah protest the soundness of their decision.

"Hey, you know what? I think I know just the thing to calm Mari down." Sam piped up before Dean could say anything snippy, stepping forward and gently taking the squalling baby from Aleah's arms. "Taking her for a drive soothes her, right? So I'll take her with me to get the groceries. Calm her down, get her a little sunshine, it'll be great." Sam hurriedly offered, giving Dean a knowing look when his brother recognized his blatant attempt and keeping him from making an ass of himself.

Aleah seemed hesitant, but Mari's cries quieted a bit just from her uncle holding her, and that seemed to encourage her. Mari picked up on Sam's calm and while she was still crying at least she wasn't squalling at the top of her lungs like she had been. The brunette asked Sam if he was sure he didn't mind and he shook his head rapidly, "Nope. Don't mind at all, you guys just relax here and this little lady and I will be back soon." Sam replied, nodding at Dean and leaving before the brunette really had time to object further.

Dean poked his head out the nursery door, "She likes listening to AC/DC! Or The Beatles!" He called after his brother.

"I know! I got it Dean!" Sam called back over his shoulder, brushing of his brother and laughing a bit to himself because he knew his brother was grateful for his actions but he couldn't quite stop himself from being a worried dad entirely.

Aleah handed over Mari with more than a little apprehension, feeling like maybe the new environment wasn’t such a good idea. She bit her lower lip to keep from crying herself because she felt so bad for the way her daughter was screaming like this and she knew if she asked Dean to move everything back he wouldn’t be happy either. Sam insisted that he would handle her just fine and with the way that Mari quieted from his grasp alone, it reassured her that he might actually be capable of soothing her though part of her also knew he was doing it purposefully with the look he exchanged with Dean before leaving, like some unspoken agreement they had to offer the couple alone time they hadn’t really had in months.

Dean called out the door to his brother and she laughed at him because he hated the idea of Mari listening to Sam’s music. She shook her head and he turned at the sound of her giggling, surging forward and asking her what she thought she was laughing at. “You of course. Being adamant about our daughter’s only musical knowledge being that of classic rock like her father.” She teased and Dean grinned, stating it was the only music worth knowing about anyhow. “Right Heaven forbid she like classical stuff or something sophisticated like her uncle might.” She said with a shake of her head.

The hunter slipped his arms around her slender frame and easily tugged her forward to be flush against his body. She gasped lightly at his insistence, feeling a mix of nervousness and want. She knew and understood that Dean loved her, wanted her no matter what but that didn’t stop her racing heart as he questioned what they would do for the next hour or so Sam would be away. “You tell me. Kinda seems like you’ve already thought this through with the help of your brother.” She pointed out and he smirked, claiming it wasn’t planned exactly but still.

He reminded her again, that he wanted her, every part of her, his hands slipping up under her shirt and she shuddered at the feeling of him caressing the curves she had finally earned back. He tugged the garment over her head and her breathing quickened at the feeling of his eyes on her. “Dean.” She moaned, her tone dripping with want and worry. He lifted her up and hooked her legs around his waist making her laugh at his insistence. He chuckled and growled low in his chest, walking her in his arms to the wall just near the doorway, grinding against her a murmuring his desire to have her again and always.

Their lips crashed together and they kissed wildly like it was the first time all over again, like she craved his kiss and touch more than air. She easily held herself up when his hands slipped away from her back to find the fastening of her jeans, working them opened and making her gasp as he tucked his hand into her bottoms to stroke her firmly through the thin fabric of her panties. His eyes went dark as he made mention of how soaked through she was for him already, seeming rather amused that while she had been fighting him more recently she couldn’t any longer and she was desperate for him once more. His fingers swirled over her clit through her panties, teasing her until finally he pushed aside the fabric, dipping his strong calloused digits into her body and keeping her pinned as he worked her.

Aleah’s legs around him started to slip, her vision blurring around the edges she was so sensitive to him but he gripped beneath her rear to keep her upright in his arms, intently watching her face and asking with a smirk if she still liked him touching her like he was. “Y-yes.” She panted, her hips started to roll into his hand and she knew the fabric of her jeans was tight around his hand but he hardly seemed bother as he played off of how he was trying to ‘relearn’ her body. Her nails bit into his shoulder and the back of his neck, head lulling and she tried to tell him to take her to their room but her voice was shaky and the words morphed into a cry of pleasure when his fingers thrust up into her harshly hitting that sweet spot deep inside her body. She came around his fingers, clinging to him to keep steady and ride out her high, her eyes slipping closed in the wake of her orgasm.

 

Dean chuckled with satisfaction as his lover cried out in pleasure as she found her peak, he knew full well she had been angling for him to wait till they were back in their own room to get things rolling but he was too impatient to hear those desperate sounds from her again. He gently extracted his hand from her core, the back of his hand was a little raw from rubbing against the zipper of her jeans but he hardly cared.

He set her back down on solid ground and pressed his larger frame against hers, gripping her hips and tipping his forehead down to rest against hers. "Well looks like I managed to 'relearn' that pretty fast, huh? I wonder if other things will come back to me that quick..." He teased in a husky tone, wanting her to focus on this small amount of time they had to themselves instead of dwelling on the past few months.

Dean kissed her lightly and pulled away, taking her hand and tugging her along out of the nursery and into their own room. The half-angel giggled as he immediately started tugging her clothes off and he couldn't help but smile himself, eager to make the most out of the short time they had alone. He tugged her top and jeans off, helped her unclasp her bra revealing her swollen creamy breasts. Dean bent and kissed and licked her sensitive chest, being more gentle with his mouth and hands than typical since he knew she was tender from breastfeeding. Still she didn't seem to mind the contact one bit with how she was gasping and leaning into his touch. 

"I have missed these for sure." He snarked, making her giggle again. After a moment he knelt down to slip her soaked panties off as well, feathering kisses over her hipbones and thighs. He had been craving her for longer than he wanted to think about, his own arousal painfully prominent against his jeans as he nuzzled and mouthed at her center.

Aleah moaned his name, still sensitive from her first orgasm only a few light touches from him already had her knees quivering. Dean gripped her hips and gently guided her to backpedal and sit on the edge of the mattress. He crouched on the floor between her legs, pushing her thighs apart and grinning up at her ravenously. "Tell me what you want Princess..." He growled, his calloused fingers running up and down her inner thighs, his mouth mere millimeters from her wet center.

Aleah stared at him over her chest, craning her head to see the devilish grin on his face as he caressed her inner thighs and teased her with the light touches. “Dean.” She breathed, shimmying down lower wanting to close that tiny gap between his mouth and her center. He questioned what she wanted, requesting her to tell him like she used to and she did, “Baby please I need your mouth on me.” She urged, pushing his face closer and his lips found her button of nerves at the top of her entrance once more just as she instructed him to make her come like only he knew how to.

He did as she asked, eating her out eagerly until she was shaking and gripping his hair like the only thing that was keeping her grounded. Her free hand gently tweaked her pert nipples each in turn grinding down against his mouth as she came around his tongue. He hummed, the vibration heightening her pleasure as he cleaned her up with his lips and tongue, lapping at her core pleasingly and grinning dangerously when he straightened back out to look at her seeming all too pleased he managed that so easily. It was obvious he hadn’t forgotten, her cheeks flushed red from her peak and he unfastened his pants while she shifted to give him room over their bed, pushing down his bottoms to get to him.

She muttered her approval as he settled over her kicking off his jeans and the briefs he wore did little to nothing to hide his excitement. The half angel reached between them as he kissed her and she tasted herself on his lips making her groan as she fondled him through the fabric of his briefs. His lips broke from hers, his hips rolling into her hand and she smiled up at him from where she lay, stroking his length slow to work him up even further until neither of them could stand it and he pushed off the last remaining article of clothing to get to her, teasing her slick center with his tip.

Aleah watched him, her eyes darting down as he gripped himself and guided his shaft to her entrance, slowly pushing into her body as they made eye contact and she moaned when he buried himself to the hilt inside her body. Her body remembered him, the things he could do to her the way he could drive her to that edge in a number of ways. His motions were slow at first, savoring her body and letting her adjust until she forced her inner muscles to clench around him and he groaned, catching her gaze as she smirked and leaned up to bite his shoulder. “You won’t break me baby but I sure as hell want you to try.” She panted, her heels digging into his back and encouraging him to slam into her like he wanted.

 

Dean panted out a little laugh at her comment, quirking his brows at her and grinning from ear to ear. "I'll take that as a challenge." He hummed, dipping his head down to kiss a trail up her throat as he slammed into her harder. His mouth wandered up to hers, kissing her passionately as he drove his thick length inside her in a rough, primal rhythm.

Aleah moaned into his mouth and he answered in turn as her walls clamped and fluttered around him, drawing him deeper inside her and making it that much harder for him to put off his own release. He bucked his hips up into hers, angling just how he knew she liked to hit her in all the right places. The half angel shuddered and her back arched up off the mattress beneath him, and it was all he could do to carry her through a bone melting orgasm before succumbing himself. He spilled deep inside her, prolonging her pleasure and growling himself at how good it felt to finally have her this way again.

He slowed his motions and gently eased out of her body, kissing her softly and holding himself up from collapsing atop her. "You ah, did start taking the pill again, right?" He asked, fairly sure he had but not wanting to be caught off guard just in case. Aleah giggled and nodded, assuring him that she was back on track and not to worry about anything except making love to her until their time was up.

He cocked his head at her and grinned. "I think I can do that." Dean replied, kissing her deeply. The hunter shifted to roll Aleah so their positions were reversed. He slid his hands up and down her sides to cup her full breasts, tweaking her stiff nipples and making her mewl in response. She braced her hands on his chest and leaned down, her long dark hair concealing their faces as it fell around either side of his head. The half-angel spoke softly, telling him she hadn't quite realized how much she missed this until it was happening again.

Dean nodded, craning his head up to kiss her lips gently. "I've missed it to. I love that Mari is a part of our lives now, but I'm selfish. I like having you to myself for a bit too." He chuckled, but it boiled over into a growl when Aleah began grinding her sex against his. His arousal slowly grew again from the stimulation, and when his lover leaned back and started playing with her full breasts as she rubbed herself on his length got him hard as steel for her.

"God you're beautiful..." He groaned, gripping her hips and guiding her motions against him. Aleah flushed and rose up off of him just enough to guide his shaft inside her, making both of them cry out as she took him to the hilt and began riding him.

Aleah grinned as he swapped their positions, rolling so she could straddle him instead. She rested her hands along his trimmed chest, brushing up to his shoulders as she bent down to kiss him. "I hadn't realized how much I missed this... missed you until I had you again." She muttered down to him and he started to respond in kind but she rocked against him, her slick center brushing against his length and riling them both up.

The half angel tweaked her nipples, grinning and flushing pink as he watched her tease herself in time with her hips grinding against his own. He said sweet things to her and guided her motions until she sat back more and guided him to her body, sinking down onto his thick length and making them both gasp at the connection of their bodies once more.

Her pace was slow to start, "God I missed you..." she panted harshly her breaths morphing into moans each time she slid down onto his length and buried him inside her heat. His mouth fell opened and his fingers dug into her thighs, letting her take control of the pace like she very clearly wanted. She tugged her hair off her shoulders, giving him a view of her chest and when he tried to sit forward she very roughly shoved at him making his shoulders collide with the mattress again.

Dean stared up at her in partial disbelief for her actions giving a chuckle at the smirk playing on her lips. "I've got making up to do sweetie. Sit back and enjoy the ride." She said though her words were easy her cheeks still flushed it was hard for her to be dominant though she liked it from time to time amd she knew he did too. Her nail traced down over his chest marking his flesh faintly enough to make it red but not enough to let it last.

She slowed her thrusts even more almost halting completely so she could tease a bit. "Remember... our first time? You asked me to tell you... how you felt to me. To focus on you." She reminded him and she could see he was going crazy beneath her and still he resisted thrusting up into her body. The hunter nodded ever so slightly claiming he did. "Wanna know now?" He nodded again begging her to keep moving.

Aleah slid up to his tip flexing her body around him and leaning so he had a view of him entering her each time their hips met. "Big. But I wanted every damn bit of you for myself. Like leaping from a cliff into the water. I wanted it to be you to break me. To be only yours Dean." She whispered, her lips parting in a breathy moan as she sunk down onto him once more. "You always.... make me feel good Dean." She said his name again, letting her hands brace on his chest again and he started thrusting up into her body matching her motions thrust for thrust.

Dean groaned and his pace increased and she followed, their foreheads pressed together, hot breath on his face as she panted harshly. "Dean... oh god Dean." She whispered knowing he loved the sound of his name on her lips like this. She swiveled her hips to make him hit her in all the right places, her body clenching around him and she screamed as she came hard, feeling his hot seed fill her up entirely and their pleasures mingled as she fluttered around him. "I-I can't stop coming... baby..." she cried, her nails biting into his flesh hard enough to draw blood and making him growl at her as she dragged them along his chest, her mind going fuzzy as he kept up as long as he could.

She whimpered when he stopped and her muscles still contracted as she tried to catch her breath. Deans hand slipped up to grip her arm when she looked like she might tumble. He chuckled airily and tugged her down asking if she was okay. Her eyes hadn't gone blue like normal when she tried to heighten their pleasures but this time she hadn't used her mojo. Aleah nodded and kissed him deeply, hungrily and he laughed once more at how she was acting. "I just missed you a lot more than I told myself I did. Dean you feel so good... you make me feel so amazing... I love you so much." She finally said when she caught her breath a bit.

Dean grinned up at her and pulled her to rest over his chest her body still trembling. He kissed her along the lips to her jaw and over her neck, savoring each brush of skin against skin until he returned the words. It was uncommon for him to do so but he must have known she needed it for reasons she didnt even know. She was simply craving him in every form, that intimacy on every level.

The couple managed to work their way into the bathroom adjoining their bedroom, Dean took his lover once more against the shower wall, relishing her cries that were only partially muffled by the sound of the running water. They barely had time for that final round and actually getting the sweat and sex cleaned off their bodies before Sam returned with Mari from his errand.

The younger Winchester took one look at Dean and Aleah where they sat on the couch together with their still wet hair and sated looks and he knew exactly how they'd spent the free time he'd given them. He chuckled to himself and handed a now calm and happy Mari over to the half-angel who was tucked in against his brother's side. She thanked him for watching their daughter and he shook his head, assuring her that it was no trouble.

\---  
That evening Dean lay sprawled on his stomach on the floor in the living area playing with Mari with a few of her brightly colored toys. He loved watching how fascinated she was by the various objects he would dangle above her, smiling when she warbled and trilled at the silly faces he made.

He gave her a bright blue rattle shaped like a cartoon songbird and the tiny girl shook it vigorously, her eyes wide with wonder at the noise it made. Her eyes were finally starting to get their true color, a clear, cool blue like her mother's. Dean could see much of Aleah in his daughter's features, and he hoped that her physical similarities reflected that Mari would share more of his lover's personality traits as well. The last thing he needed was for his daughter to be like him, for a multitude of reasons.

The hunter could hear Aleah and his brother making dinner in the kitchen around the corner, enjoying the sound of Aleah's laughter at something Sammy had said. He couldn't wait to hear Mari's laugh for the first time. She had been giving them little giggles here and there but he hoped that her laugh was just like her mother's, warm, light and infectious. 

Dean shifted and sat up, scooping Mari off the blanket he'd spread on the floor and taking his daughter back to sit on the couch with him. The little girl easily supported her own head now and as he held her against his chest he couldn't help but smile at the way she was staring at him. Suddenly her face was split by a huge yawn and Dean chuckled, settling her down against his chest and lightly rubbing her back, trying to soothe her to sleep since she hadn't had her second nap yet today.

He wasn't sure which of them fell asleep first, but the next thing he knew Aleah was standing over him by the couch, gently patting him awake so as not to wake their daughter who was slumbering peacefully against his chest.

"How long was I out for?" Dean asked groggily, grinning a little sheepishly that he had zonked out as well when he'd just been trying to get Mari to sleep.

Aleah smiled at Sam as she moved around the kitchen, their maneuvers like a preplanned show, knowing each cabinet by heart and knowing exactly where the other was going, what tasks they had to manage. Dean wasn’t one for cooking unless it was barbequing up some burgers or something along those lines but she didn’t mind running prep with her adoptive older brother one bit. The younger Winchester called out to Dean when food was ready but there was no response and the half angel stuck her head out the open entry way to see him.

She giggled at the sight, Dean was sprawled on the sofa with their daughter over his chest, both of them passed out with their mouths opened in a similar fashion. She shook her head a little and Sam grinned when he saw them too, asking if they should wake him. “No let them bond a little longer. Mari likes it as much as he does. I’ll set the table and then we’ll wake him.” She answered, nudging Sammy to get back to dishing out their plates.

Sam set out their food and pointed out that Dean was still sleeping. She giggled once more, pressing a finger to her lips Aleah slipped past him and into the living room. She hunched and touched him gently, running her hand over his frame where Mari wasn’t to stir him and hopefully only him.

His eyes fluttered opened and first he looked at their little girl nestled into his chest rather comfortably then glanced up at Aleah’s own eyes. She reached up and affectionately brushed his cheek with a smile on her lips as he questioned how long he had been out for. “I don’t know when you fell asleep but probably about an hour. Dinner’s ready if you’re hungry.” She whispered but Mari shifted and yawned widely, her blue eyes flickering opened and she started moving until Dean laid his hand over her small back and sat up with her asking if she was hungry.

The tiny brunette blinked at him in wonder as his mouth moved, her fingers sticking out, touching his lips in curiosity making him laugh but he kept talking to evoke a response from her. Mari gurgled up at him and a wide smile cracked across her still tired looking face when he pretended to munch on her fingers and hand. She squealed and the man’s eyes widened at the loud sound, surprised to hear her respond like she had. She pulled her hand back but when he asked Aleah what they had eaten, Mari’s fingers found his mouth again and he was talking around them. “Seems she likes this game.” Aleah quipped, taking Dean’s hand when he offered it to her and straightened out, Mari in his opposite strong arm.

They wandered over to eat dinner together as a family just as Aleah wanted and Dean got Mari situated in her high chair where she made buzzing sounds with her lips another favorite of hers. Sam smiled as he distributed the plates all around and they started in on their meal, talking about nothing and everything at the same time, all the while on and off distracted by the youngest angel’s silly antics. Sam asked about Mari’s eating habits, if she had gotten to try solid foods and Aleah shrugged, “No but she hasn’t really showed an interest yet and it says around six months so I don’t know...” She stated, rolling her eyes at Dean’s little smirk and knowing exactly what he was thinking about her chest. She definitely felt like a new mom trying to do everything by the book and know what was right though her daughter’s development was a little different she supposed.

They all laughed as Mari kicked her legs and her chair bounced a little, “But she can try baby food I guess. If you can get her to eat at all she doesn’t always seem interested. Castiel confirmed she’s still healthy though but…” She muttered, feeling Dean’s hand on her knee cutting her off and telling her she was simply getting bored. 

Dean and Sam continued to go on hunts, though often the younger Winchester would go solo or take Castiel as his partner if one was needed now that Dean was giving a lot of his attention to his lover and daughter. He sometimes missed the work, it had been his sole purpose for so long and at times he feared that he would lose his edge but even as the months rolled by every time he went out with Sam he would fall right back into his habits and skills, like riding a bike hunting wasn't something he could forget.

He had taken some part time work at a garage in a town about half an hour away from the bunker, he enjoyed working on cars and the steady money put his mind at ease when it came to making sure his girls had everything they needed. It was strange to him in a way, he felt like he was slowly becoming something he always assumed was out of reach, a provider, a father, a man with his ducks in a row. Or at least as much as they could be. He felt like the Dean Winchester of a couple years ago wouldn't recognize him now, and he felt like that was probably a good thing.

Dean was elbows deep in an old chevy truck engine, dirty and sweaty from working all day when he heard a familiar voice behind him. The short-haired hunter straightened and turned to see his girlfriend crossing the parking lot of the repair shop, pushing their baby girl in her stroller before her.

"Hey Princess, what brings you and Short Stuff into town?" He asked, smiling brightly at his girls though every sense he had sharpened automatically, ready to protect them at a moments notice if needed.

The brunette answered happily that Mari needed some fresh air and so she had decided to pack a little lunch for her and Dean to share. Dean smiled and went to wash the oil and grit off his hands in the big utility sink off the car port he was working in so he could come pick his daughter up out of her stroller and greet her.

Mari reached out and pawed at his face, making him laugh. "Don't do that baby, you'll get dirty." He chided gently, lifting Mari up over his head and hoisting her up and down, making her squeal with delight as he carried her over to the worn old picnic table set up for the mechanics to take breaks at on the other side of the shop. Aleah grabbed a few wrapped sandwiches and bottles of soda from her bag while Dean played with Mari.

He handed the little girl back to Aleah after she got everything set out and sat down heavily on the bench, tearing into his sandwich eagerly. They ate in comfortable quiet for awhile till Dean spoke up around a mouthful of food. "You know, maybe Sammy wasn't so crazy after all." He said in a muffled voice, gazing at his daughter fondly as she played with her set of toy plastic keys. Aleah asked him what he meant and he shrugged, taking another bite of food.

"Crazy for wanting this. A family, a 'real' job, you know... Normal stuff. It's kind of nice." He commented, grinning crookedly at his lover. She laughed and told him there wasn't much normal about the life they shared, but she agreed that she wouldn't trade what they had for anything.

Aleah pushed Mari in her stroller along the paved parking lot of the garage that Dean now worked. It was definitely a different scene for them all but she loved seeing her man at work like this, it was a nice change in a number of ways and for a number of reasons, mostly he was safer here at home in her eyes than he was on the road and he kept them safe as well. It set her mind at ease when he could be around like he had been.

She smiled when Dean looked up from his work, straightening out and washing up his hands so he could unbuckle his daughter from her seat and pick her up in greeting. Mari squealed in his hands and kicked her feet as he spoke and soon lifted her high above his head. They looked like any other family to the outside world, the ones who had no idea what Dean used to do for a living or what she really was, what their daughter really was. It was nice to have that sense of normalcy at least for Mari’s sake.

Aleah unpacked the sandwiches she made for them both and the food she brought for Mari to eat should she want it. Dean passed their little girl back to her and she gladly set her in her lap, picking at her sandwich with one hand while the other kept Mari from slipping off her leg. She arched a brow at Dean’s words, “What do you mean by that?” She questioned softly, tearing off a tiny bit of turkey meat and letting Mari sample it which she did absentmindedly.

The hunter swallowed down his bite of sandwich and responded, explaining what he meant exactly. She laughed, “There’s really not anything normal about our life… Not beneath it all but I’d never trade it for anything.” She mused as Mari gummed at her fingertips. “I was thinking about that actually and it’s far away but it’ll come faster than we think. Mari should go to school. She hasn’t had any angelic incidents.” She muttered, looking up at him and speaking quietly as to not be over heard by his co-workers. “Something different for her. She’ll need to make friends outside of Cas and Sam.” She laughed.

Dean seemed a little apprehensive but nodded, agreeing that yea it was a little early which was his way of saying he wasn’t up for thinking about that right now. She nodded, “We should do something special for her first birthday… don’t you think? I want her to have a lot better than either of us did even if she ends up wanting something else.” She suggested. “We could dress Cas up in a party hat, make angel food cake.” She smirked, catching Dean’s gaze who didn’t seem to know if she was being serious or not until she laughed.

They finished up their meal and Aleah handed her boyfriend their daughter, watching him feather kisses over her face and tummy as he said ‘good bye’. Mari wasn’t old enough to comprehend her father’s good byes but she did look a little saddened when she attempted to wave at him as he put her back in her car seat. He closed the door and stopped to look Aleah over with a sly little grin on his face to which she blushed in seconds. “Don’t keep us waiting too long okay? You’ve worked late every night this week… Time for a break.” She chided, standing on her toes and kissing meeting him in a kiss. “I’ll see you in a few hours.” She repeated when he promised her that much.

Dean pulled the Impala in at the bunker, going to the trunk and opening it. Instead of lifting out the false bottom to reveal all manner of deadly weapons and components to take out monsters, he simply grabbed the few gift bags and pink paper box from the local bakery out of the compartment and carried it all in with a pleased grin on his face.

It was his little girl's first birthday and he could hardly believe it, he knew she wouldn't recall much of the event herself but that didn't stop him from getting an armload of presents for his daughter. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this excited for something, growing up he and Sam's birthdays had typically been a bust, and this was his first real opportunity in his mind to show Mari a better childhood than he, his brother or his lover had experienced.

When he entered the bunker his eyes widened when he saw Garth helping Sam set out plates on the table for the dinner he had been running late for with his last minute errands. The lanky hunter smiled and hurried over to greet him, nearly squishing Dean's box he was holding as he came in for a hug uninvited.

"Hey hey easy there buddy, don't wreck the pie." Dean chastised him, giving Garth a scowl when the man called him out on getting a pie rather than a cake. "My daughter is gonna like pie better than freaking cake if it's the only thing I teach her." The hunter snapped, but he didn't stay irritated for long, he was too pleased to be celebrating Mari's birthday with his family like he had always dreamed he could do as a kid.

Dean set his gifts down and went to put the pie in the kitchen, opening the lid and smiling down at the golden crust of the fresh strawberry pie he'd picked up. Taking out the little tube of purple icing he'd bought, he quickly wrote out the words "Happy 1st B-day Mari" across the pie shell, then stuck the big white number one shaped candle he'd gotten into the crust.

Aleah walked over to peek over his shoulder and laughed, shaking her head at her boyfriend's choice but telling him she liked it nonetheless because he'd done it for their little girl.

"I figured she'd like strawberry, like her mom." Dean said with a hint of self-consciousness, suddenly worried that Mari wouldn't like what he'd picked out. The brunette assured him that she would love it, and he leaned down to kiss her deeply. 

Castiel was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching all the other adults busy putting the food out and arranging gifts for the little party they were having in the baby girl's honor. He had been given the task of watching Mari while they all set up, and he held her balanced on his knee, bouncing her gently and keeping his clear blue gazed fixed with hers.

Dean approached them and noticed that both the full angel and his daughter had the faintest luminescence to their eyes, and he knew that Cas was aligning his angel mojo with Mari's. He knew it was their own little way of communicating but it also made him a bit edgy. He wanted Castiel to help Mari learn to control her powers as early as possible, but he didn't want Mari focusing on honing her powers too much. They needed to teach her to focus on the larger part of her that was human, not the other way around. 

"Hey, can you cut the creepy Angel mind-meld thing for now Cas? It's time for grub." Dean comment, stooping to pick up Mari and breaking their eye contact. The girl's eyes returned to their normal sky blue hue and she giggled, pleased to be in her father's arms and he smiled at her brightly.

"Hey shorty. Were you a good girl today?" He asked her in a silly tone, kissing her rosy cheeks and earning a few babbles from his daughter in response.

“She does not do much Dean there is rare occasion for her to be bad. I believe you should have higher expectations of your daughter.” Castiel muttered when Dean asked about Mari’s behavior. The man sighed and bit his tongue to keep from snipping at the angel instead hauling his daughter away from the living room, leaving Cas to fend for himself. It wasn’t long before he got up and followed and though he didn’t need to eat nor did he much like to, sometimes he sat with them and nibbled on a thing or two with the rest of the family.

“There’s the little birthday angel!” Garth swooned over the tiny infant who was dressed in a little yellow dress with stripped leggings to match and a pink bow clip in her growing dark hair. The man had already fawned over the girl more than a handful of times but each time he noticed her he went through the process all over again, gently pinching her cheeks and making her duck her head away from him with a silly little grin on her face. She buried her face into Dean’s shoulder, falling against him as he carried her into the other room with Cas in tow, snipping at Garth to ease up on the cutesy crap.

“’Ey you guys made the damn near cutest munchkin ever, can yah blame me?” Garth asked, opening up his arms and patting Dean on the back making him cringe at the contact from him once more. The rest of the small group was waiting for their entrance, clapping at the sight of Mari and making her scream in attempts to be louder than the sound. Aleah laughed and Dean hauled her over to her high chair pressed up against the table where they were all eating.

The half angel took her lovers hand and smiled when she coaxed him into his seat beside her, eating up their meals together with a consistent but gentle roar of conversation. When dessert came, Dean was the one to bring it out, placing it on the center of the table as he lit the tiny wax number in the center, picking Mari up so she could lean over to blow out the candle. While she couldn’t do it alone, the attention she was receiving and the added excitement of the group of people surrounding her, she seemed overly joyed none the less, pursing her lips to mimic Aleah and making the attempt with her face scrunched up.

Dean leaned over her and blew out the candle himself but when the flame flickered, the first to start clapping was Mari. “Da!” She squawked, pointing to the table as she sat in her father’s lap, the bottle she was holding slipping from her fingers but Dean had amazing instincts and reflexes, catching it as soon as she let it go to lean forward on the table. “Daa!!” She yelled again until Dean tugged on her to keep her from climbing up onto the dining room table.

“That’s for you, baby.” Aleah cooed, petting her daughters back and smiling at Dean as she continued, “Daddy picked it out.” She told her and no sooner had the words slipped from her mouth that the little girl turned around and poked her father’s cheek. “Yea Daddy.” She confirmed and Mari’s face crinkled in a grin once more, falling forward into his chest and he chuckled, mentioning how he would take that as her thanking him.

 

No sooner than Mari getting her first taste of the sweet strawberry syrup of the pie it was all over her face, hands, arms and even up into her down soft hair. Her little yellow jumper was splattered with red sticky mess and bits of flaky crust. 

The grownups enjoyed themselves every bit as much as Mari, talking and laughing and taking turns swabbing pie filling off Mari's face though it was basically an exercise in futility. Aleah took her daughter over to the sink to get her a little more cleaned up while the guys got all of her presents ready to be opened.

Mostly the little girl sat and played with the tissue paper from a few of her gift bags, but she still seemed delighted to have everyone lavishing her with attention even if she didn't exactly grasp the concept of all of them giving her presents yet. Stuffed animals, new clothes, and a few other toys added up to a decent sized haul, Dean's boss at the garage had even sent him home with a bright pink toy car that played music when big buttons on it side were pressed.

They got to the end of all the gifts, Mari happily babbling in the center of all of them and Dean cleared his throat, turning on the couch to face his girlfriend.

"There's one more gift that needs to be opened." He commented digging in his jeans pocket and extracting a small black box. The hunter glanced around at his family surrounding them and then looked back at Aleah, shifting off the couch onto one knee on the floor beside her. "This is for Mari too, I figure... She might like it if her mom and dad made things... Official." He stammered, feeling uncomfortable with everyone's eyes on him but still he had wanted to do this surrounded by their family.

Dean opened up the box, revealing a sparkling sapphire engagement ring, on which he'd had the word "Princess" engraved into the inside of the band. He couldn't really afford a diamond like the brunette may have wanted, and he doubted she'd support him stealing one, though the thought had crossed his mind. But her favorite pair of earrings were sapphire and the bright blue color had reminded him of how her eyes glowed with her angelic birthright, so it seemed to fit. 

"Aleah... Will you marry me?" He asked quietly, his bright green eyes staring up at her anxiously. Everyone else in the room had fallen silent in anticipation of her answer, even Mari had ceased her happy warbling and was staring up at her parents from the floor, seeming to know that something important was happening.

Aleah smiled as she watched their daughter play with the tissue paper of her presents, every so often she would get up and unsteadily walk to dig through for a new colorful sheet. She plopped down by Sam’s feet and he made the attempt to show her one of her new stuffed animals which she was all too delighted to take from him. The tiny brunette squished the stuffed dog against her chest and continued her playing. The commotion had started to ease to a steady flow of talking and Aleah liked that Dean had made a few friends out of his co-workers, so far no incident had occurred with Mari and having her surrounded by friends and family was nice.

The brunette was more focused on her daughter until Dean mentioned that he had one more gift, as far as she knew that was everything, her brow furrowing in slight confusion. The hunter moved, digging in his pocket and pulled out a small box and her eyes suddenly went wide, staring at him as he got down on one knee and by then the room had fallen silent to the point where Aleah was fairly certain every could hear her racing heart. “Dean.” She muttered, unable to keep her eyes off him when he opened the tiny black box to flash a ring at her.

It was lovely, something she would have picked out for herself, something that matched her favorite accessory she had for years, her sapphire earrings. Her blue eyes to match flickered from his green gaze to the ring and back and she stumbled over her words a bit out of shock. Marriage had never been discussed between though it certainly had crossed her mind many times but she never thought him the man to want anything like that so she feared bringing it up at the thought of facing simple rejection from him in particular. “Are-are you… Really?” She questioned, not sure where it was going but almost as if she thought she was dreaming, waiting for someone to wake her up.

Dean chuckled a bit nervously and his hand reached for hers, keeping her focus and she stared right back into his large apple orbs. Her own eyes filled with tears and she nodded vigorously, leaning forward and kissing him with everything she had, her arms slung around his corded neck until he pulled back to ask if that was a positive response. “Dean of course I’ll marry you.” She whispered, their lips sealing again and cheering erupted around them, making her flush red at the show of affection they had just put on for the others.

She couldn’t help but notice he was shaking slightly when he took her hand again, his voice dropping to make their moment a little more private while he offered to slip the ring on her finger. She held his opposite wrist and gave him a reassuring smile, wondering if he really had thought she might say no… maybe he felt the same way, that because it had never been discussed it wasn’t meant to happen but here they were. He pushed the ring up her slender finger, a perfect fit and the blue complimented her skin nicely, the gem none too big and none too small, just right for her small hands. “I love it. It’s beautiful, Lancelot.” She added when he asked if she thought he did okay with his pick, both of them watching it in the light of the room.

Dean chuckled at her nickname she only gave him for calling her princess and when she tugged at him to sit on the sofa with her, no sooner had he joined her once more that Mari climbed up with them. Her lover reached over and scooped her up so she could stop struggling on the cushion beside them trying to lift herself up. She curiously leaned over her father’s lap, wanting to see what her mother got that she hadn’t. “Come here, bug.” Aleah encouraged, sticking her hands out and pulling her over to sit on her, showing her her hand. “Look what mama got. Pretty huh?” She cooed as her daughter settled with her back against her, fiddling idly with the older brunette’s fingers.

Mari’s tiny digit brushed over the gem and she ‘oooh’ed in the same moment that her mother did. Dean’s arm slipped around her shoulders on the back of the sofa, letting her lean into him and Aleah sighed happily while the party picked up again around them, Castiel being the one volunteered to bring out another round of beers to which the angel awkwardly nodded to. Sam was the first to come over, a huge grin across his face as he congratulated them seeming a bit surprised himself and that meant that Dean hadn’t even spoke to him about the idea. Aleah let him look over the ring and he bent to kiss her head then Mari’s until she stuck her hands out, squeaking at him until he turned back and the half angel handed her daughter over to the other man she adored.

Sam picked her up, gently chiding her for being noisy like she was but he hardly seemed upset by it. The little girl giggled and fiddled with his long hair, not long before she encouraged him into playing her favorite game, ‘airplane’ where Sam flew her around the room. Aleah turned her attention from them to Dean and smiled even brighter, simply gazing at him until he leaned down to kiss her sweetly. She caught his cheek and kept him from pulling back up, deepening their contact in the now much emptier room. She kissed him long and slow, expressing every bit of love she had for him in the simple gesture. “So you did this all for Mari huh?” She teased lightly, “I think she loves it.”

 

Dean cupped his now fiance's face and kissed her lightly. "Well, it is her birthday after all. I wanted to give her something special and I can't think of anything better than her growing up knowing she has a mom and a dad who love each other." He responded, his voice going uncharacteristically solemn. The half-angel's eyes soften, she too knew what it was like not to have that idealistic life of being a child with two parents who were everything to each other.

The pair enjoyed each other for a moment more, till Cas and Garth came back in with the drinks and Sam reported that Mari was starting to yawn herself silly. The little girl had had a lot of excitement this evening and so it was no surprise that she was quickly worn out from all the attention.

Dean took his daughter from his brother's arms and kissed her forehead, her hair still smelled lightly of strawberry syrup and he chuckled. "I think I'll go give Short Stuff a bath and put her down, save one of those for me." He gestured at the bottles Garth was arranging on the coffee table. He held up Mari's arm, telling her to tell everyone thank you for her presents but she just yawned again and flopped herself against his chest, clearly more than ready for bed.

Dean took his baby girl back and bathed her, singing to her softly as he got the last traces of stickiness off her skin then bundled her up in a soft towel. He got her into a fresh set of pjs and put her down in her crib, singing Hey Jude and patting her back until she fell asleep. She had been sleeping well through the night for some time now, but Dean still liked to come and check on her periodically anyway. He loved these quiet moments with his daughter, he hoped he'd get to have many more of them.

Dean went back out to the living room where the guys were congratulating Aleah on the engagement and Garth who was one beer in was already acting like he was nine or ten beers drunk as usual. The lanky hunter was going on about how happy he was for her and Dean and Mari, reaching over to clap Sammy on the shoulder and telling him he was gonna make it his mission to find a nice girl for the younger Winchester to settle down with as well.

Dean smiled when Sammy caught his eye, giving him a pained smile that he knew all too well, his brother didn't exactly want to talk about his lack of a love life, especially with Garth most likely and Dean barged into the conversation trying to distract the lanky hunter from the topic.

"You know Garth, you ought to focus on finding a lady for yourself, I'm sure Mrs. Fitzgerald is out there somewhere." Dean commented as he sat back down next to Aleah and grabbed a beer off the table for himself.

“What’re yah into Sammy? Pretty little blonde number? Maybe a fuller lady?” Garth questioned tossing back his beer. “It’s just… reeeal nice to see Al here whippin’ our little Dean Bean into shape. Bout damn time you boys settled down. So tell me… I got a few ready for pickin’, huh?”

Aleah smiled, arching a brow at Sam when Garth continued on about how his goal in life was to find Sam a nice little lady to settle in with. “Garth, sweetie…” She started, reaching out and patting his hand to bring him from his little ramblings about how amazing he thought it would be for them to have kiddos all around the same time.

Dean came in just in time to rescue Sam from his discomfort, pointing out that Garth didn’t exactly have a lady himself. “’Nd who said that?!” Garth slurred, clinging to his emptied out bottle and focusing on Dean who arched his brow. “Yah can’t tie this down, Dean-o.” he said, gesturing to his being, “Think you’d be shocked at the line o’ ladies waitin’ for a piece of Garth.”

Aleah snickered, shaking her head and taking the bottle from her friends hand, “Okay Sweetie I think you’re done.” She muttered as Garth tipped forward in his seat as though he might fall. “Come on.” She encouraged, offering her hand to him like her overgrown child and he smiled, pointing up to her and waggling his brow as though she was another who had been eyeing him.

“See what I mean. I can’t turn it off, hombre… Ladies. Love. The Garth.” The lanky hunter insisted, whispering over and across Aleah’s lap to address Dean and taking the brunette’s hand. Dean shook his head none too amused with their other friend and Aleah pulled away from her lover to put their friend to bed. He never seemed to know how to hold his alcohol and what he could take… no one was certain if he really was drunk or not but still she treated him as such, patting her Dean’s leg and promising to be right back. “Al you’re like a sister to me.”

“Mhmm.” Aleah hummed her agreement as he climbed up from the sofa to follow, laughing as Garth called back his love for the other two boys. “Mari’s sleeping, hon.” She chided, snaking her arm around him and guiding him to the guest room to tuck him in bed. Garth collapsed on the mattress but he looked like he was about to burst into tears. She wasn’t sure what was better, leaving him to weep on his own and having to listen to it or asking him what was wrong and well… having to listen to it.

Garth took a shaky breath and tears stained his cheeks, “Garth, honey…” She cooed, sitting beside him on the bed, “Why are you crying?” She asked him, putting her arm around him and pulling him to rest against her shoulder and he did.

“I just worry about Sammy. I know it’s stupid but I like y’all to be happy, him included.” Garth cried softly and Aleah tried not to laugh, giving him a sympathetic smile and tucking his head against the crook of her neck, rubbing his back as he spoke. “I’m only lookin’ out for the boys, like Bobby woulda done.”

“They know that… Sammy’s doing just fine. I wouldn’t mind him finding a lady myself but all that’s up to him. You’re doing a really good job, Garth. I think Bobby would be proud of you for taking over for him. It’s a lot of work. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt for you to have an assistant or something… a pretty girl that you deserve just as well… she could help you keep up with the phones and the hunts.” Aleah soothed, arching a brow at him and they had been in there for maybe ten minutes when Dean came looking for them, asking what was taking so long. The brunette glanced at Garth, giving her lover a pointed look that he needed to say something too and it was no surprise when he came in, beer still in hand telling the man to buck up. “Dean.” She muttered and he sighed, catching Garth’s gaze and telling him he worried too much about everyone but they appreciated it even if they never said or showed it.

“You mean that?” Garth questioned and Dean stumbled over his response but answered in the affirmative, cringing when the man requested a hug. Aleah waited and Dean opened his arms, seeming like he might be sick when Garth nearly wiped his nose on his shoulder he pushed him back and requested that he get to have his fiancé back.

Garth grinned and wiped his eyes nodding for her to leave him, claiming he just had too much to drink and Dean seemed irritated but holding up a lot better than be might have a year or so ago. “Good night Garth.” Aleah murmured, pulling away and kissing his cheek sweetly, making him flush and press his hand over the glossy mark she left behind.

 

Dean did his best to rein in his irritation with Garth's drunken antics, he knew his friend meant well and cared about them, he just had a rather... Unique way of expressing it. The hunter took another pull of his beer, backpedaling out of the spare room Garth was staying in as Aleah made her exit as well. She gently shut the door behind her, which almost completely muffled the loud, emotional singing the lanky hunter had busted into.

Dean shook his head, grinning down at the brunette when she rolled her eyes and giggled. She stepped into his space and drew her hands up to rest against his chest, inspecting the ring adorning her finger and Dean let his head tip forward till his brow rested on the crown of her head.

"So, you're sure it's all right? I'll keep saving for a diamond one if that's what you really want." Dean said softly, hoping she hadn't just been hiding her disappointment from the others earlier. Aleah hushed him, craning her head up to meet his gaze and she assured him that the ring was perfect. He smiled, relieved that he'd picked well and simply happy that she'd said yes. Never in a million years had he thought he would end up wanting to get married, but this past year sharing his life with Aleah and Mari made him realize that wanting some permanence wasn't a crime.

The hunter gripped the back of Aleah's neck with his free hand, holding her close and sealing their lips in a tender kiss that quickly boiled over into something more heated. Dean backed the brunette up against the wall and deepened their kiss, covering her body with his larger frame making her mewl into his mouth.

They broke apart to share a ragged breath and Aleah asked him if he thought Sam and Cas were wanting them to come back and Dean shrugged, letting his hand slide down to give her rear a firm squeeze. "Honestly, I don't give a damn if they are or not. I'm more interested in what my fiance wants from me." He murmured, kissing her long and hard.

Aleah hummed into his kiss and when they broke apart again she told him in a feverish tone that she wanted him to take her back to their room and make love to her, and nodded approvingly, giving her ass a little slap as she turned to walk towards their door and he followed close behind. "That's what I was hoping you'd say." He chuckled.

They slipped into their bedroom and Dean set his bottle down on top of his dresser, turning to grip Aleah's waist with both hands and tug her in close. Their mouths met in a heated kiss and she started unbuttoning his red flannel shirt, discarding it and tugging the black undershirt out of his jeans. He hissed through his teeth as her nails skidded up his rib cage, helping her pull his shirt off the rest of the way and then making quick work of her own flimsy mint green tank top.

Dean reached around her back and unhooked her bra while she started working on his belt and jeans, fondling her full breasts and laving his tongue over her rosy peaks, teasing her sensitive nipples to stiff points with his tongue and teeth earning desperate little mewls from his lover. He stepped out of his pants after she shoved them off his hips and reached his hands under her white cotton skirt, firmly stroking her center with two fingers through her panties.

"Already wet for me, huh Princess? Damn I wanna get inside you..." Dean growled against her throat, relishing her whimpers and moans of desire as he pushed her panties aside and dipped his calloused digits into her slick core. He backed her up against the wall, pumping in and out of her and using her slickness to swirl rapidly around her clit. Aleah panted his name, begging for him to take her and emphasizing her point by stroking his thick length through his briefs.

Aleah smirked at Dean slightly, her breathing growing heavy as he continued his attention to her breasts, which her man always seemed rather eager for despite how the swelling had gone down since Mari stopped breast feeding. She pushed his pants down off his hips and he stepped forward out of them, forcing her to move back as well and her hand braced against the wall behind her, gasping as his fingers worked her through her panties.

His strong calloused digits dipped into her core finally and she cried as he alternated between stroking her walls and teasing her swollen clit. Her leg hooked around his waist and he grabbed it instinctively, his mouth painfully close to hers but he refused to kiss her, listening to her beg instead. “Please. Dean please take me. I want you to fuck me so bad.” She panted out, watching his eyes slowly dilate with want and his mouth part in the same fashion hers had been when her hand snaked down to stroke his length through his briefs.

He growled low in his throat when she started working him with her hands, making her grin with satisfaction her eyes glowing faintly blue and making the motion of Dean’s hand slow distractedly. “You know if I wanted I could make you come right now but I’d rather not…” She teased, squeezing him lightly and fondling his sack with her other hand. He breathed harshly and just like she wanted he moved forward, cursing under his breath as he freed himself and they pushed aside just enough clothes to get to each other.

He slammed into her roughly and she cried out brokenly at his sudden presence, her vision blurring around the edges but she loved every bit of it. Aleah might not have been using her abilities to their full power but just enough to get him to stop teasing her and take her like she asked, enough to stir up their drive a bit and enough that Dean was still aware of what was happening. He rolled his hips into her, hooking his hand around her other thigh and lifting her up into his arms easily, supporting her weight with one hand on her rear and the other braced against the wall to keep himself steady as he pushed in and out of her heat.

“Oh god… faster baby.” The half angel encouraged her voice growing higher in octave as her pleasure crested and she clawed at his back and shoulders, her eyes returning to normal, fluttering closed as he increased his pace and slammed into her heat, drawing out her orgasm and taking her harder when her nails bit into his skin and her teeth sunk into his flesh right where his neck met his shoulder, muffling another scream from her as she came around him.

Dean was more than happy to heed his lover's request, increasing his pace and sending her tumbling over the edge of her release. Aleah came hard around him, her walls clenching and fluttering in ecstasy and her fingernails digging into his skin hard enough to leave marks. Her teeth sank into his neck and the added sensation pushed him over the brink after her, his hips bucking up into her as he exploded with a low growl deep inside her. He drew out her orgasm as long as he could, finally slowing and easing from her body with a ragged sigh.

"You okay Princess?" Dean whispered, lowering her gently to the ground and chuckling softly as he swiped his fingers over his shoulder and found a couple spots of blood. Aleah nodded, draping her arms about his neck and leaning heavily into him, her knees still wobbly from her pleasure. "C'mere." He muttered and bent to scoop Aleah off her feet, carrying her into their bathroom. The brunette giggled when he set her down, questioning what he was up to.

"I think I've still got some of that strawberry filling on me from cleaning Mari up. That kid loves her pie, makes me proud." He grinned as he cranked on the faucet for the tub, getting it filling with hot water. He straightened and gathered his lover up in his arms, craning his head down to kiss her jaw, her cheek, and finally her lips. "Join me?" He asked, a sly smile painted over his features. Aleah agreed and he drew her with him to climb into the tub, it was deep but not really built to accommodate two people but neither of them minded being tightly snuggled up together as the water level rose around them.

Aleah sat between his legs with her back against his chest, reclining back and humming as the water covered them both. Dean let his hands glide over her smooth skin above and below the water, running over her full breasts and down her abdomen to stroke her thighs. The brunette's head tipped back to rest on his shoulder and he watched with rapt attention as her eyes slipped closed and her lips parted, her breathing growing shallow as his hands slid up to caress her center. 

He pushed the fingers of his left hand into her core, hooking his fingers and stroking her walls the way she liked while his right fingertips began teasing her still sensitive clit. Aleah panted out his name and her hands lifted up out of the water to play with her chest, moaning at the added sensation. Dean increased his pace with his hands, bringing her closer to her peak. He turned his lips to press against her ear and whispered in a husky voice, "Does that feel good baby? Do you like it when I touch you like this? Tell me." He growled, his own arousal stirring at her fevered response.

Aleah settled in with Dean in their tub, resting her hands along his muscled legs on either side of her. They filled the tub a little more than waist level and she reclined back against his chest for added comfort, stealing his warmth. His hands wandered over her frame, massaging her breasts and working down her abdomen to caress her inner thighs and she sighed with want. His arms looped around her and found his strong fingers found her center, dipping into her core and working her clit with the opposite fingers.

The brunette hummed pleasingly, brushing her hands up her sides and to her breast, tweaking her nipples for added sensation while he worked her to the edge. She started instinctively rolling her hips into his hands as she got closer to that peak, his words in her ear and his breath against her making her shudder. She nodded ever so slightly, “I love it when you touch me Dean… Oh god I love your hands.” She panted out, feeling his arousal forming against her backside. She moved so she was pressed up against him more, feeling him start to grind against her bare skin as he kept up his attentions.

Aleah’s head tipped back and her walls fluttered around his fingers, coming once more around his calloused digits. His hand working her clit swirled faster to heighten her pleasure, slowing with stroking her walls until she slumped and tried to catch her breath. Dean withdrew his fingers from her core, the water quickly washing away her desire but he was hard against her back and she still wanted him, she never had her fill of him. She moved her ass back and slowly ground against him making him groan and grip her hips.

The tub was small so making love wasn’t exactly an easy task but that did nothing to stop them from at least making an attempt. He rose her up in the water and tucked his legs between hers from her coaxing, her hands running along his long limbs and she glanced at him over her shoulder as she shifted and sunk down onto his thick length, burying him to the hilt inside her body with a little smirk playing on her face. Dean gripped her ass and she slid forward a bit, rolling her hips and swiveling back and forth, gasping as he hit her in all the right places in this position. Her hands braced on the bottom of the tub, sliding off him almost completely and falling back onto him, feeling his muscles beneath her clench up as he fought his release the faster she moved.

“Ahh… It’s okay baby, almost there.” She panted through parted lips, crying out as she found her peak once more and ordered him to follow. As if on command he groaned and came deep inside her body, heightening her pleasure. They rode out their shared high and she pulled up off of him, her legs wobbly but with his hands aiding her she managed to stand, grinning as she turned and saw him still openly eyeing her. She flipped on the shower head, waiting for the water to get warm and pulling it from its spot, tracing her soapy frame and lathering up only to rinse it away as Dean stood, watching her raptly with darkened eyes.

Aleah bit her lip and giggled when he asked how the hell she could get him going so easily. “Never said you had to join this one… But I could ask you the same thing.” She purred, slipping the shower head lower and meeting his green gaze as the water hit her center and she let out a hitched breath, knowing full well what her little show was doing to him.

 

Dean reclined back in the tub, watching with growing arousal as his fiance stood up between his legs in the tub and drew the flowing showerhead down between her legs. She began moving the stream of water in slow circles over her entrance, concentrating the pulsing stream on her clit. 

His eyes went dark with desire and as her body began to shake and her breathing to break into desperate moans the hunter gripped his now throbbing shaft, pumping himself vigorously as he took in the sight of Aleah driving herself closer to climax.

The brunette's knees began to shake and she leaned against the shower wall, circling the flowing water over her clit and using her free hand to fondle and tweak her full breasts. Her whimpers raised in volume and pitch till she suddenly stiffened, crying out loudly as she teetered on the edge of her release. 

Dean tensed, feeling his own pleasure rise in the pit of his stomach and he pumped himself furiously, watching her tremble and jolt above him on the brink. "Fuck baby... Come for me..." He growled, knowing that seeing her climax would send him over the edge as well. 

Aleah gasped and as if in response to his words she arched with pleasure, her eyes rolling back in her head and her whole body quaking as she found her peak. Seeing her gorgeous body in the height of her pleasure and the sounds she was making were too much for him and Dean came hard against his toned abs, cursing under his breath as he milked himself dry.

Aleah braced her hand on the shower wall to keep herself steady, the stream of water on her clit and the sight of Dean sitting propped in the tub and stroking himself with darkened eyes as he watched her getting herself off. She cried out harshly and her body shook with spasms of pleasure as she came in response to his orders, her desire seeping out of her and soaking down her thighs only to be washed away by the flow of water from the shower head.

She lowered it from her body and grinned devilishly down to her lover whose lower half was covered in his seed. She panted heavily and replaced the shower head, her legs shaky as she came down slowly from her high and Dean chuckled pleasingly telling her how much he loved watching her gorgeous body. “Mmm… Really?” She hummed inquisitively, kneeling back in the water and tracing her hands over his chest, leaning into him for a sweet kiss when he answered in the affirmative. “Only for you, Sweetie.” She smiled, splashing water lightly over his abdomen and cleaning him off absently.

Aleah had ensured she made plenty of time for her now fiancé and steadily more so the older that Mari got and since she had started sleeping through the night without the aid of Dean singing to her on and off. “Aleah Winchester.” She murmured, watching the corners of her lover’s lips curve up at the reminder. “Sounds really good. Then we’ll all be Winchesters.” Minus Castiel who didn’t really have a last name therefore had been an honorary one for years now. Dean nodded in agreement, kissing along her jaw and her eyes fluttered closed when his hands traced over her hips and held her against him.

“We’re supposed to be cleaning up not making more of a mess of ourselves.” She chided, hearing his throating chuckle that he preferred this anyhow but she halted him, sitting over his lap and starting to clean him up. They took turns lathering the other up, tiredly kissing and touching until their skin was pruned and they were forced to rinse off their frames and get out of the steam filled bathroom. Dean scooped Aleah up and carried her wrapped in one of his flannel and her panties the rest of the way to their mattress, slipping in bed beside her and saying their good nights.

It was no shocker that with the night they had Sam had been the one to get Mari out of her crib and he was at their door, knocking lightly and it woke Aleah but didn’t stir her sleeping companion who was resting with an arm hanging over the side of the bed. Sam waved a little sheepishly, muttering an apology but claiming she was jumping in her crib already wanting to be let out and had been apparently very adamant about waking her parents. The brunette shook her head, “It’s fine. Thanks Sammy.” She whispered and the man nudged his niece inside the door who wobbled and clutched the end of the bed.

Aleah moved from Dean’s side and reached over to help her daughter up onto the bed. Mari crawled the rest of the way to her father and covered her mouth to stifle a giggle when seeing him. The older of the two brunettes pressed a finger to her lips and patted Dean’s chest to which Mari took as a cue to climb up onto him. She sat on his tummy and his eyes fluttered, making her squeal with delight and startle him but still he chuckled, tiredly offering them both a good morning. “I think Uncle Sammy needed a little break.” She giggled, laying back down against her pillow and watching as the man picked up their daughter and lifted her above his face, every so often lowering her down and offering his puckered lips to which she sloppily kissed and giggled.

Dean started putting in more hours at the garage, becoming one of the main mechanics and much to his surprise he welcomed the added responsibility. It had been almost six months since the last time he had gone out with his little brother on a hunting gig, but every time a job had come up it had been something Sammy could handle alone and the elder Winchester felt less and less regret as time went on. What he really wanted was to be with his girls, watching Mari grow was the most incredible thing he'd ever been a part of.

But as winter began to set in, news of what could only be angel attacks cropped up in Boston, and it was clear it wasn't something Sam would be able to take care of without back up. The short-haired hunter was putting together his duffle bag for the trip, slipping a gleaming angel blade into the top of the pack and zipping it up with a sigh. Part of him was anxious to get going, the more angel freaks he got rid of the safer his family would be, but the other part of him could barely stand the thought of leaving Aleah and Mari out of his sight.

A gentle voice at his back made Dean turn and he forced a bright smile to his face as he saw his fiance holding their daughter who was already reaching for him eagerly. The hunter opened his arms and took Mari from Aleah's grasp, nuzzling his daughter's face and pretending to nibble on her chubby cheek. 

The toddler giggled and squirmed in his arms, saying some variation of 'daddy' over and over and pounding her small fists against his shoulder. "Hey Shorty, what's got you all wound up right before bedtime, hmm?" Dean asked with a little laugh, though it lacked some of his usual mirth since he knew he'd be leaving her at first light.

Aleah came to stand beside him and he adjusted Mari to one side so he could wrap one arm around his lover's shoulders. He could tell his fiance was trying to put a brave face on for both him and their daughter, but she couldn't quite keep the worry out of her voice as she asked him if he was all packed and ready to go.

"Yeah. I'm all set." He responded quietly, tipping his head down to kiss Aleah's brow. "I'll be fine Princess. It's nothing Sammy and I can't handle." He assured her, and she nodded in turn but he could tell she was trying hard not to let any tears spill. She mentioned that they hadn't heard from Castiel in over a week, and she worried that if something did go bad the angel wouldn't be around to help them.

"We've gotten by without help from Cas before, Al. We can't always expect him to be free to play nurse. Besides, if he does crop up, I'd rather have him here, keeping watch over my girls." He replied, tipping her chin up and kissing her tenderly. Mari wiggled against him and he turned his head to face her, kissing her cheek. "Oh sorry Mari, did I leave you out?" He apologized, pecking her face repeatedly till she was laughing hysterically. 

The sound of their daughter's laughter seemed to ease Aleah's heart somewhat, and Dean handed the toddler back over to her so he could go pack up the Impala for the trip tomorrow at dawn. When he came back inside the bunker Aleah was sitting on the floor playing with Mari, surrounded by half a dozen of the little girl's toys which were pretty much always strewn across the bunker now that the girl was mobile.

The hunter came and sat heavily down on the floor by his girls, grabbing a stuffed cat and holding it out to Mari, snatching it out of reach at the last second in a little game of keep away. "Keep trying to contact Cas, will ya? I would feel better about leaving if I knew he was keeping an eye on things." He requested, smiling gratefully with Aleah nodded in agreement.

Aleah took their daughter out to the living room and spread out some of her toys or rather even more of her toys for her to play with. She tried to keep them both distracted as Dean packed up the Impala, a car that the girls had come to love just as well as he did. It didn’t take long for the man to join them once more, sitting heavily besides the pair and playing with a stuffed animal with Mari.

The young girl reached out for it and giggled when he would pull it away, saying his name or what she could of it considering she hadn’t quite started talking yet. She tried to grab his attention and keep it each time he looked to his fiancé as he spoke, requesting of her to keep trying to reach Cas if she could. She nodded, “I will. I’ll let you know if he ever pops in… see if he’ll stay. I’m sure if he knew you were going he would show up.” She mumbled, resting her chin on her knees and tumbling over when Dean tugged at her.

She unfolded around herself and laid her head over him, leaning into his side and watching their daughter happily play. She knew that the girl understood something was happening but she didn’t grasp the concept of what it was just yet. “I’m not worried.” Aleah murmured almost as though she was trying to convince herself of that and Dean ran his hand over her side and stated that he knew she wasn’t though really she was but that wasn’t her only reason for the way she was acting.

They spent the evening together until it was Mari’s bedtime and she had fallen asleep in Dean’s lap watching a silly movie with him that he didn’t seem to mind at all. He took her to bed insistent about putting her to sleep in his way, tucking her in and singing to her softly while Aleah watched from the door waiting for her turn with him. He took her hand and led her back to their room where she cried against him because she couldn’t be as strong as she thought or knew that she needed to be. He held her, questioning what had her so upset and she confessed that she had forgotten what it was like having to see him off.

Aleah might not like the idea anymore but from time to time she supposed that he was needed elsewhere, being a Winchester meant being flexible, ready for things to change no matter what it was. The next morning when Dean got up she followed him to the shower, for one last moment or two with him, leaning heavily against his solid frame as the stream of water flowed over them and perhaps she was being ridiculous and clingy but the love she felt for the man before her ran deeper than most and she needed him, selfishly she needed him there.

Mari bounced in her father’s grasp, squishing his face with her tiny hands and making him chuckle as she leaned forward to pressed her head to his. She pointed to herself and then to the car and back to her mother babbling in a language that sometimes Aleah swore only Dean knew. The man’s eyes were watery as he shook his head and told her she wasn’t going ‘bye bye’ with him like she usually did. The little girl pouted as she watched Sam hug her mother and then come to pat her back and say his good bye. She didn’t understand why her father seemed so sad and torn, why her mother’s eyes were sparkling like they were but she didn’t like the air about this space not one bit.

Dean offered his cheek and requested a kiss then kissed her in return, keeping up the game until she giggled once more and he had the chance to hand her off to her mother once more. “Bye, Sweetie. We’ll be here when you get home. Be safe.” Aleah requested, brushing his shirt unconsciously fixing him up even though he was only going to get into the car anyways.

Mari waited as he kissed her mother and then pulled away, wailing at him and desperately trying to reach for him. She grabbed the sleeve of his flannel shirt and tugged him, crying herself. “Ple?” She gurgled, her version of ‘please’ asking him to let her come too because car rides were one of her favorite things but he shook his head and kissed her fingers, prying them off his shirt.

Mari kicked in her mother’s arms and tried to pull away but she pinned her to her chest until she turned her head and cried against her shoulder out of anger and hurt. She didn’t know any of what was going on but she did understand that she wasn’t getting to come with her Daddy like she wanted. She hesitantly turned to peak at him as though if she kept up her act he would come back and take her anyways but he didn’t, the car pulled away and Aleah saw Dean struggling to keep his tears in check when she waved them off.

Four days later Sam and Dean were rolling closer and closer to home, beaten black and blue but fairly whole. Sam shifted in his seat when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, digging it up and unlocking the screen. A small grin graced his features and he held it up for Dean to see the picture that Aleah had sent.

The elder Winchester laughed as he saw the photo of his daughter seated in her high chair, completely covered in the spaghetti she was having for lunch. "That's my girl." He said through his chuckling, turning his eyes back to the road. "We should be home in another three, three and a half hours, can you let her know?" He asked his brother, prompting him to text his lover back with an update.

Sam did so and the brothers continued their trip back. It was late, far past his daughter's bedtime when they finally got home. They got back inside and set their bags down, no sooner did they come in than Aleah was rushing up to the entryway from where she had been reading on the couch in the living area. The brunette flew into Dean's arms, greeting him with enthusiastic kisses and it was all the hunter could do to keep up with her.

Sam waited a little awkwardly beside the couple, wanting to get past them but they were blocking the way so he simply waited out their embrace. After a moment Aleah seemed to remember they weren't alone and reluctantly extracted herself from Dean's grasp, turning to greet her adoptive brother and give him a hug in greeting as well.

Sam hugged the brunette back, smiling at her softly and asking her how everything had been while they were away. She reported that both she and Mari were fine, Castiel had popped in a time or two but hadn't been able to stay long. The long-haired hunter wished them both goodnight, proclaiming his need for a shower and his own bed leaving the pair alone for the night.

Dean slipped his hands around his lover's waist, drawing her close again and kissing her slow and deep. "I missed you." He murmured, his hands roaming over her back and a grin painting his features as she shivered at his touch. "Did you miss me?" He asked, kissing her again before she had a chance to respond but he could tell by her body language that she had indeed.

Aleah hugged Sam and he said his good nights rather hurriedly, claiming he was tired and she didn’t much mind being left alone with her lover. Her hands slipped back around his neck as he held her hips and tugged her to him making her giggle lightly. They still lingered in the door way, hardly moving a few inches with each kiss as he murmured he had missed her. She shuddered at the feeling of his hands on her, four days too long in her eyes.

He didn’t let her reply, his lips crashing with hers again, ravishing her mouth with his own and making her go weak in the knees. “So much.” She finally said through her heavy breathing, her eyes watering when his green eyes flickered back opened to look at her, their foreheads drawn together. Dean made mention of his duffle still in his arms and she bit her lip, insistently pushing it off his shoulder. “Yea but… you’re too busy with me.” She whispered, giving him a playful pout and he chuckled, letting the bag fall and inch by inch with each kiss they made it back to the living room.

Aleah guided him to sit on the couch and slid into his lap, straddling his hips and smiling with satisfaction as she felt his growing arousal in his jeans beneath her. She slowly started to roll her hips into his, pulling out of their kiss only inches to watch him as she guided his hands under her shirt to her chest. He muttered that Sam could come back out, asking if she was worried, “Are you trying to get me to stop?” She murmured, feeling his hands cup her breasts as he shook his head gently, “Then shut up.” She laughed, capturing his lips again and they kissed like that for she didn’t know how long until her desire was burning like mad and she had to have him.

She hooked her fingers into his dark v-neck and tugged it over his head, seeing his eyes gleaming in the low light of the room. He pulled off her top then took the glasses from her face, gently setting them aside and his hands slipped around her back to unhook her bra, pulling the garment off her front and his lips found her sensitive flesh, slowly working her up with his tongue and teeth along her skin until she was mewling with want, carding her fingers through his hair and grinding down against him once more. He groaned in the back of his throat and tugged at her sleep shorts.

The half angel pulled back off him, shedding her clothes entirely with a little glance at the hall way, waiting for sounds of the shower, pleased that they had some time at least. She reached out and unfastened his jeans, climbing over him again completely bare and he smiled at the sight of her. “Just gonna look?” She teased, drawing his hands back to her body and pressing up against him, her lips along his jaw and to his ear, taking it between her teeth and giving a gentle tug.

Dean chuckled at her words, his hands sliding up and down his lover's bare skin. He jolted and hissed through his teeth when the brunette nipped his earlobe just a touch too hard, riling him up further just how she knew he liked. His grip on her tightened and he turned his face in to meet her lips with his, kissing her hungrily as she continued to grind down on him.

She reached between their bodies to free his erection from his briefs, rubbing his tip along her slick entrance making both of them moan at the contact. Dean angled his hips and thrust up into her body, sliding easily inside her with how wet she was. Aleah gasped at the sudden incursion and braced her hands on the back of the couch at either side of his broad shoulders. She began to bounce up and down his rigid length, her breathing hitching with every motion and her full chest bobbing in time with her rhythm and drawing his sharp gaze.

Dean devoured her lovely figure with his eyes, using one hand to cup her breast and draw her stiffened nipple to his lips, teasing her flesh with his teeth and tongue while his other hand slipped down to her most sensitive spot. He began circling the pad of his thumb over her clit as she rode him, winding her up and making her forget they were in a very public space, her cries growing loud and ragged.

The hunter could feel his release building and increased his speed with his digit over the bud at the top of her entrance, giving equal attention to both of her full breasts until he could feel her pleasure dripping down his length and soaking his thighs. "Aleah... God you feel so good Princess... Fuck!" He moaned, bucking his hips up to meet her motions and sending them both hurtling over the edge in the same instant. He exploded deep inside her and the brunette rode out her orgasm, her blue eyes glassing over from the intensity of her climax and he had to catch her to keep her from slumping off to one side off his lap.

She settled against his frame, her body damp with sweat and both their chests heaving from exertion. Dean savored being connected with his lover a moment longer, kissing her temple and gently easing her hips up enough to slip from her core. "I think... We made a bit of a mess." He chuckled breathlessly, not caring in the least that he could get his lover so riled up that sometimes the furniture suffered.

Aleah rode her lover hard and fast, slamming down onto his length and crying out harshly with each thrust, forgetting completely about the other’s in their home though Sam was in the other room and Castiel was gone yet again. She wasn’t concerned, not at the moment anyways. Her eyes were blown wide, rolling back as he followed her motions and sent her tumbling over the edge, almost quite literally as her body was sent into spasms of pleasure, feeling him fill her up in the same moment she came hard around him.

She panted heavily as she rode out her pleasure atop him until she was shaking and Dean caught her up, tugging her to his chest to keep her from tipping over. She let him move her, sighing at the loss of him inside her body, refusing to get off of him entirely as she rested her forearms against his chest and leaned into him. She laughed at his comment, closing her eyes and humming in response. Her lover tried to rise her off him but she didn’t budge and he laughed once more, kissing along the side of her face until she tucked her head into the crook of his neck and his arms slipped around her to gently brush over her back.

So she was being a little childish perhaps but she missed him whenever he was gone. “Sorry to keep you.” She giggled as they both did their best to catch their breath. They lay like that for a good chunk of time before Aleah moved, fixing his briefs over his hips and tugging on her panties and his shirt so she was covered for the most part. They fixed up their mess as much as they could and talked idly for a while until the quietest sound came from down the hall, a repeated ‘mama’ steadily getting louder which told her that their little girl was awake. “I think she knows that you’re home.” The brunette smiled, pulling her legs off of her lover so that he could get up and finish dressing.

Dean’s grin broadened when Mari’s words turned into ‘dada’ instead and only confirmed that she sensed his presence. The hunter climbed up and offered his hand to his lover and Aleah followed him back to the nursery that someday likely soon, would need to be changed into a little girl’s room. Mari was clinging to the edge of her crib, binky hanging from her lips and she plucked it out when she saw her mother step through the door, pointing to the entry way and indicating that she wasn’t who she wanted to see as if on request that another join her. Dean poked his head in the doorway and she squeaked, her arms sticking out instantly and the man rushed forward, scooping her up from her bed.

Aleah stepped aside to watch them, “You know she’s not going to want to go to bed after this right?” She laughed and he shrugged saying he didn’t mind one bit. “You say that now but when she’s a grump tomorrow you have only yourself to blame.” She smiled, watching with wonder as Mari lit up and started kissing her father’s face excitedly. The young brunette shifted and pointed towards her little bookshelf in a silent request for him to read to her. Dean arched a brow at Aleah in question and she smiled holding up her index finger, “Just one story and one song. No more than that because she needs her rest too.”

Dean cheered playfully and Mari joined him instantly with a loud giggle as he hauled her to pick out what she wanted him to read. She plucked a ‘Little Critters’ story from the top level and handed it to her father who carried her over to the rocking chair in the corner of the room. Aleah walked over and bent to kiss them each in turn, “Bed after okay?” She prompted her daughter, laughing when both responded a little disappointedly. “I’m going to get ready for bed.”

She left her family to it, getting dressed in her PJs, brushing her teeth and washing her face before coming back in to check on them both. Dean was asleep; book in hand slipping from his fingers with Mari nestled in the crook of his arm, her face squished into his chest gently snoring. She giggled and slipped closer, gently taking the book from his hand and replacing it on the shelf then extracting Mari from her dad’s lap. She stirred with a little tired groan, her hands instinctively wrapping around her mother when she carried her back to her bed, tucking her in with a kiss to her head. Dean still hadn’t moved until Aleah sat down across his lap then his eyes opened at the sudden change of weight.

The hunter grinned and she shook her head, “You know you’re only supposed to put her to sleep, Sweetie.” She chided teasingly, sitting with him again for a while and watching their daughter sleeping soundly. “We haven’t talked about a date you know.” She pointed out, running her ringed hand over the man’s chest and he glanced at it, taking her hand and kissing her fingers mentioning that it was up to her when she wanted to get married.

The brunette bit her lower lip as their fingers threaded together, using her free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Well I was thinking in the summer but that doesn’t leave much time for planning. Or maybe in the fall… when the leaves are changing and we could have the reception outside. I mean if you want like… a real wedding but we don’t have to I’m really just happy marrying you.” She stammered a bit nervously and Dean chuckled, shushing her with a kiss. She smiled, flushing pink, “But you’re wearing a tux without argument.” She said, climbing off of him and tugging his hand to get him to follow her back to their room so they could talk without disturbing their daughter.

"Okay okay, I'll put on the monkey suit. Just for you though." Dean responded once they had slipped out of Mari's room, following Aleah back to their own room. They climbed into bed for the night and Aleah settled against his chest, absently running her nails over his bare chest.

"Honestly I'd be happy going to the courthouse tomorrow. As long as I get to marry you, that's what's important to me. But I can wait if you wanna do... Girly wedding stuff." He said into the dark, squeezing his fiance's shoulders a little tighter and smiling at her light giggle at his words. They chatted a little while longer about everything and nothing until they drifted off to sleep tangled up together.

\--  
The summer came quickly, and Dean found himself standing in the foyer of the courthouse of the town close to the bunker fidgeting with his bow tie. His younger brother Sam wore a trim suit and necktie, but as promised Dean was in a full on tuxedo. Both he and Aleah hadn't seen much purpose in having a church wedding, the brunette joked that it was sort of like getting married in her grandfather's house. 

So they decided to have a civil service in the courthouse just the couple and Sam, then head to a little bar and restaurant for a small reception with a few of Dean's coworkers from the garage and Garth had driven out as well. The lanky hunter offered to watch Mari while they tied the knot, so all Dean had to worry about was getting hitched to his lover and getting across the street for a bit of a shindig.

He was elated and nervous all at once, fidgeting with his tie yet again until Sam finally chided him and told him to stop futzing with it. His brother asked him if he was all right and Dean nodded, though there was a bit of reservation in his clear green eyes.

"I guess I just... I hope Cas makes it. He knew it was today, but I've been praying all day and so far... Bupkis." He responded, holding up his empty hands on either side of him for emphasis.

"I'm sure he's doing everything he can to make it here, Dean. Have a little faith." Sam retorted, smiling crookedly when his brother gave him a sideways glance. 

"All right well I've stalled long enough. Hopefully he'll at least show up sometime tonight." Dean sighed, smoothing out his jacket a final time and clearing his throat. Sam asked him if he was ready and he nodded, opening the door and proceeding into the chamber where the justice of the peace was waiting to perform the ceremony. Aleah was waiting inside, and Dean's eyes went wide as he looked his bride over from head to toe. She hadn't let him see the dress she'd picked out for today, saying some traditions were worth sticking to and in his mind the wait was worth it.

She asked him if they were going to wait any longer for Cas to show up but he didn't really process her question, too caught up in how beautiful she looked and seeing her dressed this way truly cemented what they were about to do. Sam finally answered for him, stating that they should just go ahead with the ceremony and then hope he would show up for the party afterwards. He nudged Dean with his elbow and the short-haired hunter nodded, stammering out an affirmative of their plan.

"You... You look amazing, Princess." Dean murmured, stepping closer and taking his lover's hands in his.

Aleah stood fidgeting with the engagement ring around her slender finger, staring at the doors and waiting for her lover’s entry. They had waited as long as she figured they could for Castiel to come popping in and perhaps he was far too busy though she knew he wanted to be here. The justice of peace that was meant to marry them both gentle touched her arm asking if she was okay and she turned to him, nodding her head slowly, giving him a smile and appreciating that the man had waited for them as long as he had. She turned back at the sound of the doors, her eyes welling when she caught glimpse of Dean at the end of the room coming up beside her with a stunned look on his face making her flush red just as she always did when he looked at her.

“Should we wait a bit longer for Castiel?” She asked him, her hands clasped together as the men approached and Sam answered for him. Dean stammered out a compliment on her appearance, she was dressed in a long timeless gown, an opened lace back that continued along the entirety of the dress, a tiny rhinestone embellishment just beneath her breast. Her hair was tucked into a perfectly messy bun, a few espresso curls escaping and framing her face and instead of a veil she wore the angel wing pins along the top of her bun. Her make-up was light simple grey shadow that brought out the blue hues of her eyes and a deep red lipstick, light glitter highlights along her rosy cheeks that only brightened when she smiled. “Thank you.” She murmured shyly.

She caught the grin on Sam’s face and both men shifted over to take their places in the smaller room. Dean took both of her hands and she gently squeezed his fingers, “I should make you play dress up with me more often.” She giggled through her nose, looking him over fondly once more and then her eyes met his green gaze and her lip quivered with the way he was looking at her, so deeply and full of love from a man who always seemed to think he had nothing to offer her but he had everything more than he could even begin to know. The justice asked if they were ready and both nodded as the man began to speak, giving their short and cliché vows but neither of them minded, it was simply about them becoming a unit, making it official.

“I do.” Aleah promised, grinning so widely she thought her cheeks might pop out of place as they each took their turn push a ring up the other’s finger. She laughed happily, while this might not be the ‘chick’ wedding she would have wanted long ago or the one Dean was thinking she would ask for, it was all she wanted now was to be with him. The man marrying them offered that they seal the deal with a kiss and she eagerly gripped his face in the same moment he reached for her and their lips brushed together, colliding lightly. “I love you.” She whispered to him, brushing her fingers beneath his eye and along his cheek that was still just as scruffy as usual, how she liked it, and clearing the tears that started to slip past his lashes.

The moment lasted little before they were shooed off and ushered to the restaurant the others were meant to meet them at and Aleah laughed as Sam tried to keep up with her excited stride towards the door, holding her train from her dress to keep it clean but she was past caring about those things now, telling him to let it go until Dean scooped her up and made her squeal as he hauled her through the door of the establishment, still dressed rather formally but none of them cared or minded in the least bit. They grinned at their friends when spotting them inside the local joint, sitting down at the tables that had been pushed together to form one rather long one for the reception.

Mari sat in Dean’s lap and it was no surprise that the man has slowly shed layer by layer, in an untied bow tie and his jacket missing entirely, the top couple buttons of his shirt unfastened but she liked it just as well. He raised his beer in simple toast and in the midst of his thanks for the rest of their friends and family’s company, Aleah spotted a familiar face at the entrance of the grill. Her uncle Cas had cleaned himself up, his hair brushed and his tie on straight and the newly wedded woman shot up from her seat and Dean stopped speaking to see where she was headed. She ran in the slippers that Sam had brought along for her so she wouldn’t be stuck in her heels all evening, her hair was down now bouncing with each step and she threw her arms around her uncle who gladly returned her hug. “Come on. You’re just in time to join the fun.” She encouraged taking his arm and leading him back to the spot the others were dining and much to her surprise Dean thanked him for showing up with a wide grin.

The party was small but everyone attending had a blast, most of the other patrons of the little bar and bistro joined in the party and they ended up dancing and letting lose long into the night. Garth's wedding present to the couple had been to refrain from drinking and keep track of Mari for them, leaving a little earlier than the rest to take the toddler home and put her to bed. The newlyweds wished their little girl goodnight and sent her off with the lanky hunter, continuing their celebrating until the early hours of the morning.

When the couple finally had enough of sharing their special day with other people, they left all the final arrangements to Sam to get everything taken care of so they could simply focus on each other and their new status as a married couple. Castiel stopped the couple before they could get into the impala, giving his niece a final hug and telling the couple that he still needed to give them their wedding gift.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about that Cas. We're just glad that you could be here." Dean told his friend, gripping his shoulder warmly and shaking his head when the angel insisted that he understood it was an important human custom for a couple to receive gifts on the day of their union. They relented to his insistence, waiting expectantly for him to present them with some kind of item but instead he stepped forward and placed his fingertips on both their foreheads.

In less than a blink the trio was somewhere entirely different, and while neither Dean nor Aleah knew where they were geographically, they understood the intent behind their friend's gift immediately. They stood in some deep evergreen forest high in the mountains, perhaps somewhere in the rockies but there wasn't a way of knowing unless Cas told them. There was a snug little cabin a few yards away tucked among the trees, and while they couldn't see it they could hear the sound of bubbling water like a river or a brook nearby. 

Aleah took a few steps forward, her mouth agape and her eyes bright with delight, turning and asking her uncle where this was and how he'd arranged it. The angel reported that he and Sam had been working on this remote cabin in the Colorado mountains for days, the younger Winchester focusing on secretly packing away some of their clothes and getting some groceries together and Castiel transporting them here. They had enough supplies for a three day vacation, Sam had figured they wouldn't want to be away from Mari too long but at least it gave them some real alone time.

Dean was blown away by the gift, but his happy thoughts immediately drifted to more serious concerns. "This is great, Cas. It really is. But... Is it... Secure?" He asked slowly, not wanting to put a damper on Aleah's excitement but the fact was that whenever Aleah was outside the bunker, there was that risk of the God Squad bringing their full force down on their heads.

The full angel nodded, telling them that his main task with this gift was spending days setting up powerful wards and sigils all over the wooded area, he told them he felt completely confident that as long as Aleah didn't use the full extent of her powers there was no way they'd be detected. He advised them that as long as they stayed within a hundred yard radius of the cabin, they were protected. 

Dean still felt a twinge of his overprotective nature, but if Cas said they would be safe, he trusted his friend with his life and felt that between the wards the angel had set up and Aleah's own ability to transport them back to the safety of the bunker, it would be alright to stay here awhile. His lover looked at him hopefully, her eyes pleading with him to give this place his approval and he nodded, laughing when she squealed excitedly much the same way he heard Mari did from time to time.

The brunette ran up to throw her arms around Castiel, thanking him effusively and kissing his cheek. The angel smiled, bidding them goodnight and telling them he'd be there to pick them up in three days time, and to call if they needed anything. Dean shook his friend's hand and pulled him in for a short hug, thanking the angel quietly and waving when the man stepped back and winked out of sight.

Dean turned his gaze to his lover and he smiled at her ecstatic expression, Aleah hardly ever got to leave the bunker overnight and while he knew she understood why it had to be that way, he still felt guilty about it. It was going to be really nice for her, getting to be out in the world getting some fresh air and new vantage points. He ambled over to her and took her hand, tugging it up to his lips so he could kiss her knuckles lightly.

"Well, Mrs. Winchester. Shall we?" He said in a cheesy tone, wiggling his eyebrows and pulling her closer to kiss her lips lightly.

Aleah squealed when Dean agreed and gave his nod of approval, throwing her arms around her uncle and thanking him repeatedly. He informed them once more that this vacation wouldn’t be any too long and he would return in a few short days but she hardly cared, all that mattered was she even got time away from the bunker again. She watched her boys embrace with a smile but soon her eagerness took over once more as her lover looked down at her. She squealed again and he chuckled at her excitement but seemed to understand the reasoning.

She tugged him forward a few more inches, biting her lip when he kissed her fingers and she squeezed his hand in response to his words. She laughed and nodded, meeting his lips in a kiss feather soft but just as sweet. She hiked up the skirt of her dress to the best of her abilities, gathering it in her hand and quickly moving to the back side of Dean he shifted to try and look at her but before he could asked she leapt up onto his back, arm looped around his neck and legs loosely pressed on either side of his waist.

He chuckled at the sudden change in weight but easily hooked his hands on her knees to keep her steady. “We shall.” She answered finally, pointing forward, “On ward Mr. Winchester.” The brunette giggled, her child like excitement bubbling over even more so when he took off towards the entrance of the cabin. He paused only to open the door, hauling her through it and when they stepped inside his hold on her let up. She tapped his back and he set her on her feet and her mouth popped open in awe of the place her adoptive brother had picked for them. It wasn’t a five star hotel for sure but… it still was amazing on the inside and out.

There were few rooms, a master suite, a guest room/game room, the expansive living area and a loft poised high along the tall ceiling that she could only guess offered a gorgeous view over the mountain. She threaded her finger with his, dropping hold of her train to walk along the shiny wood floors. She had stayed in places like this before, places her mother’s ‘friends’ paid for but nowadays she had come to appreciate the finer things much more and this place was certainly beyond the Winchester family means, Sam must have hunted long and hard, talked his way into getting a good deal for them somehow. She made a note to thank him a thousand times over later on. 

The half angel walked and Dean followed obediently until she let his hand go once more, tracing her fingers over the plush sofa and cooing at the fire place in the center of the room. “This is amazing.” She murmured to her lover who sounded like he agreed from the other room, hearing him holler in excitement and she turned to look at him as he wiggled a beer at her, telling her the fridge was fully stocked and of course that was where he was concerned, if he would get to drink beer and eat or not. She laughed, shaking her head when he popped it opened with his fingers easily, taking a swig and sighing happily. “You mean no vacation from beer?” She teased.

She continued back towards the master suite and it was decorated only how she would expect, woodsey and rustic with a carved bear in the corner of the room. Everything looked old but felt clean and cozy like home already and she hadn’t realized how much she wanted to get away. “Dean! Come here!” She called and the man came round the corner to greet her with… something or other stuffed in his mouth. She rolled her eyes when he mumbled out a question around his snack and she was indicating out the window where she caught sight of the edge of a hottub on the small back patio. He laughed his approval of the tub and asked her if she brought her suit. “Does it matter?” She questioned, leaning up to him and stealing a kiss, tasting some sort of meat on his lips.

“We just had dinner not but an hour ago.” Aleah laughed and he captured her lips again if only to tease and she giggled as she made the attempt to duck away from him. “You’re gross!” She pushed at him and he clutched to his beer, moving with his arm pinned tight around her waist to keep her in place. He moved their frames forward and set his drink along the side table in the room and bent to kiss her ravenously making her forget what she was chiding him for a focus on the response he was evoking from her body.

She hummed, pulling back a few inches to look up at his apple orbs, holding his face in either of her hands to keep him in place near her. “I want to finish the tour first. Plus you don’t want your precious beer getting warm.” She hummed in a sweet voice, leaning up and kissing him with everything she had, ravishing his mouth with her own and hearing him groan in response as he tried to keep up. She pulled away, leaving him there as she left to explore the rest of their small cabin.

Dean released his lover to go look over the entirety of their little escape, hanging back far enough to let her explore unimpeded but still close enough so he could smile and agree with her in an amused fashion when she turned to tell him how much she liked this or that little detail of their borrowed dwelling every few seconds. He hadn't seen her this giddy in a long time, and he knew he owed his brother and friend big time for this gift.

He loved seeing her take such joy out of small things like the softness of towels hanging in their master bathroom or that Sam had remembered to pack her favorite old flannel shirt of Dean's that she liked to sleep in. She saved going up to the loft for last, calling after him to follow her up the ladder and he slowly climbed up being careful not letting his beer spill as he scaled it.

The brunette had gone quiet, standing looking out over the view of the forested mountains just as dawn was starting to break over the peaks in the distance. The sight really was breathtaking, and he knew beyond a doubt that this was the best gift for his wife, a taste of a new horizon, a chance to just be herself somewhere other than the closed in space of the bunker. He set his bottle down on the railing of the loft looking over the rest of the cabin, ambling over to her and slipping his hands around her waist, pulling her back to lean against his frame.

His lips found her neck and he gently swayed her back and forth as he held her, not missing the way she was trying not to cry but he wanted her to just relax and let her feelings out. "It's okay..." He soothed, kissing up her soft flesh and nuzzling his face against her ear. "I love you Princess. Your family loves you." He said in a deep whisper. Aleah nodded, telling him her tears weren't out of sorrow, but joy. She felt like this was all so much more than she ever could have imagined and he could tell she felt a little guilty so he cut her off from speaking further, grabbing her chin and twisting her head back to kiss her.

"You deserve all the happiness in the world Al. I'm just glad I'm the lucky son of a bitch who gets to share my life with you." He murmured once they broke apart, smiling at her warmly.

Aleah climbed up the ladder that lead up to the loft, still in her wedding dress but hardly caring she was too far gone in happiness to really think about changing right now. She requested her lover follow and he did, feeling him come up behind her where she stood stunned by the view that they had of the outdoors. The sun was setting and it caused a orange and pink glow outside the large windows and expanding over the horizon.

She leaned into his hold on her, her eyes watering and she bit her lip to keep it from trembling as he kissed along her throat, craning her head ever so slightly to grant him access. He murmured quiet comforting words to her and she nodded in acceptance but that wasn’t what had her upset. “I’m not… sad I… This is just a lot. It’s so much to have done for me… for us after all that I put you guys through it feels like I shouldn’t ask for any of it. I’m not supposed to want this.” She whispered, reaching up and wiping beneath her eye, blinking to clear her tears.

Dean took her chin in his fingers and tugged her to turn her head and his lips pressed to hers, silencing her from continuing. She opened her eyes when he pulled away just a little giving her a smile and tucking her hair away from her face as she looked at him. He assured her she deserved every bit of it, confessed his thanks for having her and being a part of her life like this. “I’m glad too. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” She stated, kissing him again before turning back around to watch the sun starting to set along side them.

She sighed and let him simply hold her for a bit in silence until she broke it again, idly running her fingers over his forearm around her. “Selfishly… I want a place like this. Some place to go to where it’s opened and safe for Mari. I’m not worried about me anymore… I want her to have it all, Dean. Whatever we can give her.” The brunette muttered and he stated his agreement but didn’t much like her saying she wasn’t worried about herself anymore because he sure as hell was. She smiled at his sweet words, turning in his arms. “I think you worry enough for the both of us.” She stated.

Dean was only half dressed in his tux really by this point but it didn’t matter to her, he looked good none the less. She leaned up on her toes to kiss him, her arms snaking back around his neck and pressing herself up against him. “We should spend the evening up here. I like the view. I can make snacks and you can get the fire going. Start up here watching movies and making out a little hmm?” She purred, “Work our way down to the master suite… Then I can give you your wedding gift.” The woman teased, tugging at his lower lip with her teeth.

Dean grinned mischievously at her suggestion, following her downstairs to get a few of the ready split logs from the bigger fireplace on the main level to bring up to the small hearth up stairs. "I thought getting you as my wife was my wedding gift!" The hunter called down to his wife as he knelt and got the fire going with a bit of kindling from a basket by the fireplace. He chuckled when Aleah yelled back up at him from the small kitchen area that she was definitely a component of his wedding gift and that told him everything he needed and wanted to know about what sort of 'present' she had in mind for him.

"Sounds like my kind of gift!" He hollered back, getting the logs stacked neatly over the small flame he'd started, arranging them so the fire would burn for quite a long while unattended since he planned on being fairly distracted for the evening.

After a short while Aleah came back up to the loft with a big wooden tray laid with an assortment of finger foods, crackers, slices of cold cuts and cheese, some fruits and veggies though Dean didn't plan on taking much rabbit food. What he was mainly interested in was the cold six pack in her other hand, and he smiled when the brunette opened a fresh bottle for him and herself before settling down beside him on the veritable nest on the floor. 

There wasn't an actual bed up here but the recessed area filled with blankets and throw pillows was more than comfortable and took advantage of the warmth from the small hearth. It really was a cozy little space, Dean wasn't even sure if he needed the comfort of the master suite when it was so nice up here. He wasn't at all used to such fancy digs.

Dean stretched over for the remote and flicked the tv on with the movie he had already selected, Sam had packed them nine or ten so they'd have options and he was secretly amused that his brother had thought to include three films in particular. Aleah groaned when she realized he had put in Star Wars, but laughed to let him know she wasn't really upset by his choice.

She accused him of not having any sense when it came to the sort of movie that was appropriate for a wedding night, and he scoffed at her, taking a pull from his beer and making a show of how offended he was by her words. 

"What are you crazy? This is perfect. It's got all the required elements- Boy meets Girl, jedis kicking ass, Boy falls in love with Girl, space stations blowing up, Boy finds out Girl is his twin sister, light saber battles, Girl finds a roguish, handsome man to actually fall in love with, ewoks have a party in their tree houses, it's the perfect trilogy for a wedding night." He defended his choice, laughing uproariously and pretending to be hurt when Aleah thumped his chest and ridiculed him for his ridiculous reasoning.

She hit his chest and he snatched her arm, tugging her atop him and silencing her giggly protests with a searing kiss, blindly setting his beer down and running his hand down her back to grip her rear firmly. They broke apart after a moment for breath and he nudged at her nose with his. "Don't you think it's about time I got myself outta this monkey suit and you outta that dress?" He asked, his breathing heavy but his gaze still playful as he ran his hands over her curves. Aleah chided him, telling him she would go down and change into something easier to lounge in but he had to stay up here and she'd bring him some comfier pants, she was apparently determined to have their little movies and making out session but her obstinance only made him more determined to crumble her resolve.

"All right, all right. But don't take too long, you're missing the movie!" He called after her as she retreated down the ladder, laughing again at her exasperated sigh.

Dean went on a rant about one of his very few favorite trilogies or movies in general, explaining the story once more though she had seen it a few times thanks to him. She reached over and wacked his chest, “You. Mr. Winchester are ridiculous in your reasoning.” She laughed lightly, rolling her eyes and hitting him once more playfully. She squeaked when he grabbed her arm, yanking her until she fell over him.

“Dean.” She chided, pulling away and fighting his hold though when his lips found hers and his hands slid up her frame her resolve slipped more than a little, holding his face and returning the contact. She could hear the change in his tone as he mentioned them getting out of their attire, poking his chest and pulling up from his frame. “Well I will go and change into something a little more comfy and easy to relax in… Bring you some sweats, hmm?” She hummed.

He was reluctant to let her go off of his lap but she pat his cheek lightly and smiled, leaning forward to give him a kiss. “I’ll be back.” She promised, rising up off of him and he called after her to hurry so that she wouldn’t miss the movie. “Yep ‘cause I’m super concerned about that!” She teased, taking the ladder back down to the main level. She padded back to their room and grinned when she saw her luggage and Dean’s sitting side by side. She unzipped her bag and rifled through it to get her pjs, keeping her fingers crossed that Sam had done his job and packed all she might need.

The brunette laughed when she found all manners of feminine items at the top of her bag, thankful Sam’s thoroughness and she breathed a sigh of relief to know that the one little number she wanted and hoped had been there was folded as neatly as possible in the see through zipper pouch. “Thank you, Sammy.” She muttered to no one under her breath, biting her lower lip and wondering what Dean would think of it. Sam must have known with the price tags still on it that it was something she wanted to bring for a very particular event.

Aleah unzipped her dress with ease and let it pool around her feet, stepping out of it on the floor and getting out of her panties to exchange them for the other lacy white pair along with the bra to match. She glanced at herself in the mirror and could hear Dean calling down to her, saying if she didn’t come up he would come down and grab her ass. “I’m coming, I’m coming! Jeez.” She laughed, fixing the wire beneath her breasts and digging in her bag once more to find some pjs as well as Dean’s flannel she wore almost every night to bed. It was tattered and faded from the love it received.

She dressed and got her lover a pair of sweats from his bag, tossing them over her shoulder and making her way back up to the loft where Dean had already shed his button down, balled up on the floor with his socks and an empty beer beside it. She shook her head, “At least lay it out.” She berated him and he glanced at her, shrugging his shoulders, brushing the fabric out in a lazy attempt at making it better. She chucked the clothes she brought him at his face and he yelled for her almost making him spill his beer. He pulled the pants from his face and unzipped the slacks he was wearing, pulling them off and keeping his attention on the movie while she climbed down beside him in the mess of blankets and cushions.

Dean redressed in the sweats and put his arm around her shoulders to which she fell against him, wrappinng her arms around his middle and giving him a gentle hug. Her hand slipped up and touched his scruffy cheek, tugging him down to meet her lips, kissing him slow at first but it took little for it to deepen and his mouth ravished her own, his tongue slipping into her mouth and brushing along hers making her moan lightly. He kept up the attention much longer than she thought he might his hands slipping down her frame and she gripped his wrist, stopping him from reaching around to grab her ass. “Uh-uh.” She rejected him with a little laugh and he pouted at her.

Her arms slipped around his neck and again they started kissing and again his hands roamed her body this time up to her chest and she arched into his hand forgetting for a moment what she had agreed to. He rotated their bodies to settle over her in the pile of cushions beneath their frames, his fingers starting to work open the buttons of his shirt she wore as his lips and teeth grazed over her neck. She gripped the fabric of the shirt she wore and his brow arched at the new textured fabric he caught glimpse of when he raised his head. “Aren’t we supposed to be watching, Star Trek.” She teased knowing that wasn’t the right title and he winced muttering his offense absently as his hand tried to pull hers away.

Dean hooked his finger into the edge of her shirt and tried to glance down her cleavage to see what she was hiding from him. “Stop!” She giggled and he asked what she meant, making he squeal and arch when he started to tickle at her sides. “Dean!!” She laughed, fighting him, “You’re cheating!”

 

"It's not cheating, it's just taking strategic advantage of the fact that you're ticklish and I'm not." Dean quipped, not letting up with his light skittering touches over her middle and sides making his lover writhe and laugh helplessly beneath him. She squealed out another protest and finally he let up, rolling back to his side and sighing in an exaggerated tone, settling with his head propped on his hand and looking Aleah over from head to foot intently.

"All right, all right, keep your secrets Princess. But you can't really expect me to behave when you're so damn sexy." He relented, grabbing his beer and taking another swig, smiling at how good it felt to be away like this with her, not having to worry about any interruptions. There was still that tiny bit of an edge in the back of his mind, the sense of watchfulness that never fully receded no matter how much his safety was assured. He had lived too hard too long to ever let his guard down entirely, but this was about as close as he ever got and he savored it. Knowing Mari was safe at home in the bunker with Sammy and Cas helped his state of mind as well.

Aleah scooted closer to him and nuzzled her nose with his, kissing his lips sweetly and telling him he was making it difficult for her to be good as well with his own sexiness, trailing one long nail down his bare chest and catching on the hem of his soft dark pajama pants. 

Dean growled and rolled to cover her body with his again, pinning her hand beside her head and kissing her deeply. "Now who's the one cheating?" He hummed as his lips trailed down her throat, nipping at the point where her neck and shoulder met, catching a hint of white lace beneath his old flannel shirt and getting hard as his imagination took that small bit of information and ran with it.

"I don't see why I can't just have my gift now..." Dean prompted, his hand slipping down Aleah's curves and down to grip her hip, holding her in place so he could grind his growing arousal against her center. "Please? I promise to act surprised later in the bedroom." He prompted again, canting his hips to hers and letting her know just how turned on her little teasing game was making him. The brunette moaned softly, her bright blue eyes darkening with want and he could tell she was teetering right on the edge of giving in but he wasn't sure if she'd relent or not and that was part of the fun of the game.

Aleah laughed when Dean flipped her to the ground and pinned her body beneath his own again just like moments ago. He kissed her deeply and questioned her tactics as he continued his attention along her body. His strong hand slipped over her body to her hip, holding her in place as he started to grind down against her making her moan lightly at the tiny brush of their clothed bodies. She could feel his growing excitement through the layers of fabric, his sweats doing little to hide how he wanted her.

She bit her lower lip in thought though with him atop her it was difficult managing to focus on her response let alone putting up a fight. “You promise?” She repeated and he nodded down to her. “I don’t know… I think I should make you work for it.” She teased him further, mewling as his lips trailed along her throat and his teeth grazed across her cleavage as he pleaded once more for a preshow. She shifted and let him kiss her like he wanted, humming in response. “What happens if you don’t like it?” She inquired and he laughed as if that was the most ridiculous thing that he had ever heard before.

His head raised and he threatened to tear opened her favorite flannel shirt of all buttons and when his fingers gripped the fabric, for a moment she believed that he might. She gripped his wrist and pouted up at his sweet face, letting his hand move and she took it’s spot, unfastening the top of her borrowed shirt and working to the one just above her belly button before her husband took over eagerly undressing her and pushing opened the top with a little growl of approval. “White… seemed fitting…” She gasped as his mouth trailed along her body and he gripped her hips requesting to continue with only but a few words.

Aleah lifted her hips as his fingers hooked into her pj bottoms, pulling them down off her body and exposing more of her creamy skin to his lips. She lay there with one hand sprawled above her head and the other tossed over her abdomen, watching the man devour her with his eyes. “So much for that.” She laughed, hooking her finger to coax him to her and their lips met in a languid kiss leaving them both breathless. He growled as she pulled away once more, “Do you like it?” She purred, her nails scratching over his sides and down his abdomen to the bulge in his sweats. He asked if she had her confirmation and she laughed, giving a little nod, starting to stroke him fully hard, leaning up to take his ear in her teeth, worrying it lightly.

Dean hissed through his teeth as Aleah nibbled at his ear lobe, slipping his hand up and down her curves that he loved and knew so well. His fingertips toyed at the edge of her panties and he grinned when she arched up into his light touch, a little mewl of want escaping her. Her hand wrapped around his length was driving him crazy and it only seemed fair he should reciprocate, slipping his hand beneath the lacy white fabric and stroking her wet center with his calloused digits.

Aleah's breathing hitched and her motions increased to match her rising desire, making Dean growl and instinctively thrust into her hand as she worked him. They slowly worked each other up until he was throbbing for her and she was quivering beneath him, gasping desperately as she neared her release. Dean liked the feeling of her touching him but he wanted more, so he withdrew his fingers from her and snatched her hand away from his length, kissing away her moan of protest when her momentum was interrupted.

"Come here beautiful." He prompted in a husky whisper, gripping her sides and guiding her to roll above him. She straddled his hips and idly rocked against his erection, making him growl and respond in kind. His large hands swept up over her body to fondle her full breasts, and as pretty as her little number was what he liked best was having his lover bare before him.

"Let me see you..." He breathed, smirking with satisfaction as Aleah reached behind her back to unclasp her bra and let it fall off her arms. Dean slid his hands over the swell of her chest and used his thumbs and index fingers to pinch and tug her sensitive peaks, winning louder moans from her that only made him burn for her more. She leaned forward into his touch and he tweaked her harder, making her jolt and cry out desperately.

The brunette held herself just off his lap, giving her enough room to free his weeping length from his pajama pants and briefs, giving him a few strokes before tugging her own soaked panties aside and sinking down onto him. "Ah, fuck baby..." Dean growled, bucking his hips up into her almost immediately, his control slipping with how riled he already was.

Aleah bowed backwards and braced her hands on his thighs, causing his hands to slip from her chest down her stomach and Dean knew he was dangerously close to the edge so he began swirling his fingers around her clit, playing her body like a well loved instrument and making it sing with passion. She bounced up and down his hard shaft, his name falling from her lips louder and louder as she got closer to the edge. Suddenly she stiffened and her inner walls clenched around him in spasms of pleasure, Dean sped his pace and held out as long as he could, wanting to make her climax last. 

Finally he couldn't hold back any longer and cursed under his breath as he came deep inside her, gripping her hip tight enough to bruise to hold her in place as he rode out his release. The brunette shuddered and went boneless atop him, leaning forward to let him gather her against his chest in his strong arms.

"Yeeup. Good wedding gift. I'm sure I'll love it when I see it." Dean chuckled airily, placing a light kiss on his wife's head.

Aleah’s motions slowed above her husband, his fingers on her clit stopping when she shifted forward over him. He instantly put his arms around her and supported her light weight atop his frame. Her breathing slowly eased and she sighed happily at his kiss, her cheek pressed to his bare chest. She giggled at his comment and shifted atop him, resting her chin in the center of his chest to look at him entirely. “I’ll be sure you get a good look.” She murmured, craning her head down and biting playfully at his chest.

He growled at her and she giggled, biting him again then kissing along both spots. “Hey.” She gasped in realization, “First time as a married couple.” She grinned at him, rising up again with her hands braced on his broad shoulders. She raked her nails over his skin, sitting up on his stomach and arching a brow at him, waiting a response. He nodded like it was nothing, “Lots of first to come.”

Dean nodded and she pushed down his frame, her center brushing over his growing arrousal and she purred at the sensation, grinding against him through the thin layer of fabric. “Do I get a wedding gift request?” She inquired, grabbing his hands that reached out for her and pinning them down at his sides. He nodded and promised to give whatever she wanted. “I was thinking you take me in every room in this place and maybe we could get a little adventurous? Make our way outside?” She hummed and he agreed rather quickly.

Aleah grinned as he tugged out of her hold and sat up, making her slip back a little but he wrapped his arms around her, one hand snaking down to her rear. She touched his cheek using little of her mojo to rile him and he growled harshly in his throat, cursing and claiming her abilities to get him going weren’t fair. “Perhaps.” She murmured into his ear, baring down against him once more, “But I kind of enjoy fixing it and the way you take me when I get you riled up like this.” She continued, feeling his fingers curl into her sides and he tried to halt her from grinding against him and she could tell he was close to losing it already again. He begged to have her completely and she pulled back to meet his eyes, the sound of the movie was still going behind her and she giggled at it absently.

The half angel shifted off of him and stood up to slip out of her soaked panties, watching him eye her like he was and his hand slid over his bulge for some relief. She ran her hands over her curves and got on her knees beside him, giving a little wiggle and he groaned, pushing his briefs off completely and taking her cue to come up behind her, his hand sliding over her ass and to her exposed core, his fingers dipping into her body and teasing her, pleased by how wet she was for him. She closed her eyes and listened to him tell her what he was going to do to her, “Yes…” She moaned, arching back into his hand, he swirled his fingertips over her clit and she fell forward on her hands when he pushed at her back to prompt her. His lips trailed over her back and he pushed into her roughly from behind, aligning their hips and slamming up into her instantly.

Dean bowed over his lover's body, instinct taking over as Aleah's angelic influence closed down his higher brain functions and eliminated anything that might distract him from his goal of making her scream his name and take his pleasure in her in turn. His apple green eyes were bright and feral, and his grip on her hips was vice-like as he dragged her backward to meet his thrusting motions, driving himself as deeply into her body as possible. 

Aleah cried out brokenly as he slammed into her, looking back over her shoulder and moaning in time with his aggressive thrusts, her own eyes faintly glowing and Dean groaned low in his throat as the energy level buzzing between them rose another notch. "Fuck... You feel amazing Aleah. I'm gonna make you come so hard Princess..." He growled, angling his hips and driving into her more rapidly, wrapping one hand around her waist and down to the apex of her thighs, adding the sensation of him tweaking and swirling his fingers around her clit to his rough, deep motions inside her.

The brunette's eyes rolled back in her head and something primal in Dean's mind puffed up with triumph, a husky snicker escaping him. "That's right Princess, come for me... Don't stop." He panted, gritting his teeth and holding back his own release until he had carried her through two bone melting orgasms. It wasn't until Aleah's arms were shaking so hard she could hardly stay upright that he finally gave in, driving her over the edge of a third climax and exploding deep inside her with a loud moan.

His furious pace slowed after he spent himself, finally coming to a stop and he slid out of her tight core, smiling down at his lover when she let herself collapse onto her side on the thick blankets and pillows and turned to look back up at him. The ethereal light faded from her blue orbs and Dean chuckled as he felt something almost like a change in the air pressure and suddenly he was able to focus on more than just fucking Aleah's brains out again.

"I still feel a little like a life-size breathing sex toy when you do that." He teased, reclining beside her and leaning in to kiss his wife sweetly. "But I'm totally okay with that." He added, winking and enjoying her laughter at his comment. The pair lay comfortably beside each other for awhile, partly watching the tail end of their movie and partly just basking in what they had and thinking of nothing in particular aside from living in the moment.

But once the movie ended, reality seemed to sneak back in, at least for one of them. Aleah sighed and Dean shifted back from facing the tv to looking at his bride, a curious expression on his features. "What's the matter Al?" The hunter asked softly, running his hand up her bare thigh to rest in the hollow of her side above the curve of her hip.

The brunette smiled somewhat sheepishly, admitting that she missed their little girl and that he'd caught her wondering if she was sleeping all right without them there. Dean smiled warmly at his wife, he couldn't help but be charmed by the strength of Aleah's bond with their little girl.

"I'm sure she's fine Al. This is time for us to relax, get away from it all. You don't have to feel guilty about enjoying yourself." He reminded her gently, scooting closer and gathering her up against him. "I miss her too." He added absently, squeezing her tighter when she sniffled a bit, her emotions getting the better of her composure.

Aleah rested bare beside her lover, both of them completely comfortable with the exposure, it was warm enough in the cabin that they weren’t desperate for cover anyhow. But that didn’t stop her from leaning into Dean as much as she could, especially as she watch the movie and her mind started to wander off from the screen and the here and now. She thought abou their little girl, on her own for the first time… or rather without her mother for the first time. She had been away from Dean before but never her.

Dean caught that she was staring off into space and her lip started to tremble slightly as he asked her what was wrong. “We’ve never both been away from Mari before… I just… I wonder if she’ll sleep okay without us. What if she’s a hassle for Sammy?” She murmured, her voice catching when her lovers hand ran over her side and up a little further. She glanced up and met his gaze, scooting forward to nuzzle into his chest and he assured her that she was probably fine.

The brunette cried into him and he squished her frame to his own, their legs entangling together even more and he feather kisses over the top of her head and side of her face promising that she likely was fine. “I know. I miss her is all.” She confessed, her voice muffled against his bare skin and he told her he did too but assured her they were allowed to have some time together as a couple like this just as well. She nodded and curled into him, seeking comfort and shelter in his strong arms and it felt good to simply have him hold her like this for awhile.

His large hands ran up and down her back in an absent yet comforting gesture and she sniffled, looking up at him as she pulled away and he asked her if she was still wanting to stay, brushing her hair behind her ear. “Of course… I love having my time with you just as well, Sweetie. We’ve only just got here and anyway you still have a few rooms left to give me my wedding present in.” She giggled, her eyes red rimmed but still she smiled and he leaned in to kiss her deeply.

Their movie was completed and yet they remained in place for much longer, kissing and touching and talking quietly. Dean promised that Mari would be okay that they could talk to her in the morning even if she couldn’t exactly respond at least she could murmur random things to them. She laughed and nodded, her head falling against his chest again.

She wasn’t sure at what point it happened but she must have dozed off some point after they had their fill with each other, her husband’s borrowed flannel was wrapped around her shoulders and she was still pressed into his broad chest, her hand running over his abdomen as she blinked awake not knowing what time it was but based on the rising sun outside the large windowed wall it was still rather early. She stretched and her tiny groan roused her lover beside her making him sigh and his eyes opened in turn, glancing down at her and seeming like he didn’t even realize they were still lying up in the loft with him cradling her. He shifted and rubbed his eyes tiredly, giving her a smile and greeting her in a voice rough from sleep.

“Morning.” Aleah returned, yawning and hitting him gently when he laughed and offered her going back to sleep. “I’m hungry though.” She pouted and he chuckled again, leaning down to kiss her sweetly, tugging her tighter against his large frame. “Come with me to see what Sammy got us for breakfast?” She requested as he absently started kissing along her face and neck. He groaned exasperatedly, pulling away from her but caved at the look on her face making her laugh. “Put some clothes on, Big Guy.” She instructed, shifting and putting her arms through the sleeves of her shirt, reaching to hunt for her panties and pulling them up with a wiggle of her hips.

The half angel yawned again, her hair mused with sleep but she stood, smiling as she felt Dean’s eyes on her rear when she headed towards the ladder. “Clean up your mess.” She teased, pointing to the beer bottles and he whined about not liking the wife deal anymore. “Love you!” She called, climbing down the ladder and heading into the kitchen and soon he followed after her.

It wasn’t long before her lover managed into the kitchen and he had the few empty beers in hand, putting them in the trash and coming over to kiss her again, turning her around to face him and distracting her from looking through the fridge. “We’re supposed to be making breakfast…” She moaned against his lips, her arms wrapping around his neck and forgetting almost entirely what she was meant to be doing. He grinned and pulled away, staring at her until she asked what he was looking at her for. He mentioned that he loved her and she grinned, “I know.” She winked making his eyes widen at her reference seeing that she had in fact paid attention to the film he loved so much.

Dean's eyes widened at Aleah's little Star Wars reference. He laughed and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Hey now, if anybody here gets to be Han Solo, that's me. I already have a Princess and everything." He insisted, catching the half-angel's wrist when she tried to step away from him and open the fridge again.

The brunette whined at him, saying she wanted to see what there was for breakfast and he drew her back to lean against the counter. "But I already know what I want to eat." He murmured, his apple eyes darkening with want as he pressed into her, kissing a heated trail from her lips down her jaw to her throat, tracing his finger down her partially buttoned shirt and following with his mouth between her breasts.

Aleah hummed as he ventured further, kissing over her covered abdomen as he knelt down before her, his hands roaming over her hips and thighs to encourage her not to move. He mouthed at her center through her panties, nudging her legs further apart and grinning against her when he heard her whimper his name entreatingly.

The hunter looked back up Aleah's body, prodding at her entrance with his tongue through the thin fabric of her lacy white panties enjoying the view of her getting riled up from his ministrations. Her chest was heaving rapidly and she was biting her full lower lip, all signs that she didn't mind his choice in his first meal of the day in the least.

He tugged her panties down and lapped eagerly at her center, groaning at her taste as her desire soaked his lips and chin. Aleah's hand twisted into his hair and tugged him harder against him, encouraging him to delve his tongue into her and he did, eating her out and making her shudder and mewl with want. He increased his pace and smirked when her free hand gripped onto the edge of the counter, knowing he was pleasing her from the sounds she made and the tight grip she had on the counter and his hair for that matter but he didn't mind the slight pull. As long as she was enjoying herself he was getting what he wanted.

The hunter replaced his tongue with two calloused fingers pumping in and out of her, focusing on using his tongue and lips to stimulate her swollen clit and growling a bit in his throat when she cried out and her hips bucked against his face. He used one arm to brace her against the counter, swirling his tongue rapidly over her little bud and crooking his fingers to hit her in just the right spots. 

His own arousal was straining against his pajama pants but right now he was focused on making his lover come undone, devouring her and watching her face above him as she fell over the edge with a desperate cry. Her whole body began to shake and he didn't let up, pumping his fingers faster as her walls clenched around them in ecstasy, making her orgasm last for over a full minute before finally easing off his pace and letting her come down from her peak.

Aleah panted raggedly, her knees wobbling in the wake of her pleasure and Dean stood up, keeping her upright with his own frame. He wiped off his chin and leaned in to kiss her, letting her taste herself on him and grinding his throbbing length against her still soaked center. The half-angel clung to him, whispering that she had decided what she wanted to eat as well and the little smirk on her full lips made him growl with anticipation of what she might do.

Aleah gripped tight to her lover’s hair and the counter she was propped back against, her hips bucking into his face until he pinned her back with his free hand. She gasped and cried out his name as his fingers stroked her faster and faster pushing her over the edge and she trembled above him. He eased off her center and straightened back out, wiping his mouth and leaning in to kiss her. She groaned at the taste of herself on his lips and he ground his arousal against her front.

“I think I know what I’m hungry for too.” She purred, gripping him tight only to step forward and force his back against the wall. She bit at his lower lip, tugging it between her teeth and earning a growl from deep in his chest. The brunette kissed down his hard frame, letting her body brush over his as she slid down to the floor, dropping to her knees in front of him. She scraped her long nails over his abdomen her hands working down to the hem of his pants and she licked up the fabric concealing him from her. Her fingers hooked into his pants and she worked them off of his hips, revealing him completely and grinning with satisfaction as she saw how hard he was for her.

She licked up the base of his shaft to his tip, lapping up the precum seeping from his slit and he eyed her the entire time. She took him in her mouth, using her hand to make up for the difference and hearing him groan as she sucked him off, her togue pressed flat against his length. He throbbed in her mouth and she bobbed along him quickening her pace until the fingers of his hand on her head curled into her hair, his thighs flexing and he warned of his release. She dug her nails into his muscled legs and the bite of pain added to his pleasure and he came against the back of her throat.

She eased her pace around him and pulled off him with a wet popping sound, swallowing down his seed and humming at his taste against her tongue. Aleah brushed her index finger over her bottom lip, clearing what slipped from her lips as she got back to her feet a little smirk playing on her face until he grabbed her and tugged her to him, ravishing her mouth with his own as she made the attempt to fix his clothes on his waist once more. She melted into his larger frame, wrapping her arms around his neck and he lifted her back up onto the counter, swearing that after they had coffee and food in their systems he was going to make her scream again. “Mmm… I like the sound of that.” She hummed, letting go with one final kiss so he could dig through the fridge telling her to stay put.

“But—“ She started to argue and he shot her a glance saying he could tie her up if he had to. “That a promise?” She giggled and he shook his head, pulling out eggs and cringing at the turkey bacon Sam likely bought because it was what Aleah liked. “Aww are you making me breakfast?” She cooed, swinging her legs off the edge of the counter and happily watching him pull out ingredients for omelettes. He laughed in an exaggerated fashion when she teased about him knowing how to turn a stove on and she smiled sweetly at him, stretching her leg out to nudge him in the rear while he got everything together.

He made her breakfast for them both, surprisingly eating a piece or two of the ‘fake bacon’ without her telling him to try it. She gladly ate up her meal, pleased by his efforts when he made mention of calling home to Sammy if she wanted to. Aleah nodded, her legs thrown over his lap where they sat along the bench seat in the breakfast nook attached to the kitchen, staring out the opened window. “We could call and check in then maybe go for a walk before lunch. It’s really nice outside… especially knowing I can actually go outside.” She mumbled, feeling a little guilty at the change in Dean’s expression she knew he felt bad that things had to be like they were for her. She bit her lip and apologized quietly, “Well I mean I can go outside but we both know how I was on the few hunts I have gone on… I still don’t have the greatest control.”

Dean smiled softly at his wife, cupping her face and running his thumb over her cheek. "It's hard for anybody to suppress their nature, and your angel mojo is in your nature Al. Don't ever feel bad for being who you are. Someday I'm gonna make the world safe for you, and for Mari. I promise." He stared her straight in the eye, knowing it was a promise he had no way of guaranteeing but his sincere desire to see it done was evident in his tone and expression.

Aleah's blue eyes watered and she smiled back at him, nodding and responding in a shaky voice that she believed if anyone could make that happen it would be him.

He drew her forward and kissed her gently, swallowing hard on his own sudden emotion and taking a few breaths to center himself before pulling up his laptop to get it ready to video call his brother at the bunker while Aleah texted him to ask if Mari was down for her mid-morning nap or if they could get a quick chat in first.

Sam responded that he was just finishing feeding the little girl breakfast so they could chat, and Aleah eagerly turned the laptop towards her so she could dial them up. The video call she made was answered promptly and Dean and Aleah leaned forward so they could both be in the frame, their faces brightening when the screen displayed Sam seated at one of the long tables in the library with a happy Mari bouncing in his lap.

Sam adjusted the screen and hunched over so he could be in the screen with his small companion, pointing at the monitor to get her attention trained on the image of her parents hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The little girl's eyes widened and a high pitched peal of laughter burst from her, her small fists opening and closing eagerly as she stretched forward trying to grab at the picture she recognized as her mother and father.

Sam bounced her gently, cooing at her and praising her when she excitedly identified them, babbling and thumping the table with her small hands.

Dean smiled brightly at his little girl waving and squeezing Aleah's shoulders as she leaned forward to say hello to Mari. "Hey short stuff! How's my girl?" He asked, laughing happily when hearing his voice made Mari squeal and warble with delight.

Aleah sat nearly in Dean’s lap, leaning close to him so they both fit in frame of the camera on his laptop. She gripped his leg as she saw their daughter pop up on screen, waving her free hand to get the little one’s attention. Mari was trying to press the buttons on the keyboard of Sam’s laptop until he prompted her to look up at the screen and she screamed at the sight as she recognized her parents.

The older brunette laughed at her realization, leaning forward to coo at her in closer range. “Hi, Bug.” She greeted but the girl was far more interested in her father. She moved to the side for him to speak to her, smiling widely as she watched with delight as the girl pawed at the computer screen until Sam softly muttered his denial, saying they would be home soon.

Mari rambled incoherently to Sam sounding like a question but he took a guess at what she was asking, if that was her mom and dad or perhaps where they were and how come she couldn’t reach them like she wanted. He chuckled and lightly stated they were gone for awhile and she pointed to herself as if in question where she was and he laughed again telling her that she stayed to spend time with him. “Oh.” She muttered in understanding, turning and giggling when she heard her father’s voice again.

“How’re you holding up on your own Sam? Has she been good for you? Did she sleep okay? Has she cried at all?” Aleah rattled off questions and the man shook his head in the same moment that Dean tugged her hand and gave it a little squeeze to make her stop. She flushed pink realizing she sounded like an overly worried mother but they seemed to understand that she hadn’t been away from her little girl before. Sam promised that she had been totally fine, he read to her and she went right to sleep without question. “Good.”

Mari leaned back against her uncle’s chest, raising up her stuffed puppy that the man had gotten her and prompting her dad to make the barking sounds for it like he normally did. Dean complied without question, chuckling when she seemed pleased. “What are you guys planning for the day?” She asked, listening to Sam’s thoughts on a little movie date and perhaps a drive to the store with him because she seemed to love the car no matter what car it was, though the Impala was her favorite. Aleah smiled and Mari kicked for him to let her down, saying bye to her parents and climbing off the chair to chase after Manny who Castiel had more or less adopted.

Dean called to her quickly and she turned to look over her shoulder at the screen again and he requested a kiss. Her face wrinkled as she smiled, kissing her hand and pretending to blow it to him the way Aleah had taught her to do. “Be good!” Aleah called, blowing her own kiss to her daughter and they said their goodbyes to Sam and she gave him a few last minute instructions on how to care for the girl which he already knew it all of course since he had helped raise her just as well.

They hung up and Aleah pouted, “I miss our baby.” She muttered and Dean kissed her head saying that he did too and they sat together for some time before he reminded her of their trip outside. The couple got ready to go and she put on her boots she normally wore hunting with the boys when and if she ever managed to go with them again.

“I wonder if there are any trails to follow or if we’ll have to just… make our own.” She mentioned to her lover, tying up her laces and letting Dean take her hand. “Ready?” She asked and he nodded, tugging her to the door after grabbing a bottle or two of water for them to bring with them should they need it at this altitude and it was far colder than she realized even dressed in one of her hoodies. “I say we follow the water ‘til we’re tired or hungry, come back for a quick lunch then a soak in the Jacuzzi outside.” She smiled, swinging their entangled fingers as they headed out the door into the open air.

Dean allowed himself to be led outside the cabin by the hand, adjusting his green jacket and holding their two water bottles in his free hand, swinging his arm as he walked along half a step behind his wife. The brunette wandered down along the edge of the winding creek that ran through the forested slope the cabin was built on, her face full of wonder and a huge smile on her face as she took in the wilderness around them.

Dean had never really been... Outdoorsy. He avoided being outside if he could and also doing any kind of physical activity he didn't have to do, depending on his line of work to keep him fit and so far it had served him just fine. But he didn't even feel the impulse to complain about going for a hike just to 'be out in nature' and all that hippie stuff. Here he was, picking his way along the rocky bank of the creek and smiling like he hadn't a care in the world as he watched his wife happier and more lighthearted than he'd seen her in a long time.

They walked and walked until Dean was fairly sure they were getting close to the edge of the field Castiel had set up for them, his trained eye not missing the subtle signs of wards and sigils worked as naturally as possible into the surroundings. He had to hand it to his angelic friend, he knew there had to be wards in place he couldn't detect but the ones he did were so discreet that Aleah hadn't noticed a single one, and was able to simply enjoy herself without feeling like she was in a cage. A beautiful cage, but still.

He came to a halt and held out a water bottle to her when she turned back to see why he'd stopped, smiling when she cracked hers open and took a drink. The hunter sat down on a large granite boulder, drinking from his own bottle and taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. Aleah sat closer to the bank and trailed her hands in the frigid water, yelping a bit seemingly surprised by how chilly it was.

Dean chuckled and shook his head, it didn't surprise him at all that his 'Princess' didn't know much about the great outdoors, the boots she wore now were the first pair of outdoor type shoes she'd ever owned and while she appreciated the beauty around them he knew exactly the shrill tone of voice her scream would take if she knew there was a big black spider sitting just inches away from her on a leaf.

They sat in comfortable silence for awhile till Aleah asked him what he was thinking about. "You know when Sammy was little, he wanted to join the Boy Scouts?" Dean laughed, thinking back to their youth and running his hand through his short hair. "One time when Dad was gone hunting, I took him and we snuck onto this campground. The troupe leader didn't know we weren't supposed to be there, we camped out with a bunch of hippie dippy Colorado kids for a week before we got busted and had to run back to the hotel we were living in." He laughed, drinking the last of his water and tapping the cap with his fingernail.

Aleah took her water bottle from Dean when he stopped and she turned to face him, watching him take a seat and she did just the same. She dropped down along the water’s edge and took a drink from her bottle that her lover handed over, listening to the steady stream of water light against the rocks. She squeaked as she ran her fingertips along the surface, shuddering at the cold and giggling at herself. She felt like a kid, or at least how she used to be as a kid, experimenting with the elements, happy to rest in this manner without a worry. She might not be keen on nature and all the rough and gruff things that Dean was certainly okay with handling but she did appreciate every bit of mankind and their surroundings.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked her husband in a gentle curious tone of voice. She looked over her shoulder at him, wiping her wet hands on her jeans and tugging her coat tighter around her small frame, listening to what he had to say. She laughed at the image of Sam as a Boy Scout and the boys taking time off together to sneak onto a camp ground and play out his dream if only to get caught after a week. “You lasted a whole week there?” She questioned uncertainly and he nodded, putting the cap back on his bottle. “Tent or cabin? Because I hardly see you doing either.”

The brunette laughed when he made a comment that it didn’t matter because it was a hell of a lot longer than she could last in the woods. “Hotels and campers exist for a reason Dean and that’s so we have some place warm to stay. We’re not Pilgrims.” She pointed out, shifting away from the muddy ledge to her left and making Dean laugh at her when she spotted the little leaf housing a tiny black spider on it. Her eyes went wide and before she could scream about it like she might want to, the hunter pressed a finger to his lips and squeezed her leg with one hand, sticking out his water bottle and letting the arachnid climb up onto it so he could relocate it against one of the trees. “Exactly my point. See he’s meant out here. I’m not.”

Dean smiled, promising she was safe from the giant eight legged freak that really wasn’t so giant. He took her arm and pulled her up to guide her to the granite he was sitting on and she gladly joined him. “That’s sweet what you did for Sammy.” She muttered, letting her head flop to one side and drop against his broad shoulder. They were quite for a while again until she spoke up, turning her head to glance at his green eyes and smiling, “Dean I’m really glad that you’ve slowed down with hunting and all of that… I mean I don’t want to keep you from it entirely but I’m glad that you’re around for me and for Mari. She can experience a lot more with both of us.” She sighed, resting her hand over his leg and giving it a squeeze.

After a few moments more when she finished up her own water and they both seemed to have their fill of the cool mountain air, Dean straightened, offering his large hand to help her up and she gladly accepted, climbing up to her feet and batting at his hand when he made an excuse to keep touching her ass by saying he was only brushing off the debris. “You’re a brat.” She laughed, pushing him away from her lightly. Their pace was slow on the walk back, holding hands and following the water again until Aleah’s boot got stuck in the mud and she nearly fell into the creek if he hadn’t managed to snatch her arm like he had.

She pouted at him and their adventure ended with her in her socks, managing a piggy back ride from her husband while she carried her muddy boots in hand. He shifted her weight and she bounced up in his grasp, laughing lightly when they spotted the cabin again. Aleah’s lips trailed along his neck sweetly hearing him groan as she tugged his ear into her mouth and worried the shell with her white teeth. He chided her for it, threatening to drop her if he lost his focus on getting them back. “But… I was kind of thinking I owed you a thanks for the ride, Lancelot.” She muttered.

 

Dean quirked his brows at her mention of a 'reward' for him carrying her most of the way back to the cabin, he chuckled but it melted into another groan as her mouth found his pulse point just where his ear met his jaw. When they arrived back at their temporary home instead of carrying her directly inside he circled around the deck to where the covered jacuzzi was located, gently setting her down on the wooden slats of the back deck and taking her muddy boots from her to knock the worst of the muck off on the side of the steps leading down to the ground.

"Why don't you go get us some towels and robes and I'll get this thing up to temp and bubbling." He suggested, setting her shoes aside for the moment and going to inspect the hot tub. Aleah asked about swimming suits, mentioning she'd seen them in the bags Sam had packed them and Dean gave her an incredulous look. "This place is warded and there isn't another human soul for hundreds of miles babe. I plan to take full advantage of that. No suits." He said with a sly smile, his green gaze sweeping up and down her figure and his wife giggled at him blatantly undressing her with his eyes.

"You could bring out some beers though!" He called after her just as she shut the door behind her, not sure if she heard him but he wouldn't be too broken up if she didn't. He'd have plenty to keep him occupied for the next while anyway and the thought of getting 'payment' back from Aleah for toting her back made him grin fiercely.

It only took the tub a few minutes to come up from it's holding temperature to the full heat they wanted in contrast to the chill mountain air, and Dean hissed sharply through his teeth as he brazenly shed his clothing down to his skin outside, leaving his clothes in a small heap by the sliding glass door. He gingerly climbed down into the roiling, steaming water and sighed as it closed over him up to the middle of his chest, groaning with satisfaction as he slid further down to let the water churn over his broad shoulders.

"We have got to friggin' get one of these." He muttered to no one in particular, savoring the near scalding water in contrast to the crisp air and enjoying the scenery around him for a quiet moment while he waited for his wife. It was extremely rare for the hunter to be able to relax like this, he really did owe his brother and friend one for this gift.

Aleah was rather pleased with Dean’s suggestion of climbing into the warmth of the tub outside after being stuck wandering in the chilly air. While it was warmer now than it might have been had they left earlier in the morning that didn’t make a huge difference in temperature. She padded off the deck and in through the sliding glass door to head back to their master suite and grab them some towels. Inside she shed her clothes, wearing only the thin cotton robe that she did when she got out of the shower, carrying towels for them both and the blue material of her robe barely managed to reach her thighs at all.

She shuddered as she stepped outside, hauling two beers in hand, one for each of them and she could see Dean already relaxing back and enjoying the warmth of the water, the jets on low to ease his muscles and she smirked as she set the towels aside, popping open either beer as silently as she could and slipping out of her robe so she was bare. The half angel worked her way to the other side to stand in Dean’s view and he groaned at the sight of her. “You must’ve really wanted a beer.” She teased, knowing full well that she had evoked that response not the drinks she carried.

He sat up a little straighter and muttered something about the best damn service he got. She laughed in her nose, handing him a bottle and setting hers on the deck as she eased down to put her feet in the warmed water, humming as she swung her legs and he simply watched her raptly. “Are you going to keep your hands to yourself long enough for me to enjoy the actual Jacuzzi?” The woman questioned, though she knew that no matter how grabby he got she would enjoy the water just as well.

She sighed and slipped down into the water fully, letting it come up around her chest, her hair dipping into the water as well and the jets along her back made her purr. Dean nursed his beer, tugging her feet across to his side so he could massage them one handed, his fingers tracing up and down her smooth leg and she knew that his gaze wasn’t exactly on the trees any longer.

Aleah’s eyes slipped closed and she settled further into the warmth of the tub, taking a sip of her beer and enjoying the quiet comfort of being with her lover. She bit her lip when she looked up again and Dean was relaxed much to the same extent, his hand on her calve slowing it’s gentle motion until it stopped. She set her beer aside quietly, the glass clinking against the wood deck and it was no shocker that Dean had already emptied his bottle in no time at all.

The brunette surged forward in the water, bracing her hands on his thighs and easing herself into his lap as her teeth grazed over his neck just before he could open his eyes. He cocked his head and allowed her better access to his corded throat, her wet hands slipping over his shoulders and locking him in place with her fingers tugging at his hair to force him where she wanted to sample. She could feel her desire rising in the pit of her stomach and he had hardly even touched her at all but the knowledge that she was in control turned her on just as well, knowing that it pleased him how far she had come since their first few encounters.

Her tongued flickered out along the shell of his ear, saying nothing to him as she riled him up slowly. His hands floated up in the water to grip her hips, still allowing her to control every aspect but she could sense that he was struggling having to hold back and not force her to grind down against him like he wanted. So she caved, adjusting her hips and aligning their bodies so she could slide against his bare sex, gasping as his tip brushed her clit and got her stirred even further. He groaned and her pace increased, focusing on kissing him as his hips jolted to keep their motions going. 

Their bodies remained unconnected despite that she could feel how hard she was making him with her ministrations she refused to give just yet. “Touch me, Dean… Please…” She encouraged, deciding she wanted his hands on her first and he nodded as she dragged his fingers where she wanted them and he dipped two calloused digits into her body to stroke her walls. He pulled back to tap his middle finger against her clit, swirling over the bud of nerves and watching her as he very quickly brought her close to the edge. She kissed him hungrily, rolling her hips into his hand and reaching between their bodies to take hold of him just the same, working him from base to tip, her thumb flicking over his tip.

Aleah offered him some release as her body started to shake, tugging at his lower lip with her teeth as she tipped over the edge. She refused to let her peak end, perhaps over stimulation and like a well-rehearsed dance his hand withdrew in the same moment she guided his hard shaft to her body, sinking down onto him and taking a second or two to enjoy the sudden merge of their bodies. Her blue gaze stuck to his, placing one hand on his chest and digging her nails into his flesh making him growl and thrust up into her suddenly. She cried out but refused to let up on her dominance right now, drawing her free hand to the side of his scruffy face and holding him there to keep his gaze as she started bouncing in his lap, letting him watch every response he caused in her.

 

Aleah rode him in the churning water, jolting and crying out as her climax rolled over her waves. Dean thrust up into her, losing his steady rhythm as his own pleasure overtook him and he came within her with a low groan. He made her orgasm last as long as he could, threading his fingers into her wet tresses and drawing her in for a lingering kiss as their shared peak ebbed. 

The hunter sighed as Aleah slid off of him and for awhile the couple simply sat in silence, listening to the bubbling water and the breeze moving through the pines. After a few moments the brunette glided off his lap to settle beside him, groaning appreciatively as the jets massaged her back. Dean chuckled, splashing her neck a bit to get her attention.

"Hey now, I'm starting to feel a little insecure here with those noises the tub is gettin' outta you." He teased, making her laugh but his own joke sparked a sudden idea and Aleah cocked her head at him curiously when a devilish smile transformed his features.

The short-haired hunter drifted over to the opposite wall of the tub and pushed the button that switched the jets up to the next highest setting. Aleah sighed and made another satisfied moan, praising him for his action as she drifted back and forth so the jets would hit all over her back. "Oh I didn't turn those up for your back Princess." He chuckled, waiting for his meaning to click in her mind and when it didn't he shook his head, making his way back to his wife and gently gathering her in his arms.

Aleah questioned him as he slowly spun her in the water and pressed her back up to his front, his mouth nibbling at her neck. She hummed but still seemed a bit lost as to his intentions as he moved them both forward, pressing her against the side of the jacuzzi. He slipped his hand around her waist and found a pulsing water jet, and he used his own frame to maneuver hers till his palm was the only thing keeping the stream of water from pulsing against Aleah's center. 

Finally she understood, his name falling from her lips with a mix of anticipation and hesitation, but the second he removed his hand her tune changed completely. Aleah gasped sharply, and Dean smiled knowingly as her hips began rolling up into the pulsing jet, and he knew she was experimenting and finding just the right angle to make herself see stars as the water streamed over her sensitive clit.

The hunter supported her weight keeping her braced against the tub wall, his hand slipping under her thigh to dip two fingers into her center. His motions inside her along with the water pulsing on her clit made Aleah scream and her body jolt with spasms of pleasure, his own arousal pressing up against her backside as he watched her coming unraveled against the jetstream, her inner walls clenching around his fingers. 

"That's it Princess, come for me, Make yourself come over and over..." He moaned, reaching between their bodies to stroke his length and drive himself over the edge after her, coming hard and biting at her neck as she rode out her intense orgasms that seemed to be building one after the next.

Aleah wasn’t sure exactly what Dean was doing but she had an idea what it involved. She understood completely when he pulled her to the stream of water but kept it from hitting her body quite yet. “Dean…” She murmured uncertainly though she knew it had to feel good or he wouldn’t be coaxing her to it. He moved his hand away and she moaned harshly, gripping his side to keep herself steady and afloat.

She moved her hips to find a good angle to let the stream hit her clit just right and make her body shake in the water. His fingers dipped inside her heat and she rode his hand in time with the pulsing jet against her sweet spot. She could feel Dean’s arousal against her and her imagination wandered picturing him inside her again which only drove her pleasure up as she came around his fingers. His voice against her ear drove her up once more and she screamed his name as she fell over the edge again.

Dean bit at her slim throat as he stroked himself and again they came together with a harsh groan. “Shit…” She cursed, hardly able to keep herself pinned anymore and he chuckled, pulling her back slightly and positioning them to sit together once more. He kissed along her neck slow and sweet as he eased her to rest with him. “Okay I better get one of these for Christmas or something, baby.” She giggled, her blurry vision easing and going sharp once more.

Aleah crossed her legs and settled with her back against him, feeling his hands trace up and down her thighs to her knees. He chuckled and muttered his agreement saying he wouldn’t mind watching her go nuts every time. “Of course you wouldn’t… Nothing beats the real thing though.” She hummed, turning her head to kiss his lips over her shoulder, nipping at him lightly. “I’ll just use this for back up… case you get tired.” She giggled once more and he promised that with her he had a nearly never ending drive. “Good.”

They sat out in the warmth until their fingers were pruned and she was the first to climb out of the water, tugging on Dean’s hand to lure him with her. He did, grabbing their towels and wrapping one around her shoulders. She dried off and followed with her robe around her frame, leading the way into the cabin with the empty bottles of theirs in hand. Dean followed and her legs were still a little wobbly from her pleasure and he must have noted, keeping a hand pressed to the small of her back and walking with her. The half angel tossed away their bottles and it was no shocker that when she mentioned getting cleaned up and spending more time by the fire tonight her lover followed without question seeming rather excited by the idea.

The newlyweds spent the rest of their time together in many… positions along with another walk here or there and Aleah wasn’t sure she had ever had such a work out with her lover like they had for the last few days. While she had a good time with him she was rather pleased when Castiel came midmorning their fourth day there and was more than ready to get home to see her daughter in person once more and with the way Dean was jiggling his leg she knew he was eager to return just as well.

Cas appeared outside the cabin where they were waiting for him and Aleah threw her arms around her uncle, thanking him for coming to get them and setting this up just as well. He smiled slightly and hugged her back, asking if they were ready to go and they both nodded, grabbing their things and Cas zapped them back to the bunker with a flash of light.

Mari was sitting on the floor, binky in her mouth playing with her toys while Sam sat at his desk and looked over a pile of paperwork jumping slightly in his chair when the little girl screamed as she sensed her parents return. “Dada!!” She screeched, getting to her feet quickly and wobbling towards him nearly stumbling over her own feet. Aleah laughed as Dean dropped his duffle and darted forward, scooping her up in his arms and lifting her above his head, lowering her down to feather kisses over his daughters face.

“Mamamamama.” The tiny brunette muttered around her binky, opening and closing her fists in her mother’s direction so she could get kisses from her just as well. Aleah plucked the binky from her lips and puckered her own kissing her little girl with an over exaggerated kissy noise making Mari laugh. She pulled away and pointed to her dad indicating he needed a kiss as well and Aleah laughed, pressing her lips to Deans and Mari fell forward to both of them, hugging her arms around either of their necks and muttering incoherently.

“We missed you too, Bug.” Aleah cooed, smiling as Sam got up from his work and wandered over for his hug. She wrapped her arms around him and they each kissed the other’s cheek just as always. “Thank you for watching her Sammy. I hope she behaved and went to bed and didn’t miss us too much.” She murmured and he put his arm around her assuring that she did just fine and missed them just the right amount. Aleah laughed, watching her husband as he thanked him too and Mari gestured for him to join her on the floor.

As time went on Dean spent much of his time working at the shop, only going on hunts with Sam when his expertise was needed so he could focus on taking care of his family. He thought he would miss it, but watching Mari learn and grow filled up a void in him that he knew no amount of monster killing ever would. 

Their daughter's third birthday was coming up soon and Aleah had been broaching the subject of putting her in a local preschool, which was giving the man all kinds of worry. On one hand he understood Aleah's point that it would be good for Mari to be around other kids her own age, and it was true she hadn't shown any signs of her power manifesting since she was still in the womb, but they had absolutely no way of telling when her powers would surface, and to what extent. In his mind, it was simply too big of a risk.

Dean got home late from the shop, his clothing and hands especially grimy from pulling apart an old diesel engine all afternoon. Aleah was feeding Mari dinner in her booster seat, the little girl had learned to feed herself now but still liked her mom or dad to cut her food up for her. He smiled warmly at his girls, raising his hands and shaking his head at his daughter when she called for him to come eat with her.

"Not yet Half-Pint, I'm all dirty, see?" He turned his nearly black hands back and forth, laughing at his daughter's disappointed sigh. She instructed him to go and take a bath, pointing her small fork at him and he nodded. "Whatever you say ma'am." He agreed, carefully kissing his wife to avoid getting her dirty as well when she came to greet him at the entry way.

The hunter went and got cleaned up, coming back out to find his girls had migrated to the main library/living area playing with Mari's toys. He sat heavily down on the couch with a beer and a sandwich he threw together and watched with a quiet smile as Aleah helped Mari go through her colors and the numbers one through ten. She had been teaching the little girl the basics and she soaked it up like a sponge, it made him proud to see how quickly she was learning.

The little brunette held up each different colored foam puzzle piece from the education set they'd bought for her and announced each color to him, waiting for his sign of approval before moving on to the next one. She seemed rather proud of herself as well and he couldn't help but laugh as he saw a lot of his own attitude developing in the girl.

"Looks like she's getting this stuff down fast, Al. You're a great teacher." He commented, smiling when she thanked him but not missing the way her tone was slightly flat, like something was on her mind. He hadn't had to directly say 'no' to the idea of Mari starting school with other kids yet, but he couldn't help but wonder if that was coming soon. He wasn't looking forward to it, mostly because deep down it was what he wanted for his daughter as well.

Aleah sat on the floor with Mari and didn’t say much to Dean as she went through the motions of teaching their daughter her colors and counting to a very basic extent but considering it was only a couple months since they started she had picked up rather quickly. Her lover dropped down with a beer in hand on the sofa and she kept focus, watching their daughter easily identify colors of her foam board puzzle for him and the girl waited for his approval each pass.

Dean praised not only Mari but Aleah as well for having been the one to teach her all of this in such a short amount of time but the only reason she was doing so was because no one else would. “Thanks.” She murmured quietly, forcing a smile because she refused to bring up the topic of school in front of their daughter for fear of what the conversation would entail tonight. He picked at the label of his bottle and must have noted her tone of voice because he directly asked if she was upset. She gave him a look that told him she wasn’t up for this discussion at the moment and he sighed, tearing into his sandwich while Mari stood between his legs and propped her elbows on his knees, showing him her blocks and counting them out as she set them in his lap.

Aleah gently took her by the hips and lifted her up, tugging her back to her on the floor so they could continue. “Let Daddy eat okay, Bug.” She encouraged the girl gently even though Dean assured her that he was fine listening. “She can show you later. We have more to do.” She snipped at him, sounding harsher than she really meant to but the topic of schooling was a rather touchy one at the moment because she wanted so badly for their daughter to go out and see the world and grow up with having no exposure to any of it, no chance to even try new things, new experiences.

He must have noticed her flat tone and the way she was more or less brushing him off as she pulled their daughter back to focus on her lesson. She started on with teaching her a few shapes, pointing them out with the tiny brunette poised between her legs on the floor as they worked through their lesson plan for the evening until she started to rub her eyes. Dean offered to give her a bath and tuck her in and Aleah nodded appreciatively, feeling tired herself. “I’m going to do the dishes so Sam doesn’t have to be stuck with the mess again then I’ll be in to say good night.” She muttered the last part to her daughter, kissing her hair and climbing up to her feet once more.

Aleah lingered in the kitchen for longer than she meant to, cleaning up the counter tops and the past year or so she had really taken on her role as mother and care taker. She wiped down Mari’s booster seat and picked up her leftovers, dumping them in the trash and clearing the table completely. She grabbed herself a beer from the fridge, another trait she had taken to from the brother’s, nursing the drink rather slowly as she leaned against the counter top and waited until she heard Dean finish up whatever story he was telling Mari as well as his usual song he sung to her but she must have zoned because soon enough he was in the doorway asking her what was going on.

The half angel looked up at him and shook her head, “Doesn’t matter.” She mumbled, taking another drink and for a moment or two she focused on just that. Dean stepped forward and promised that it did matter, “No it doesn’t because as soon as I say something you’ll shut me out because it isn’t anything you want to talk about so you just avoid it, Dean. You’re going to get your way anyhow so why fight it? I’m just giving in before it starts that’s all.” She shrugged, shaking her head at him as she headed to the dishwasher, pulling out what was clean and starting to put it away so she could put the dirty ones in their place.

Dean stared at her, harshly asking her what she meant, “Mari. I want her to go to school but I know you won’t let her so it’s fine.” She answered dismissively and he made her jump when his hand shot out and he grabbed her arm suddenly, pulling her back and telling her to stop acting like she was. He jumped into his reasoning and made mention of how Aleah only looked at the good of it, that Mari was elsewhere and didn’t ever think of what might go wrong in this situation. Aleah’s lower lip quivered because it had been a long time since Dean spoke to her like this. “Don’t… Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid Dean. I’ve thought about it. I’m just as scared.” She stuttered in the way she used to only when she was getting upset.

“I don’t see why she can’t be given the chance. I can only teach her so much and eventually she’s going to need real help with stuff… Like Algebra, Chemistry, History… All of that down the road. I can do it sure but I don’t want to. I don’t want to shelter her like that. Do you know how much it hurts me to be stuck here?!” She yelled without thinking. She closed her eyes and sighed, “You know what I mean… I just—I want her to have it all I want her to have the best life and she deserves to have friends her own age. God she spends her free time with Castiel whose age is immeasurable.”

Dean tried to keep a handle on his rising anger, immediately feeling defensive but at the same time understanding where his wife's anger was coming from. He crossed his arms over his chest and managed to keep his voice below a yell but still much of his frustration came through.

"And you think I don't want all of that for our daughter? For God's sake Aleah, you're making it sound like I'm some bastard that doesn't want Mari to have a good life. Well I do, all right? I'm just trying to be realistic here." He shot back.

"I know how much you hate being trapped here, all right? I hate myself everyday for it. And I hate that my ability to protect our daughter is no better than my ability to protect you. I want her to have everything, have a good life... But I don't know how to do that, Al. I don't know how to let her go out into the world knowing how full of crap it is! How easily she could be hurt, taken, killed.... How can I knowingly let her out of my sight, when all that shit is out there just waiting to strike?! You tell me how I can do that!" His emotion got the better out of him and by the end he was yelling, though it was more out of desperation than anger.

The hunter turned away from his wife, bracing his hands on the sink and hanging his head. He took deep breaths, trying to calm down but it was difficult since he wasn't exactly good at coping with his emotions.

"I'm scared, Al. I want her to be able to have all those things, go out into the world, but-" He shook his head and cleared his throat. "I can't... I can't. If anything happened to her, to you... It'd destroy me, Aleah." He turned and met her tear filled gaze, his voice rough with emotion.

Aleah flinched as Dean’s voice rose louder and louder by the word but she knew it was only out of worry and she was perhaps making that worse for him. Her eyes watered and she opened her mouth multiple times to speak but she couldn’t come up with anything as a rebuttal at the moment. Her heart bled for him because the things she said in regards to her being ‘stuck’ only hurt him more. He turned away harshly and braced himself against the sink trying to gather his thoughts enough to speak once more and face her.

She inched closer to him, reaching out but unable to bring herself to touch him just yet. He turned just as she was about to work up the courage to do so, seeing his own eyes watering from the heaviness of the things he just spoke to her for the first time. She knew he had doubts and fears but not like this. The brunette nodded, keeping quiet as she slipped into his arms, desperate for his strong hold on her. He slumped against her and they supported each other’s burdens for the moment.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered to him, squeezing his hard frame to her and closing her eyes to enjoy the sweet moment of him holding her. “I’m scared too Dean. I don’t want to be scared… I don’t want her to be scared. Castiel already said he would rework the protection spell on her ribcage so she would be safer out there. It kills me to do that to her again but… Sweetie it’s a lot better than locking her up here.”

“I didn’t know that’s how you felt… I don’t know what to do either, how to make it better but doing nothing isn’t going to help at all.” She muttered, pulling back to look at him, resting her hand on his cheek. She stood on her toes and pressed her lips to his feather soft again and again, her eyes still filled with tears knowing that she hurt him like she had by talking the way she was. “I just want what’s best for her, that’s all and I know you do too… I do. Maybe… We should bring it up to Mari. She’s little I know but we should see if she has an opinion on it. She’s a little smartie Dean, you saw her.” She smiled at him knowingly.

 

Dean took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure and nodded slightly. He wasn't prepared for any of this, didn't know how he was supposed to find a balance between protecting their daughter and not stifling her. He squeezed Aleah closer to his frame and nodded, tipping his head down to rest his brow against hers.

"I guess that's worth a try. But if we give this a try, you have to promise me something, all right?" He murmured, brushing his hands up and down her back. She looked at him inquisitively and he sighed, not wanting to have to ask this of her but knowing it was needed. "If something does happen, I mean, if her powers crop up and things go sideways... Promise me you won't hate me for doing what I have to do to keep her safe." He said in a hesitant tone. He had insisted that he wasn't the bad guy in this, but at the same time he was more than willing to become so if it meant ensuring his daughter's safety.

\---  
A few short months later, Dean stood at the gate of the small local preschool in the town close by the bunker. He stood awkwardly with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, watching as Aleah crouched down to adjust Mari's outfit and small pink backpack on her shoulders.

Mari asked him if he was coming to school with her and he laughed, shaking his head and squatting down to be more at her level as well. "Sorry short stuff. Daddy's too big for your school. But... You'll have fun. I promise." He assured her, his voice cracking slightly with emotion as he looked her over, her blue eyes bright with enthusiasm.

The little girl ran into his arms, hopping up and down with excitement, telling him in her small voice that she would miss him. Dean looked over her head at Aleah, smiling crookedly and patting his daughter's back. "I'll miss you too, Bug. Be a good girl for the teacher, okay?" He told her, pushing her back a pace to look her in the eye.

Aleah stood and started talking to Mari's teacher, and the hunter leaned in to whisper to his daughter out of his mother's earshot, "But if any kids give you trouble, you just do like I showed you, right?" He whispered, laughing when Mari made her squeaky war cry and mimed a right hook followed by a left straight punch.

"That's my girl." He chuckled, standing up straight again and ushering her in past the gate. He smiled at Aleah and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, waving at Mari as the teacher took her hand and led her up to the little building.

Aleah brushed her hand over Mari’s forehead, sweeping her dark bangs away from her face so she could see. She fussed as her mother took the clip from her hair and fixed it for the fourth time since they had left the bunker, making her whine about her dolling her up. “I want you to look your best, Bug.” She muttered, fixing the straps of her backpack. “Be good okay. You’ll have a great time and you’ll make new friends.”

“I know Mommy.” Mari sighed, putting her hands over her mom’s cheeks and giving her a cheesy grin. She had heard all this before and of any of them she was least scared to start school. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous at all. She kissed her mother and Aleah pulled away so Dean could talk to her and say his good bye himself and inform her he in fact wasn’t going to be coming to school with her this go around.

She fell into his arms and hugged him tight, “I’ll miss you, Daddy.” She whispered as she bounced in his arms and Aleah left to talk to her new teacher about the last minute information and introductions, ensuring her daughter would be comfortable. She didn’t miss the way Mari was looking at her father, the pair having a quiet conversation off to the side while she spoke to the older woman.

Aleah and Dean gave one final wave to Mari who was starting to head into the classroom with the other kids, already talking up a storm to people and giving the most confident air about her. “Hmm I wonder where she gets her cockiness from.” She teased, putting her arm around Dean and they both watched through the tiny window for a moment.

Dean kissed the top of her head and as soon as he did she crumbled into pieces, her lip quivering and tears slipped past her lashes and down her rosy cheeks. She quickly scrubbed them away because she knew this was best for their little girl but that also meant that she wasn’t so little anymore. He bent and hugged her a little tighter around the shoulders, promising she would be fine and they would see her around noon. “I know but… I spent weeks researching and trying to find the right school for her and… What if it’s not the right one and she hates it and I’m pushing her to do this.” She sobbed and her husband’s chuckling didn’t help at all.

He kissed the top of her head and questioned if she was changing her mind after the fight she put up, and she shook her head at him. “No. She needs this. I think she does anyways… If she hates it then we’ll try again next year someplace else. I just— I don’t like her growing up.” She admitted quietly and he sighed and she could see in his green gaze he was trying not to cry just as well. He pressed his lips to hers and agreed that he didn’t like it either but at the same time he liked seeing her become her own person.

\---

Aleah sat in the bunker, fidgeting all day and while Dean had to go to work soon after they dropped their daughter off she didn’t have anything to do without her little one around. She bit her lip as she sat beside Sam again and he sighed, glancing up at her with a little chuckle, asking if she was going to stop pacing. “I-I’m not pacing.” She defended, crossing her arms over her chest as she busied herself with restacking the paperwork beside him and he shook his head at her. “I don’t know how to play mom when my daughter isn’t here, okay. I’m new at this… I’m afraid something will happen and things will change. I want her to be able to do normal things like go to school, Sammy.” She muttered and he reached over, running his hand over her back in a comforting gesture though his focus was still on the case he was researching.

Mari got out around noon just as Aleah said she would and Dean offered to take his lunch and pick her up around the corner to bring her home. The brunette was in the school yard, her new pink backpack abandoned in the sandbox while she chased after a young blond boy. She stopped in her tracks as she felt her father’s presence before she even heard the roar of the Impala coming to pick her up and the girl ran to the very edge of the yard. She gripped the gate and tried her best to peer over it and see him, the man parked and climbed out of the car and she squealed as he pushed the gate opened and saw her. “Daddy!” She giggled, putting her arms up so he could lift her and he did just that, his hand fairly clean from his morning work. “Come on.” She wiggled for him to put her down again, disappointing the man with his lack of a kiss or a real hug.

Mari pulled him once back on the earth, tugging him to the few friends in her class, pointing to each one in turn and introducing him to them though they didn’t seem to care much she was rather proud to show him off just as well to encourage and let him know she met people here. She flashed him a grin and ran off to grab her bag, leaving him with the group of kids only to come back and claim she was ready to go. “Wait! Miss Jamie can I take my picture home?” She asked and the woman nodded, reminding her that it was in her backpack safe and sound. The little girl nodded, her hair matted and messy as Dean brushed his fingers over it and thanked the woman, guiding his daughter to the exit so he could take her home. He offered a hand to carry her bag and she gave it to him until they reached the car.

She sat in the back in her booster seat, kicking her legs and watching her Dad through the mirror as she leaned to grab her things off the floor before he could get her buckled in. “Daddy look.” She instructed, dodging him when he tried to loop the belt over her. He laughed and waited as she pulled out a sheet of paper with crayon scribble marks all along it, different shapes colored in to match the numbers at the bottom. He smiled and looked it over proudly, telling her she needed to get buckled. “Okay.” She sighed, lifting her arms and letting him put her in her seat completely while she found the rest of her string cheese that she got at snack time.

Mari dropped her bag on the floor and Dean told her not to make a mess. “I won’t Daddy.” She promised happily. They drove in only a few seconds of silence before she picked up again with cheese in her mouth, telling her father of her day. “I met a boy name Jimmy. He says he’s my boyfriend. Like you and Mommy. I’m the Mommy.” She informed him, sticking her feet out to try and reach the back of the front seat until Dean’s hand instinctively shot out and stopped her, tickling her instead and she roared, stopping her task and continuing her story. “He gave me one of his nanimal cookies.”

The rational side of Dean's brain new that having a 'boyfriend' in preschool wasn't the same as having a boyfriend in later years but still his hackles rose at the thought of some boy messing with his little girl and he had to clear his throat and force a smile to his face when he spoke to her.

"Hey, you can be friends with Jimmy, but... No boyfriends till you're at least, like... Thirty. Got that? You're too cool for a boyfriend anyway." He told her, patting her small leg before swinging his arm back up front and smiling at her fit of giggles his comment created. He got the feeling his daughter was gonna give him a heart attack or at least turn all his hair gray by the time she was sixteen.

The pair arrived home and Aleah was there waiting, she had a bunch of after school snacks prepared, the whole table was laid out with fruits cut into shapes, cookies, homemade granola, carrot sticks and cheese and crackers. The brunette greeted them both, catching Mari up in her arms and asking the little girl about her day while Dean inspected the food on the table.

"Looks like somebody was busy in the kitchen today..." Dean commented, picking up a cookie and eating it, grinning at his wife's sudden blush. She stammered out an excuse about how she wasn't sure what kind of snack Mari would want after school and Dean gently cupped her face and hushed her flustered babbling.

"I know it's an adjustment for you not to have Mari at home babe. It'll get easier." He said in a soft tone, knowing his wife had only made all this stuff because she had been missing her daughter. Aleah grinned and nodded, getting distracted by Mari requesting help getting into her booster chair so she could have some of the plethora of snacks her mother had prepared.

Dean watched his girls for a moment, and a thought popped into his head making him smile brightly. Aleah looked up at him and asked what he was thinking about, but he just shook his head. "Nothin'. I gotta head back to work, and make a couple calls. Catch you girls later. Be good for Mama, Bug." Dean leaned down to kiss his daughter's cheek and did much the same to Aleah as well before heading out of the bunker back to the garage, calling Garth on his way.

Aleah smiled as her daughter barged through the door with her father in tow, pulling him by the hand until she saw her mom and darted forward. “Hi baby girl!” She squealed and Mari did just the same, running to her and getting caught up in her arms. Aleah picked her up and squeezed her, kissing her cheeks and smiling at the look in her little girl’s eyes. She must have had fun and worked up an appetite because she wriggled and requested to be put in her booster seat.

The taller brunette set her down and flushed at Dean’s acknowledgement of the food she set out for them all or… more so for Mari to have when she got home. She had to do something to keep out of Sam’s hair all day and she was still trying to find her niche so to speak even at home. She did all the laundry, cleaned their room and Mari’s and managed to bake up some cookies and throw together some snacks for her when she got off. “Well… I just didn’t know what Mari would want and if you would be staying a bit.” She defended and Dean reached out to take her face in either hand, smiling at her and speaking gently.

Aleah grinned back at him, giving a nod and running her hand over his against her cheek. She pulled away when Mari wanted up on the table, helping her into her booster seat. She turned once more catching Dean staring at them and she inquired what he was thinking about but he denied her any information at least for the time being. Her brow knitted together and she nodded regardless at his claim that he had to get back to work. “You better be home for dinner!” She called after him when he pulled away from kissing her.

Dean waved her off and she rolled her eyes, curiously wondering what he was up to but getting distracted again by her daughter starting on about her day. She took the seat next to her, nibbling on a cookie and listening raptly to every word that the toddler had to tell her about her new school. She seemed rather pleased with the change herself and that only confirmed that this was the right thing to do in her mother’s eyes.

\---

“Dean-o! What up?!” Garth chirped into the speaker of his phone, always overly joyed to hear from one or both of the Winchesters especially on his personal cell and not for work calls. “Lemme guess, y’all got some crazy ass case again. Last I heard from yah was Mari’s first birthday and before that it was only savin’ Al’s ass if I remember right. What am I in for now?” He chuckled.

Dean started to talk, claiming it wasn’t really a case but it did involve work. “Well that makes about as much sense as a suit at a nudist beach.” He laughed once more, ignoring Dean’s exaggerated sigh when he tried to cut him off again. “Alright, tell me.” He requested, crossing his arms over his chest and sitting back in his chair at his temporary dining room table. The hunter started on about ‘hiring’ Aleah as their go to for case info and hunts, her possibly doing research while Mari was in school all afternoon.

Garth’s brow raised and his grin only broadened further, “Well I’ll be damned. We shoulda thought of that ages ago, she’s a smartie, that one there. Gives Sammy a run for his money if yah ask me. So what d’ yah want me to do? Train ‘er?”

 

"Yeah, something like that. Help her get familiar with some of the lingo, get her some phones and email addresses set up. Stuff like that." Dean replied, shaking his head at how excited Garth sounded to be helping his wife with this new job. He wanted her to feel a part of the work they were doing and to have something to occupy her time while Mari was at school, the last thing he wanted was Aleah going totally stir crazy.

The hunters ended their call, Garth made plans to visit the bunker and get Aleah set up after he'd gathered the needed equipment. It wasn't often that Dean willingly invited the lanky hunter into his home but in this case he knew it was for the best. Besides, a little part of him relished getting to show off how well Mari was growing up to someone who wasn't around her all the time.

About a week later Garth showed up, Aleah was nearly beside herself with excitement getting to become a part of the hunter network in this region of the US and have a way to be a part of the outside world, even if she would be doing so from within the safety of the bunker.

Dean sat on the couch in the room that had been converted into Aleah's office, bouncing Mari on his leg and watching with her as Garth ran his wife through a few practice scenarios with various calls and how she needed to respond when impersonating an FBI agent, a Police Chief, and a hospital administrator. His brows raised when the next person Garth brought up for her to pretend to be was a zookeeper.

"A zookeeper Garth? Really? How often could that possibly come up." Dean interrupted, his expression colored with disbelief when the lanky hunter insisted it happened more than he might think. Dean rolled his eyes, returning his attention to Mari when the little girl asked him what a zoo was.

The hunter cocked his head as he looked at his daughter, feeling a little pang of guilt as he realized that with Mari only just now being allowed out of the bunker there was a lot about the world she was ignorant of, even by a small child's standards. They tried to show her as much as they could but it wasn't like they could think of everything, and a zoo probably hadn't come up because none of them wanted to think about having to deprive her of something she would likely enjoy so much.

"Uh, well... You know all the animals Mommy helped you learn about? The ones from your Discovery shows?" Dean asked, smiling when his daughter's face lit up and she rattled off a few of her favorites like polar bears and ducks and foxes. "That's right. Well a zoo is like... A special park where a whole lot of different animals live and play, and people can go and see them up close." He explained, watching Mari's face light up with wonder the more he talked about it. She squealed and immediately pleaded with him to go to a zoo, and Dean looked up at his wife to get a read on her feelings about if they should take the risk of taking their daughter on such an excursion.

 

Aleah was practically bouncing with excitement when she caught wind of what Dean and Garth had in mind for her to do as a job to keep busy while Mari was away at school at least. Garth had arrived not long ago and already they were jumping into the business of running gigs for the other hunters. He gave her a long list of contacts, hunters listed by last name as well as their aliases for each corporation they ever played for.

She was overly excited that she now sat in what was her office no less, sitting close to Garth as he ran through a number of situations and had her pretend to answer a few calls on her own. She was nervous but if anything her excitement and knowledge that she would be doing something with her time that could actually help trumped that completely. “Okie dokie, Al… Now we’ll get cha goin’ on a special line. Teach yah how to play a zookeeper.” The lanky hunter smiled and she thought nothing of it but clearly Dean suspected it was an odd job to learn itself.

They both turned when he chimed in asking how that could really come up. “Comes in handy more often than yah think, Dean. Maybe less than FBI but ‘bout as common as a Park Ranger.” Garth answered with a one shouldered shrug as he refocused on Aleah until he heard Mari’s small voice curiously questioning what a zoo was.

“Like polar bears and ducks and foxes and wolves and tigers and—“ The tiny brunette chirped and Dean lightly cut her off knowing her list would be never ending if he didn’t step up. “Oooh.” She cooed, grasping his shirt to haul herself so she was facing him. “Daddy I wanna go to the zoo. Please?” She asked in her excited voice, squealing between words, “I want to see them Daddy… Monkeys? Lions?” The girl prompted, tugging at his shirt between words and pleading with him not only in her tone but with her large blue eyes.

“Hold up, Squirt. You’ve never been to a zoo before?” Garth questioned and looked at the three of them. Aleah shrugged saying they never really thought about that sort of thing for her considering the possible risks. “Oh come on now, Daddy-o yah gotta take her to the zoo. It’s a right of passage for kids, man.” He continued, clearly melting himself under the spell of Marilee Winchester.

Dean started to argue and looked to Aleah once more for help on how to let their daughter down easy if she couldn’t end up going. The half angel shrugged, “Look at that face!” She heard Garth coo, leaning over to gently pinch Mari’s cheeks despite Dean’s disgusted look in his direction. “If y’all don’t take ‘er I’m afraid I’m gonna hafta do some tiny angel nappin’ n’ take ‘er myself.” Mari squealed at the promise that she was going to be able to go one way or another.

The larger of the hunters pulled his daughter away and yet Garth still smiled as he sat back completely in his seat. Dean muttered that if anyone was going to take her it would be him and Aleah just as well. The older of the brunette’s grinned and nodded her approval when he sought it out. “Daddy.” Mari said in the firmest tone she could manage for a three year old. “Be nice.” She scolded for his tone used with Garth, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting on him stiffly as she gave him the most menacing glare she could which had little effect in all honesty.

“Uncle Gart, too.” She insisted, arching a brow and waiting for him to argue. Dean started to, giving a laugh when he looked over at Aleah whose shoulders were shaking with her own giggles in the corner of the room. Garth had a smug look on his face as he waited and watched his ‘niece’ defend him in her own way. Dean argued that the man was busy and Garth shot back that he could make time for little Mari any day. “Pah-lease.” She requested, wiggling against him on his leg until he caved with a heavy sigh.

Garth laughed and leaned across the desk once more, sticking his fist out for Mari to bump. “Alright, Munchkin way to pout yer way to the top.” He praised with a smile, using an overly sweet tone as the girl leaned and smashed her knuckles to his making Garth pretend she injured him. “Oh watch it. Got a might fist over there, She-Hulk.” He winked and Mari giggled at him, reaching out for him to give her his hand again and he did and she bent her head to press her lips sloppily to his fingers to soothe. “Aww, thanks Shorty.”

Garth ended up staying overnight, and in all likelihood might stay a couple more, there was simply a huge amount of information for him to cover with Aleah about the work he did and how she would fit into the network. Dean had always appreciated the work Bobby and now Garth put in to keeping their backs as well as other hunters spread across the country, but even he hadn't realized just how big of a job it was even on the logistics side alone.

He appreciated the lanky hunter being so willing to help Aleah learn her new job, though he still was a little relieved to say farewell to the man for the night, he loved the guy but he was still a little much for the short-haired hunter to take. Mari had been put down for bed a couple hours earlier, leaving Dean, Aleah and Sam alone in the library where they had been most of the evening with Garth as well.

Sam and Aleah were busy talking about her new occupation, and his younger brother seemed more than pleased to have her taking the job on, offering her his help whenever she needed it in typical Sam fashion. Dean added small nods or grunts here and there to the conversation but mostly his thoughts were still on what had come up that afternoon.

He agreed with Garth that going to a zoo was just something kids should do, like a rite of passage as he'd called it. Hell, he had snuck himself and Sammy into a couple different zoos and theme parks when there dad was away, and they were some of his few happy memories from what little childhood he got. But... Was it really a good idea to take this chance with Mari? She had done well at school so far but that was a much smaller, more controlled environment.

His brow furrowed with concern as he ran countless bad scenarios through his head, all weighted against his guilt because he knew how happy it would make Mari to take her, and when he heard Aleah's voice calling his name insistently he suddenly realized she'd been trying to get his attention for awhile now and before he had time to change gears in his head he blurted, "But what if she poofs herself into a tiger cage or something?" His green eyes going wide as he realized he'd said that thought out loud and grimaced at the confused stares both his wife and Sammy were fixing him with now.

"Aleah just... Asked if you needed another beer?" Sam reiterated the brunette's question, pursing his lips trying not to grin at his older brother's obvious fluster. Dean's gaze darted from his brother to his wife and he cleared his throat, shaking his head and lightly pounding his palm on the table as he stood up from his chair.

"Nah. I think I'm just gonna go grab a shower and hit the hay. Gotta be at the shop early tomorrow." He responded, trying to ignore the odd looks they were both still giving him and striding off, depositing his empty beer bottle in the small wastebasket by the doorway as he left.

Sam and Aleah exchanged a knowing look and the long-haired hunter shook his head. "He's still worrying about the zoo trip idea, huh?" He asked with a gentle smile, listening as his adoptive sister admitted to being fairly worried about it herself. "She's gotta start getting used to being out in the world sometime though, right? She'll never grow as a person if she doesn't have her limits tested, if she isn't given the tools and experience to make her own choices." He mused, not wanting to push them into a decision either way but secretly pulling for them to let Mari go and have that experience. He wanted his niece to be able to enjoy her life, rather than just survive like he and Dean had done for so long. He especially wanted Mari to have a real childhood, something he and his brother didn't really get.

Aleah stared at her husband a little saddened by knowing he was stuck on the whole letting Mari get out thing. It worried her too, likely just as much but she tried not to dwell on it too much for their daughter’s sake as well as her own. She bit her lower lip when he rejected her offer of another beer and very quickly scrambled up to his feet, tossing his bottle out and claiming he was going to get ready for bed. She wanted to chase after him, a part of her did but she figured he needed some space and time to think on things.

She shifted in her seat beside Sam and watched him go, glancing to her adoptive brother when he questioned if Dean was still worrying about the zoo trip. She nodded, looking down at her hands, “Yea. It scares me a little too to put her in places like that. She’s safe at school… that’s different in a lot of ways.” The brunette murmured, biting her lower lip in thought as she listened to Sam speak up. She figured he was right, that she wouldn’t learn or grow if she never had the chance to try these things, never had a shot to prove herself or anything in that manner.

She knew that Sammy was pulling for his niece to get everything out of life that she could and she rather appreciated his worry and his want to even be involved in any of this, knowing he was trying not to overstep his boundaries but at the same time trying to give that extra nudge of encouragement and maybe that’s what she needed. “I vote we make it a family trip.” Garth chimed in with a broad smile, sipping his crème soda that Dean let him have so he felt like he was drinking with the ‘posey’. “Bring in Cas.” He suggested, shrugging his shoulders, “If she does zap herself in then he can fish her out, right?”

Aleah looked to him and nodded her head, realizing that he was right about that much Castiel could very well get her out, “Yea but he hasn’t been home in like a week… And she really wants to go. I’m always worried about going with her places because… I don’t know because I’m more angel than her I guess? They’re more likely to track me down than her.” She responded, glancing at Sam who seemed to understand what she was getting at. Her eyes watered, “I shouldn’t be so afraid to go places with my own daughter but I know you’re right, Sammy… She’ll never be able to learn or control it if something does happen if we never let her go out anywhere.”

Dean stood in he and Aleah's bathroom, staring himself down in the mirror feeling like an idiot for just blurting out what was running through his mind like that. He hated feeling unsure of what course of action he should take, and by extension himself. That was part of why hunting had always suited him so well, you fight, you bleed, you kill the bad guy and you move on. Simple, no second guessing, or at least there had been none until the lines between good and evil got blurred.

But this was a whole new area, a whole new set of problems Dean felt in no way prepared for. He was torn between wanting to let his daughter experience life to the fullest, have that rich, happy childhood he'd never gotten but on the other hand he wanted to keep her safe, to hide her away from the world and not let anything ever get the chance to harm her.

What could he do? He wasn't just being an overprotective father, there were serious, fatal consequences to letting Mari out into the world just like there were with Aleah. But the difference was Aleah was an adult who understood the dangers, who accepted that in order to protect herself and most of all who she loved she had to hide her power and keep to ground as much as possible.

Mari... She was just a little girl. She didn't understand all the horrors out there, and truthfully he didn't want her to. He would love to just keep her ignorant of all that shit, never make her feel like she had to hide any part of herself in order to simply stay alive. But he wasn't so naive as to believe he could make that happen. And while something relatively small like taking their daughter on a day trip to a zoo didn't seem like a very big deal, it represented only the first in a long, hard line of decisions he and Aleah would have to make concerning Mari's well-being. 

Dean's sharp hearing picked up the sound of the bedroom door opening and shutting and he quickly started brushing his teeth, getting himself ready for bed like he'd said he was doing instead of just standing there brooding and coming no closer to a decision for it.

Aleah came to lean in the doorway, smiling softly at his reflection in the mirror and he nodded to acknowledge her there, smiling the best he could around his toothbrush but not holding her gaze for long. He didn't need to see the conflict in his eyes, the doubt. He was supposed to be the strong one, the confident one who knew what was best. He wanted to be that foundation for his lover and his daughter, but the truth was he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

She waited for him to finish brushing his teeth and washing his face, eyeing him up and down as he patted his face dry with a small towel and wiping off the bit of water that had splashed on his bare chest.

"See somethin' you like Princess?" Dean asked, smirking and coming to stand in her space. He slipped his hands around her narrow waist and craned his head down to kiss her lips softly. Aleah returned the contact but didn't deepen it, pulling back to look at him square in the eye and he flinched, knowing she wasn't going to let him get away with not talking more about what they should do as far as Mari was concerned.

Aleah slipped into the bathroom door way to watch Dean as he finished up, giving him a gentle smile through the mirror but he avoided truly looking at her for long. She knew he was in here thinking things over just as she was with Sam and Garth out in the living room only… She was willing to talk about everything but her lover not so much.

He turned to face her, asking if she saw something she liked and she didn’t say anything even as he bent to kiss her and slipped his arms around her frame, tugging her against his hard frame. She pulled away, her hands lingering at her sides and away from him as her brow knitted together with worry for him. He made a face at her that told her he didn’t really want to discuss all of this but they needed to and both of them knew it. “Dean.” She started and he groaned, throwing his head back and pulling his hands from her hips, asking her what as he slipped through the door past her to get back into their room.

“I know you don’t like talking to anyone but I’m your wife, I’m supposed to encourage you and make you feel things.” She muttered, giving him a little grin when he sat down on their mattress heavily, running his hands through his short hair. “She wants to go… I want her to be able to experience all of these things and trust me I’m just as worried as you, Sweetie.” She continued following him over to the bed but refusing to take a seat quite yet.

“Sam made a point that we’ll never know how things are going to work if we never let her go out and try new things, experience life outside of here and outside of school.” The half angel continued, “I think… that you should take her. I mentioned to Sam that I’m a little worried about tagging along all the time.” She shrugged, crossing her arms lightly over her full chest and waiting for him to say something. “Are we simply just worried about her well being or are we worried about her getting older? We don’t even know if she’s going to get her abilities back… As far as I’ve seen she can only sense souls… presences… those kinds of things and… she mentioned that Cas looks different but that’s it. I don’t want us keeping her here and freaking her out either. She knows what she is, at least I think she does but… we haven’t talked to her about it much either. I just—I want you to talk to me more, that’s all. So we can figure this out together, as a team.”

"What do you want to do? I can't keep just... guessing what you're thinking."

Dean propped his elbows on his knees and groaned, letting his head loll down in a vain attempt to stretch out his muscles tight with tension. Aleah sighed and climbed up on the bed just behind him, tugging him back up a bit and beginning to rub his knotted up shoulders and neck. The hunter let his eyes fall closed and simply enjoyed her working out some of the kinks in his muscles.

"I wouldn't expect you to guess what's goin' on up here, since I don't really get it myself." He joked, tapping his temple lightly for emphasis. Dean turned so he could meet his wife's gaze, though much to his gratitude she kept one hand on him, kneading at his corded neck as he attempted to sort out the mess in his head that he didn't even want to acknowledge in the first place. Things were a lot simpler when he could just brush this kind of crap under the rug, but while he could ignore his own problems and pain, he couldn't shut out issues that concerned his daughter's well-being. He loved her too much, even if he had trouble saying the words.

"Believe me, no one is more grateful that Mari hasn't gone all Angel Rambo mode than me. But just because she hasn't shown any more mojo than a little soul radar doesn't mean much. I mean you could hear angel radio when you were a kid. I know she's got less angel blood than you but I still think we have to assume that she'll have more powers surface at some point. Sure I there's a part of me that doesn't want to let our little girl grow up, but it's a lot more than that in her case and you know it." He reached out and patted Aleah's thigh, smiling at her crestfallen expression and leaning in to kiss her cheek softly.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't give it a go, let her try some new things. But... We can't forget how real the danger is, Al. It's my job to keep you two safe, and if that means I gotta be the bad guy sometimes, I'll do it. Even if she hates me for it, I'm going to protect our daughter." He told her in a certain tone, his voice cracking slightly with emotion.

"I'll try praying to Castiel, see if he can come along for insurance. It'll be good for him too, give him some more face time with Mari. I think the little bug's a good influence on him, loosens him up a bit." He laughed softly, taking Aleah's free hand and squeezing it. He could see she was still struggling and turned to face her completely on the bed, gripping her arms and making the woman look him in the eye again. He understood that underneath her main worries for Mari she also felt a lingering pang of sadness that she couldn't venture out and do as much along with their daughter.

"Hey. I'm sorry it has to be this way. It isn't fair that we have to fight harder than anyone else, that you have to give up more... But I promise you, there is no one on earth I'd rather be with. No one else I'd rather have be the mother of my child. And the more Mari learns about you, about herself, she's gonna feel the exact same way. She's gonna love you every bit as much. So don't blame yourself for any of this, all right? If you wanna blame anybody pin it on your dad, he's kinda famous for causing trouble anyway." He chuckled gently, slipping his hand up to cup his wife's face and leaning in to press his full lips to hers lovingly. 

Aleah rubbed at Dean’s thick neck, massaging his muscles as he spoke. She supposed he was right, that someday she might end up with abilities later on just like she had when she was older. Though it could very well be years before she fully developed like her mother had. “I know…” She whispered when he mentioned how much more than just her getting older had worried him.

He pat her thigh and kissed her cheek sweetly but still her smile was weak in his direction, knowing full well that he was right about most of this even if she didn’t admit it to him. She watched the emotions play out on his face, the seriousness in his gaze when he insisted that he was having to be the one to protect them both, to watch over them and ensure they were both okay, both safe and she knew it likely had to be a heavy burden even for a man as strong as Dean was. 

She laughed lightly when he brought up the fact that Mari was good for Castiel and that was definitely true in her mind as well. Her gaze fell until Dean gripped her and tugged her to look at him, squeezing her biceps lightly and keeping her focus as he ducked his head to meet her eyes, knowing that she wanted to go out just as badly but like he said they couldn’t forget the risks and there was still a consistent price on her head whether she liked it or not she couldn’t always tag along.

Her eyes watered at his words and the tiny smile she had grew as he spoke of his love for her and the love Mari would have just the same then the mention of her dad made her laugh, knowing their ‘relationship’ to a certain extent. “Very true.” She stated, closing her eyes and returning the kiss he offered. She lingered against his lips, deepening the contact until she was breathless. She still housed tears in her bright blue eyes when she opened them to look at her husband, kneading at the back of his neck still as she stared at him, her free hand running over his frame gently. “You know that same concept goes for you too, Dean.” She whispered to him and his brow arched at what she meant.

“Mari’s always going to love you just the same. My father left me alone my whole life… meeting him once was all I needed to know that I loved him just as well. Something about Dad’s I guess…” She laughed lightly, tears slipping past her lashes and staining her rosy cheeks. Dean kissed them away and turned to face her fully, seeming to appreciate what she said at least. Aleah pulled him forward by tugging his face in her hands, her mouth meeting his in a needy kiss and he said nothing, seeming to understand the assurance she wanted from him right now.

Aleah pulled him with her, lying back against their bed and he followed her, never once breaking their slow sweet kiss as they drowned in one another. She paused if only for a moment to meet his eyes, running her hands up and down his smooth chest, tracing the protection symbol along his right pectoral and he simply watched. “It’s unconditional on my end too, Dean. I love you.” She assured him.

 

Dean smiled down at his lover, his green eyes flitting between her blue ones and craning his head down to lightly brush her lips with hers again. "I love you, Princess." He murmured, using his longstanding nickname for the brunette and feeling like it was more appropriate than he could have ever known when he first called her that more as an insult than anything. She was like a Princess, kept safe in her tower while he fought to keep her safe from all the monsters circling outside it's walls. And he would protect her, and Mari, till his last breath.

The hunter trailed his calloused fingers up her side and back down her arm, knitting his fingers with hers and drawing her hand up to press it into the mattress to the side of her head. He kissed her languidly, deeply, making her moan into his mouth and he began slowly rocking his hips into hers, grinding his growing arousal against her center till he was full hard against her. He lifted his head and smiled down at her, whispering to her how beautiful he thought she was and nuzzling his face down into her neck to nip and kiss at her soft skin.

Dean hissed when he felt the nails of Aleah's free hand graze his back, nipping her a little harder and chuckling at her little squeak in response. He sat back and hooked his fingers under her top, tugging it off her head and following suit with the little cotton skirt she was wearing. He devoured the sight of her curvaceous figure in her little black satin panties and bra, shuffling his own pajama bottoms off and covering her body with his again.

He mouthed at her full breasts as his hips rocked into hers again, his thick erection stimulating her clit through her panties and making her pant his name. Her hands swept down his back to grip his toned ass and she pulled at him, telling him to take her and he was only to eager to fulfill her request. Dean reached under her back and unclasped her bra, exposing her chest fully and he took one sensitive peak in his mouth, tweaking her pert nipple with his teeth and riling her up further while his hand slipped down to tug her panties aside so he could grind his bare sex against hers.

He growled at how wet she was for him, breaking contact with her long enough to meet her darkened gaze. "Tell me again Princess... What do you want? Be specific I'm a little slow." He teased with a wink, prodding at her entrance with just his weeping tip and tweaking her stiffened nipple between his thumb and index finger to make her gasp before she could form words again.

The brunette carded her fingers through his hair, moaning his name and telling him fuck her and use his hand on her clit, to make her come like only he could. Dean's brows rose and his length twitched as her words riled him, grinning from ear to ear as he finally thrust into her slick core wringing a groan from the both.

"What happened to my innocent little Princess, huh? Look at you telling me to do things like that to you." He said in a playful tone, enjoying that he could still make her blush even though she was far past her insecurities about sex with him by now. He buried himself to the hilt in her heat and drawing himself nearly out of her body before driving into her again, slow and deep motions that hit her in all the right places.

His hand slipped down to flick over her swollen clit, tracing erratic patterns in tandem with his motions as he drove into her relentlessly. Dean felt his own pleasure coiling in the pit of his stomach and increased his speed, wanting his lover to topple over the edge with him.

Aleah gasped as Dean’s hands worked over her chest and she tried to make the attempt to reply to him, let him hear what it was she wanted. It took her a moment, her chest heaving with her want and heavy breathing as she ran her fingers through his hair. She gripped him lightly and met his green gaze easily, “I want you to fuck me Dean Winchester. I want your fingers and hands on my clit and I want you to make me come like only you know how, Baby.” She purred, her voice dripping with want.

His brow arched up in surprise that she so easily would tell him what it was she wanted out of him considering it took her years together to finally be comfortable completely with all aspects of their life. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him nor did she think he would tease her it was simply the way she was until she grew well adjusted to how they worked as one. She arched her back as he thrust into her heat finally succumbing to what they both wanted so desperately and she groaned at the feeling of him inside of her.

She flushed pink at his words, loving the change in the nickname he used for her, the meaning had changed completely when they started falling for one another and it all happened rather fast now that she thought about it. He pushed in and out of her body in a slow deep pace making her cry out with each deliberate motion of their hips. “She ran off… found her knight in shining… flannel and things changed for the better…” She moaned between hitched breaths, “Oh god Dean…”

The half angel followed his motions and his hand slipped between their bodies giving in to her request and putting his hands on her to push her to that brink only he could take her to. He was the one and only person ever privy to it and while it might not be the same on his end she never worried about his history because it was them and only them now. Her walls fluttered around him, drawing him deeper into her body as both her hands ran over his face and cared through his hair at the sides of his head, keeping him close and watching his face as he came with a sigh of her name deep inside her body and she followed right along with him, riding out their shared highs until he slowed even more.

She sniffled and he teasingly asked if it had really been that bad, clearly referring to the sex and she giggled at him, pushing his chest and playfully chiding him for ruining the moment. She didn’t let their space apart last long even as he slipped from her body, she kept her limbs around him, holding a good bit of his weight as she ran her hands over his back and feathered kisses along his lips. “Thanks for the rescue, Dean.” She muttered, knowing he would understand how deeply those words ran, not only for helping her over come today but every day since things changed in her life. He had been there always even if the beginning was rocky she didn’t care, he still would have saved her ass when it came down to it because that was the type of man he was.

Aleah let her grip slip and he rolled off her, turning onto his side and she followed suit, letting his arm slip around her frame and her back press up against his front. He shifted a little to lazily pull the covers up though she hardly needed it when she had his warmth surrounding her. “I think you and Mari would have a lot of fun together. I have her for hours on my own all the time while you’re at work. You guys deserve a little Daddy and daughter time.” She whispered, feeling a little better about the whole thing.

She took his hand that was wrapped around her waist, lacing their fingers and pulling them up so she could kiss his knuckles, feeling him press his lips to her shoulder and neck in turn. “Once you get a hold of Cas maybe we can get him to stick around a while, work with Mari a bit and see if she’s already got signs of it that maybe you and I don’t note.” She shrugged and he hummed his agreement into her ear, kissing her again tiredly as they settled in for sleep. “I kinda was hoping Mari would be the reason he would linger. She loves him and she needs time with him just as well. Garth too.” She laughed at the end, hearing Dean whine at her final statement in regards to the other.

“You’ll survive one afternoon with him. Just please don’t leave him with the monkey’s or something.” She warned, glancing over her shoulder at him and kissing his lips when he offered them to her. “We’ll talk about it more in the morning. See if we can even contact Castiel first.” She grinned lightly, sighing as they fell to rest once more.

 

It took a several days for them to get in contact with Castiel, so Garth had to get back to his duties before he had the chance to go with Dean and Mari to the zoo, much to the lanky hunter's disappointment. 

When the full angel finally did make an appearance at the bunker, he reported that while there were several factions scrambling for dominance in heaven now that it was reopened, there were still plenty of fallen angels roaming the earth and that he was doing what he could to track them down and try to give them the choice stand up for themselves, make peace before some militant group could twist their minds into blind obedience to them.

Dean looked his best friend up and down, he looked a little worse for wear but at least he was in one piece and was fighting on the right side of things. "Well you know why I asked you to come... I'm sorry it's not as urgent as finding fallen angels but, honestly buddy it kind of looks like you could use the breather anyway." Dean said with a crooked grin, brushing off Castiel's shoulder absently.

The angel agreed to 'chaperone' Dean and Mari on their little excursion to the zoo, the hunter insisted on driving himself and his daughter there despite it being a couple hours away, not liking the idea of putting teleporting into Mari's head quite yet. So early on a Sunday morning Dean got himself and Mari all ready to go in the Impala, they may have gone a tad overboard on the preparation but at least they could partially blame that on being first time parents.

They packed Mari's little poncho in case it sprinkled, sunblock and a hat if it was too bright, her small collapsible stroller she hardly used any more in case she got too tired, as well as all sorts of snacks, toys, books and stuffed animals for the drive to and from. Dean was getting the last of Mari's things loaded up in the back of the vehicle, smirking a bit at how offended he would've been before he had his daughter to see all this baby stuff in 'his' baby. He was definitely a much different man than he used to be.

Aleah and Sam came out to stand with him by the car, the younger Winchester sibling holding his niece and listening to her excited babbling about going on her zoo trip. The little brunette asked her uncle if she was going to accompany her and he shook his head, "I'm sorry Munchkin, I would love to go but I have to go to work." He explained, Sam was on his way out as well to work a case the next state over. "Next time, I promise." He swore, laughing lightly at her jutting her hand out with her pinky extended, Aleah had shown her the concept of 'pinky swearing' a while ago and now she demanded it for everything from promising to go on trips to promising to watch her favorite DVD with her a third time in a row.

The tall hunter wrapped his far larger pinky finger with hers, nodding and sealing their deal though he was pretty sure that like most of the pinky swears Mari made she would forget about it in about five minutes time. "All right kiddo, be good for your Dad, okay? Have fun." He said with a gentle smile, kissing Mari's forehead and handing her off to Aleah to say her goodbye so she could in turn give her over to Dean to take on their adventure.

Mari grinned when Sam wrapped his pinky around her own, leaning forward so he could kiss her forehead. She shifted in his arms so she could reach for her mother, wrapping herself around the woman and kissing her with and exaggerated ‘mwah’. “Bye, Mommy. We will bring you home a present.” She promised making Aleah laugh as she nodded.

“Okay. Have fun and don’t give Daddy too much of a hard time, alright?” The half angel prompted and Mari swore that she would, kissing her again and pulling away as Dean lifted her out of Aleah’s hold. He leaned over and kissed the tall brunette sweetly in good bye. “Be careful. Let me know when you’re on your way back.” She smiled, sealing their lips one final time as she handed off their daughter.

Dean packed up the rest of their things and his little girl into her seat in the back and they drove for what felt like hours to Mari, repeatedly asking if they were going to be there soon. He remained patient with her the whole way until she screamed when he pointed out the sign to the zoo as they pulled down the right street. Castiel winced at her loud shriek from the front seat, trying to keep his cool himself as he looked out the window.

They pulled up and Mari was wiggling with excitement until Cas turned and helped her get unbuckled, lifting her up and pulling her in his arms out of the Impala. “Go.” She instructed her angelic great uncle, pointing her finger and he looked at Dean in question if they could head up to the ticket counter to pay for entry. He nodded and told Mari to mind her manners, “Please.” She added with a sigh and Castiel headed up to the booth to wait for Dean.

Cas didn’t quite understand the concept of zoos either, nearly as innocent as Mari was herself. He looked around the place seeing only people, no animals except the occasional bird or two that flew from the trees. “Dean are you sure we are in the proper place?” He questioned uncertainly as they got their passes and headed through the gates, Mari walking by herself a little ways ahead of them. The angel jumped suddenly at the roar of elephant, turning to look for it but seeing nothing as though he thought it might be wandering the park and Dean laughed, patting him on the back and insisting this was the spot.

“Daddy!” Mari yelled back to him, stopping along the sidewalk a few feet to wait for them both to catch up. She ran back and took his hand, tugging on it insistently. “I want to see the animals.” She whined and he bent down telling her that they would but they had a bit of walking to do first. He tugged out the map he grabbed and asked her which she wanted to go to first and her finger jabbed into the paper with the picture of the hippos. He questioned her choice and she nodded vigorously, “They are funny, Daddy.”

He took her hand this time and lead her and Cas back to the other end of the park to see all that Mari wanted to, stopping along the way to view the monkey’s when she requested them as they passed then the hyenas and once they saw the hippos the little girl was itching to get to the polar bears having almost forgotten Aleah said they had a cub here. She put her arms up for Dean to lift her onto the ledge so she could watch with her face pressed close to the glass tank, ohing and awing as the mommy and daddy swam but getting whiny again when she couldn’t see the baby just yet.

Dean nudged her and pointed in the high corner as a littler polar bear came diving down deep into the water. “Look it’s you me and mama. Do you think they have a Cas-Bear?” She giggled, looking up to her father and smiling at him. “It’s not completed family without one.” She pointed out. "And Uncle Sammy."

Dean chuckled warmly at his little girl's reasoning, catching Cas's confused look as he listened to her assigning bears to each member of her somewhat non-traditional family though in Mari's mind things were exactly the way they should be. He tended to agree with her, he had a hard time picturing his 'family' without including the angel and his brother included.

"So what do you wanna go look at next, Bug?" The hunter asked, lifting her off the ledge she'd been poised on but settling her on his broad shoulders rather than putting her down on the ground to walk. Mari giggled with delight from her new vantage point, her small hands gripping his fingers that he held up to keep her securely on her perch.

Mari pointed excitedly at a sign for the big cats enclosure and the trio walked over to that row, looking at the panthers, tigers and lions the zoo had on display. The little girl made all sorts of roaring noises, and Dean had to stifle his own chuckles at the perplexed looks Castiel kept giving her when she proclaimed she wanted to grow up to become a lion, or perhaps a tiger.

The angel tried to explain to Mari that she could not in fact grow up into another species and Dean lost it at that point, laughing at his friend and his daughter's adamant arguments that she could be anything she wanted when she got bigger, citing evidence that her mother and uncle had both told her so.

Dean didn't bother trying to butt in, just enjoying their back and forth as he balanced Mari on his shoulders. Another voice caught his attention and he realized that a tall skinny woman with a big camera slung around her neck was waving them down. She rushed up to them and the hunter couldn't help but tense instinctively, ready to destroy anyone who was threatening his daughter but he quickly shrugged off his knee-jerk reaction when the lady began to babble on about offering to take their picture, for a modest fee of course.

Dean's first reaction was a definite no to the photo op, but he thought about it for a second and decided that Aleah would probably really like the souvenir so he tugged his money clip from his jeans and gave the woman way more money than he felt was appropriate so she could snap a few instant polaroids of him, Cas and Mari in front of the lions cage.

Mari was fascinated by the way the images showed up on the paper in a matter of moments, pointing at each of them in the picture and roaring like a lion again, dubbing them all lions in her tiny voice. The woman laughed, lingering with them making Dean feel on the spot and wishing she would just move on to another group of suckers.

"Well uh, thanks... For the pictures." He told her, and he was at least mostly sincere because he knew they would make his wife happy.

"Of course dear. You're such a handsome couple and I think it's just lovely that you would adopt this sweet little girl into your family." The woman responded, clasping her hands in an over-exaggerated gesture of fondness and Dean's eyes went wide as he realized just what she was implying.

"What? No, we-" Dean chuckled nervously, taking a half step back and shaking his head as he looked from the woman to Cas who was little help when he off-handedly commented on the fact that Mari wasn't adopted but that they were indeed a family.

"It's not like that, we... She's my daughter, my wife's at home. He's... You know what, bye. Thanks for the pictures." Dean stammered, seeing that nothing he said was going to convince her to think anything but her own conclusion and stormed off, with Mari happily making her growling noises above his head oblivious to the entire exchange.

Mari roared at the lady that took their pictures and then in turn down at the little images that appeared when she gave them over. Castiel’s brow furrowed at the woman’s comment, not understanding her overly excited air when she discovered they were family. Nor did he get why Dean seemed flustered by the woman’s comment when it was accurate.

The tiniest angel kicked and squawked at the rest of the animals as they wandered for another couple of hours, stopping for a bite to eat at a hot dog stand that Mari insisted was going to be good. It was starting to cool off and get dark by the time they got back in the car, the littlest was sleeping in her father’s arms, clutching a stuffed tiger in her hand and wearing the tiny zebra print sunglasses she had insisted she needed though they were askew on her face as she nuzzled into Dean further.

Her father put her in the backseat once again while Castiel got himself situated up front and Mari slept nearly the whole drive home, waking just long enough to request they stop for ice cream only to crash again when Dean managed to pull off the freeway. Aleah was waiting for them more or less, taking a few calls here or there from hunters who had questions on a kill and at the same time making a few herself so that she could send more experienced ones on cases she knew they could handle. While off in the other room Sam was researching a case of his own in silence.

She heard the door and smiled when Dean passed by with a sleeping Mari, pressing a finger to his lips to indicate to be quiet. Aleah mouthed for him to wait for her saying she would be done on her call in a minute or two. And when she finished up with a run of the mill wraith case that needed tending she got up and hunted for Dean who had put Mari down for bed. “I was hoping she would be up so I could hear all about her day. Did you have fun?” She asked her husband when he pulled away from their daughter’s bed.

He nodded his head and crossed his arms over his chest, watching their little one sleep. Dean started to answer and tell her that she had a good time when Mari muttered for her mom. Aleah moved and sat down on the end of the bed, brushing her fingers over the tiny brunette’s hair, “Hi, Bug.” She whispered, telling her gently to go back to sleep.

“Okay but Daddy has your presents.” Mari whispered like it was a big secret, “Cotton Candy and we took pictures. Look… Do you like my tiger?” She questioned through a yawn and Aleah bent to kiss her head and then the stuffed animal she showed her, saying that she loved it. “Can we have pancakes tomorrow? Then we can tell you about the zoo.”

Aleah nodded and laughed quietly, “Of course we can.” She whispered back, saying her good nights and getting up so they could leave their little one to sleep. Dean pulled the door closed and they walked out hand in hand to the living room where Castiel was sitting looking over the photos the woman had taken for them at the zoo. “Hi Cas.” She grinned at her uncle, heading over to join him on the sofa, taking the images from his hand. “Aww.” She cooed down at them, looking up at Dean who got flustered all over again and she arched a brow.

“The woman was very pleased with our family. She said we were ‘a handsome couple’ and thought our family was lovely. Though I’m not sure how she knew that in its entirety but my assumption is that she noted how well taken care of Mari is and simply knew” Castiel mentioned, smiling at her until she started giggling uncontrollably. “I don’t understand.” He stated.

Aleah shook her head, her body shaking with laughter, “Oh my god.” She snickered, “You do make an adorable couple.” She teased, seeing the look on Dean’s face when he left and said he needed a drink. “Aww honey! Are you embarrassed? It’s okay I think it’s precious.” She snorted as Dean shot back for her to stop.

"Oh my god, could you just... Not. I need a beer." Dean groaned, waving his hand dismissively at his wife and retreating to the kitchen. He didn't really want to be teased about that particular subject, he already got it enough first with Sam and then Cas, but still even that couldn't spoil his good mood.

If he was honest with himself, he was genuinely surprised that their little trip to the zoo had gone off so well. Things just... Didn't really have a history of going well for him, or his family for that matter. In fact Aleah and Mari were about the only good things he had that didn't come crashing down, the only catch with them was that he had to spend every second worrying about their safety from a bunch of dick angels.

He cracked open his beer and took a swig, laughing to himself a bit, feeling like his heart was going to pound out of his chest. It was a small win, but he had needed it far more than he knew. His small chuckle turned into a full on laugh of happiness, to the point where tears were pricking his eyes and he felt ridiculous but it was hard to stop when he felt like he had just dodged a bullet, more like a whole clip.

He heard Aleah's quiet voice at his back and he turned to face her, smiling brightly and shaking his head when she asked him why he was laughing.

"I don't know. I don't really know Al, I-" Dean took a deep breath to get himself more in control so he could speak. "I took my daughter to the zoo. That's all. I took her, and we looked at lions, and ate overpriced food, and Cas held a stupid cockroach from Madagascar so she could pet it and it was... Perfectly normal. Just a nice, average day with my kid. And my weird ass friend walking around squinting at everything that everyone probably assumed I do... Gross stuff with." He laughed again, opening up his arm to hug Aleah as she crossed the room and slipped into his embrace.

Aleah craned her head up and he smiled as she spoke to him, bending to seal his lips to hers in a sweet kiss. He set his beer down to hold her with both hands pressed into her back, deepening the contact. She mewled into his mouth and he reached down to give her firm rear a squeeze, nipping at her lower lip and enjoying the bliss he felt in this moment that was so rare for him to experience.

Suddenly Castiel's deep voice made them both jolt and break apart, and Dean's smile bent when he saw the graveness in his friend's expression. He reported that Mari was no longer in the bunker, and Aleah's blue eyes widened as her senses confirmed his words when she focused on trying to locate her daughter's aura.

Dean's insides clenched with panic, "Where is she Cas? There is no way something could've taken her here-" Dean practically yelled, cut off by his friend holding up confirming that no, there was nothing else around that could've taken her but with her markings on her ribs she was impossible for him to detect.

Aleah put her hand on Dean's chest, reporting that she was simply just outside the bunker, in the Impala to be specific. She had a special connection with her daughter that allowed her to sense the girl even with the runes etched on her ribs, at least at short distances. "She's in the car?" Dean sputtered, rushing outside with Aleah hot on his heels, meeting Castiel who had simply transported himself outside.

Dean flung the door open and sure enough, Mari was bouncing in the backseat of the Impala, giggling to herself and clutching the stuffed chameleon she had forgotten in the vehicle, too busy with her other toys and prizes.

Aleah slipped her arms around Dean mewling as he did just the same and kissed her deeply. His hands snaked around to grab her ass and tug her flush against his larger frame. She melted into his touch and his kiss, enjoying what he was offering her in the moment while they had it and part of her hoped for a little more if she could get it. “Dean.” Cas’s deep voice chimed in through the open doorway to the kitchen, the angel stepping through to get closer to them with no mind to the fact that they were… rather close in proximity.

Aleah jumped though by this point she should be used to her uncle’s sudden appearances. “Mari is not in the Bunker.” He informed them and her face completely fell into an expression of sheer panic as she refocused and tried to find their daughter. She made the attempt to see if she could feel her presence still in the building and she didn’t, shaking her head at Dean and confirming both of their fears.

“There is no other being that could have taken her. I would have noted it had someone arrived, Dean. With the prayer along her ribs newly intact I cannot follow her. It is nearly impossible for me to detect Mari.” Castiel continued, his own brow furrowed with worry for the littlest of the Winchesters.

Aleah hardly heard what the other two were saying, closing her eyes and listening to her daughter, smacking Dean’s chest when she could hear her squeal as if she was next to her. “The car. Dean she’s in the Impala.” She insisted, nodding at his follow up confirmation. The parents tore off to the door and sure enough Mari was poised in the backseat near her car seat, excitedly playing with her stuffed chameleon that Dean got her as well. “Mari.” She squeaked at the little girl, waiting for her lover to pull her out of the car.

Her heart was racing a thousand beats a minute and Dean squished their daughter to his frame, asking her if she was alright. “Yea. Daddy look! I wanted my toy and I found it. I dreamed I was in the car and then when I opened my eyes I did it!” Mari explained like he should be so proud of her for having done… whatever it is that she had done.

“Cas can they sense her? Did it trigger anything?” Aleah asked in a hurry, nudging at Dean with tears of sheer fear in her eyes as she tried to usher her family back into the safety of the bunker. Cas shook his head, saying he didn’t think it was enough of a movement to cause an uproar especially given that her existence was still secret. She nodded, wiping her eyes and following after Dean.

“Mommy why are you cryin’?” Mari asked in a sincerely worried tone of voice, reaching for her and Dean moved so she could brush her hand over her mother’s cheek and kiss the tears away. “I come back, Mama. See. No cryin’.” She instructed.

Aleah sniffled and nodded, explaining that she had scared her and Mari apologized, looking like she was going to cry herself. She shushed her daughter, “It’s okay, Bug. I’m okay. I promise. Mari have you done that before?” She asked, watching her daughter nod her head but she avoided the adult’s gazes.

“I have magic. Like when Uncle Sammy does tricks and like Uncle Cas… I can find my toys when they go missing. They come to me or I poof…” Mari gestured with her hand, “To them.” She stated, shifting in her father’s arms when he started to sit her down on the couch. Her lower lip quivered and her bright blue eyes spilled over with tears, “I in trouble?”

Aleah looked to Dean, it was late but this was rather important in both their eyes. He crouched down in front of their daughter, asking if these things she could do scared her, when they started happening and if she understood why. She shook her head at all three of his questions. “No Daddy I’m not scared. I’m tough like you.” She answered, looking at him as though she almost thought this was normal for a human to be able to do, as if the adults had simply kept it from her. “It’s okay?” She prompted, as though saying so would make it true.

Dean gently cupped his daughter's small face, trying to sort out rational thought from the stomach turning panic he'd just been drowning in for the brief seconds he didn't know where Mari was. Her sweet, innocent expression tore him up, it was all he could do not to give in to his automatic instinct to reassure her, tell her there was absolutely nothing wrong and she didn't have to worry about a thing.

Because the truth was, there was nothing okay about this. It wasn't his daughter's fault, simply because of who she was her life was always going to be more dangerous, more difficult, and as much as he wanted to shield her from that there was nothing he could do to change the fact that her birthright made her a danger to herself and others.

But how could he look into her sweet, trusting face and tell her that what came naturally to her was wrong, something to hide and be wary of? "You're not in trouble Shorty, okay? You didn't do anything bad, but..." Dean took a shaky breath, his eyes casting about the room wildly as if he hoped that the perfect answer might just be floating above his head somewhere.

"Mari baby, I need you to do something for me, all right?" Dean gently gripped his daughter's arms, trying to keep his own emotions in check as he spoke to her. "You can't... Go find your toys on your own like that, all right? You've gotta hunt for 'em, just like Daddy would. It's more fun to run around with your feet anyways, isn't it?" He smiled at her encouragingly, banking on his daughter's tendency to want to be around him and imitate him all the time to manage this situation for now.

"I'm not mad, neither is Mommy or anyone else. But you've gotta stop poofing places, it's... It's not safe." He explained, tugging her small frame to his and squeezing her tight, picking the girl up and looking at his wife over the top of her head. She wore a heartbroken expression that looked how he felt inside, Aleah didn't want to have to stifle their daughter either but it was simply too dangerous to risk her transporting herself out of the bunker and calling the God Squad down on her head. 

Aleah stepped closer and he opened one arm up to draw her in as well, embracing his family and wishing with all his heart he could make everything all right for them. Mari was crying softly into his chest, not really understanding why but she could sense her parents distress and simply didn't know any other way to process it. The brunette sniffled, murmuring that she'd thought they would have more time before they had to worry about this, and Dean could only nod and kiss her brow in a gesture of comfort.

The hunter kept his gaze sharp and his jaw tight to prevent his emotions from breaking him down, he looked to his friend who hovered just near them and cleared his throat. "We've gotta start teaching her Cas, to control her power, to keep it in check. I don't wanna pull her out of school, she's just started making friends but I think it'd be best if we kept her here a few days. Can you spare the time to stay and... I dunno, help her control it? I know she's still young, but if you can teach her to recognize that what she's doing is a conscious choice, one she doesn't have to make... I think that's a good start." He asked his angelic friend, his grip on Aleah tightening in response to her tiny sob she couldn't quite muffle listening to him basically asking Cas to help them teach Mari to deny a part of herself.

Mari stared up at her father as he started to speak to her, promising that she wasn’t in trouble though she felt she still might be. Her eyes welled and her lip trembled as she fought to keep herself from crying thinking that she had disappointed her parents as well as Castiel who was watching them too. She fidgeted with the stuffed toy in her hands, petting it like it was real for a source of comfort. He told her that what she did wasn’t bad but she felt like it was from the way they were all so worried, she didn’t mean to scare them in such a way but she had.

Dean instructed her not to go and get her toys the way that she had been but in her mind before they knew about what she had learned the way she went about things was completely normal. “Okay.” She said in a small voice, nodding her head and meeting the green gaze of the man she admired most of all in her life. She wanted to ask him why it was bad, why it wasn’t safe for her to do so but she couldn’t, her chest going tight and she broke down into a sobbing mess as her father tugged her forward into his arms and hugged her tightly. She buried her face into his chest and clung to his neck and shirt, crying everything out.

Aleah watched their little exchange and her own eyes welled as she did so, sniffling and stepping forward when her husband looked at her. She didn’t know what to do, how to help or what exactly to tell their daughter about who she was and what she could and couldn’t do with her abilities… nothing really. The brunette read every damn parenting book to ensure that she had gotten it down pat to give their daughter everything she would need to grow up healthy, smart, strong, all of the above. But nothing prepared her for this, there was no stories written on how to birth and raise a human/angel hybrid, no one could help her or give her answers either they simply had to hope they were doing what was right for her.

“I didn’t think she would develop that quickly… I thought we would have more time to figure things out… to know what to say and how to help…” She cried, holding onto Dean’s side and nuzzling him much to the same manner that Mari was at the moment. She reached out and ran her hand over their daughter’s back, comforting her silently while Dean addressed the full angel in the room lingering beside them.

Castiel’s brow furrowed, his expression filled with worry now as he watched the family converse together. He didn’t know what to say because there was a part of him that was rather proud to know Mari was developing much quicker than Aleah had simply because it meant she was far stronger already, at a stage that Aleah hadn’t yet grown into until she was older. He could work with her sooner, control it sooner and teach her to be as strong as he could mold her into. But at the same time his heart broke a little because he partly hoped that she wouldn’t get any of it and her life would remain rather easy, no fight like what Aleah had to go through, no fear of tomorrow.

The angel nodded, “I believe my tasks can wait… Family is of utmost importance. Mari’s safety comes first.” He mentioned, smiling softly at the couple when Aleah turned to look up at him. “I cannot guarantee my presence for more than a few days but I will ensure I teach her all I can in the time I have.” He said with a nod as Dean thanked the man.

Aleah pleaded with Dean to let Mari sleep in bed with them at least for tonight, needing to feel and ensure that her daughter was still beside them, fearing that she might vanish again in her sleep if her dreams allotted her to do such a thing. He agreed to it, though he didn’t seem like he needed it quite as much as she did but still he slept with his hand over his little girl’s tiny frame in an unconscious protective gesture.

They woke early the next morning and Aleah made pancakes for the whole gang, talking quietly to Cas when he came in to the kitchen telling her of his thoughts on what he could show Mari. He promised things would be okay and he would show her all he knew for the next few days to make sure she kept things in check. “I don’t want her learning more… Well I do but… Cas I mostly just want her to know how to keep it under wraps. How to control it all and know that she can decide when to use it and when not to. She’s got to have limitations and ground rules and hearing them from you as well as her parents is going to make them sink in a little better. She trusts you, Cas. She loves you and I think she’s going to take your words to heart so I need you to make sure you only do what needs doing. Nothing more, okay? Please.” The half angel begged him and he nodded his understanding, greeting Dean when he came in to talk to Aleah just the same likely in regards to the same topic.

Aleah smiled at her husband as he slipped his hand around her back and kissed her cheek sweetly. Mari was quiet most the morning, kept to herself which was rather unusual and it seemed very much like she had still been thinking she did something wrong. “I’m worried… that she thinks there’s something wrong with her. That she’s different and that it’s a bad thing… I hate that I put her through this, that she couldn’t be given the choice or something to be who she is. I don’t want her to be scared.” She mumbled with watery eyes to her husband as he hugged her none the less. He assured her that if anyone he trusted Castiel to inform her of all that, seeing that his sympathy seemed to show a lot more when it came to Mari likely because he had a bit of a connection with her while on an entirely different level than what Aleah had with the girl but he did catch onto what she was feeling more than others.

The first round of training was rocky to say the least with Aleah supervising and perhaps the air about her stressed Mari even further to the point of crying again. Castiel opted for taking her alone, down to another room in the bunker where she could keep her focus and he could show her how to zap about the room when she wanted as well as explain to her that it wasn’t a requirement, just because she wanted to do something or go somewhere she could avoid that pull. The process was long but he kept as patient as he could, answering her repetitive questions and instructing her as gently as he could. She was delicate, just as Aleah had been, her far too human emotions made her a little more vulnerable to things he said or how she reacted to varying environments.

Aleah was still in the living room sitting quietly, waiting for them to finish up for the day and for her lover to come home. Dean beat them back to the top level of the bunker, asking how things were going and Aleah shrugged, saying she assumed they were well considering she only saw Mari when she made Cas bring her up for some lunch. “I was hoping we would eat dinner all together again… Ask her how it goes. She still thinks you’re upset with her, that she disappointed us… Mostly you. I think she knows that I’ve got some of the same things in me so she worried a little less about my opinion.” The woman muttered.

Dean went to work the next day but his mind was not on the vehicles he was repairing, not by a long shot. He knew Cas was going to start working with Mari today, teaching her how to use and more importantly control her powers. He was so distracted he had sliced his hand open, but it wasn't like he hadn't had far worse so even that did little to pull him out of his own mind worrying for his daughter and also his wife who was basically having it thrown in her face that she and Mari were different yet again.

He got home, seeing Aleah sitting anxiously in the library pretty much in the exact same spot he had left her that morning, waiting for Cas and Mari to be done with their little training session. He called her name to get her attention, coming down the steps with his jacket slung over his bandaged hand. He knew Aleah could heal it in an instant, but there was a small part of him that wanted the pain to linger, it was easier to focus on the physical pain in his hand than the guilt eating him from the inside out.

"How's it going?" He asked, knowing she understood what he was referring to specifically. His gaze hardened at Aleah's answer, he felt like a complete ass making his daughter think he was angry with her, especially over something she had no control of.

"I'll talk to her, I don't want her thinking like that..." He mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose out of frustration and swiping his large hand over his scruffy face. He sighed and wrapped his arm around Aleah when she came to nuzzle into his frame, kissing the top of her head and making a noise of acknowledgement when she told him not to beat himself up over this.

"I think that dinner sounds great. I'll go fetch the troops." He told her, smiling crookedly at his wife trying to reassure her that he was all right. The hunter went down to one of the old labs Sam had been spending a lot of time in lately, busy with his project of creating an updated compendium of his supernatural knowledge like their father's journal.

The tall man was bent over his desk busily copying down notes from an old book into his laptop and Dean had to call his name twice to get him to realize there was someone else in the room with him. Sam finally turned to look at him, asking him what he wanted and Dean's brow furrowed as he noted how pale his brother looked.

"Aleah's got dinner ready... You all right Sammy? You don't look so good." Dean responded, taking a couple steps further into the room but Sam waved him off.

"Yeah no, I'm fine. I think I caught something last time I was out, been having stomach cramps and stuff. Think I'll skip out on dinner for tonight, don't wanna get Mari sick." Sam said in a haggard tone, turning back to his work clearly done with their conversation.

"Okay, well... I'll bring something to your room later, you should get some rest soon. If it gets worse I'm sure Cas or Al can fix you up." Dean responded, not pushing his brother like he might have in the past, after recovering from their last huge fallout Dean had been less inclined to give his brother orders and it seemed to be working well for both of them. Besides that, his mind was still largely preoccupied with his daughter, checking on her progress and making sure she knew he wasn't upset with her. Sam gave a sort of half grunt in response and Dean left to go find Cas and his little girl deeper in the bunker.

The short-haired hunter made his way to the large storage room they had cleared out and warded even on top of the built in security of the bunker, the same place Castiel had taught Aleah about the ins and outs of her angelic prowess. He knocked gently on the door and poked his head in, pulling the red sucker he'd snagged from the candy jar at his garage that Mari was always trying to get into whenever they visited from his pocket.

"There's my girl! C'mere Bug." Dean prompted cheerfully, opening the door all the way and crouching down to meet his daughter when she rushed across the large room to his open arms. He hugged her close and held up the lollipop for her when he let go, making her eyes go wide with delight. "I hear somebody's been a good girl today, doing what Uncle Cas tells her. Do you happen to know who that might be Mari?" He asked, a playful grin across his face as he held the sucker just out of her reach.

Mari proclaimed in an excited voice that it was her who had been minding 'Uncle Cas' as they referred to him with her, and he cheered for her and handed over the candy. "Hurry up and eat that, your mom doesn't like candy right before dinner." He winked at his daughter, making her giggle and he felt a weight off his chest as he felt fairly confident that she wasn't worried about him being upset with her anymore after his praise and little sugary peace offering. He just dreaded the day when a smile and a bit of candy wouldn't be enough to take all her pain away.

He looked up at his best friend, straightening up once more and keeping his tone light in front of his daughter as he asked about her progress. Dean knew he'd have to wait till Mari wasn't around for a more detailed report from Cas but he had to have at least something from the angel to tide him over.

Mari rushed to her father, falling into his arms and clinging to him, always excited to see him when he came home from work no matter how long it had been. Most all was forgotten considering she was only a toddler and had the memory of one just as well. “Hi Daddy.” She giggled, her eyes going wide with wonder and excitement when he extended a lollipop for her to take. She cooed at it not expecting him to say that it was really for her at all when he mentioned someone had been a good girl, asking if she knew who that might have been.

“Me! Daddy I did everything Uncle Cassie told me.” She informed him proudly, reaching out and waiting for him to give the okay that the sucker was in fact meant for her. He nodded his head gently and she squealed, snatching the red object from him and wiggling at his side. It was her favorite flavor and he knew it though she rarely got to have them anymore. She reached and tried to pry off the wrapper, starting to use her teeth when he told her to hurry but then he snatched it from her just as she started to ask for his help.

She opened and closed her hands eagerly awaiting the return of her candy and he laughed, handing it to her again this time unwrapped. “Thank you.” She whispered to him, shoving the lollipop in her mouth and sucking on it happily as she smiled up at him. The little girl dropped down to the floor, sitting along the wall and eating her treat while the adults talked. She didn’t pay much mind to what the discussion was about but she hadn’t missed her name in the conversation. “Daddy I’m okay.” She assured him not knowing what he was asking about but thinking he sounded worried.

Castiel gave a nod of reassurance to follow as Dean ran his hand over Mari’s hair, straightening out again completely. “She did very well today. I taught her how to ‘poof’ herself at will. Explained just what ‘will’ is and why she must control when she uses her abilities. Mari does seem to understand far more than you and Aleah give her credit for.” He mentioned, smiling rather fondly at the little girl who giggled at him.

“Daddy Cas took me back and forth across the room then I poofed us too. Both of us! I have to close my eyes and think really hard. It hurts my head a little but I’m okay. Want to see?” Mari chimed in, humming around her sucker, her lips already staining red from the dye in it as she spoke to the man. Dean chuckled and told her maybe another time because he didn’t want her to hurt herself again. She nodded, “Okay.”

Dean asked Cas why she had pain when she did such things and the angel shrugged, “Possibly because her abilities are not fully developed. It takes a lot more out of her but she has managed. I assure you that I only required it of her a time or two.” He stated, seeing the look on Dean’s face when he seemed worried that he might have caused his daughter pain. “Aleah will expect to hear the extent of what we did as well. Perhaps after dinner.” He suggested and Dean nodded his agreement.

Castiel worked with Mari for several days, and the following week Dean and Aleah finally decided to let her go back to school. Both parents were apprehensive about it but it seemed like Mari understood that it was important for her not to use her 'magic,' especially not outside the bunker even if she didn't really grasp why. 

Dean knew better than to assume things would be smooth sailing from here on out but he at least felt like his daughter would try her best and that was all they could ask of her in the end. It was either put a little faith in her or never let her leave the bunker again, and he didn't want to resort to that if it could be at all avoided.

For the next few months, Dean's small family lived their lives with little incident, and the hunter had more or less shaken the tense dread that had been weighing on him every day since letting Mari go back out into the world without one of them there to keep her safe and in check every moment of the day. There was still an axe hanging over his head, but then again when had there ever not been? 

Dean was actually smiling and singing along a bit to the radio as he worked, getting marked up with engine grit and grime and feeling that now more familiar sense of satisfaction that he got from working with his hands and fixing something broken. His 'other' line of work was rewarding in its own way but he figured it was a lot healthier for him to feel content about working on cars rather than slicing up monsters.

His cellphone buzzed in his pocket and he wiped his dirty hand on the front of his coveralls before fishing it out and his brows knitted together when he saw it was Aleah calling. He answered and slipped the phone between his shoulder and cheek, continuing to work as he greeted his wife. 

"Hey Al, what's going on?" He asked, hoping she was just calling to ask him to pick up some milk on the way home from work or something equally innocuous. The strained tone in Aleah's voice made his gut clench and his heart pound, of course he wasn't gonna get off that easy. 

"Easy, easy- Slow down baby. I need you to take a deep breath. Now tell me what's wrong. Is it Mari?" He interrupted Aleah's distressed babbling, making her calm down at least enough for him to be able to understand her. His eyes widened and he threw his tools down as Aleah went on to tell him that there had been an incident at school with Mari and a boy in her class. No one was hurt but things were not looking good for their daughter. She was barely able to keep herself composed enough to give him more details so he interrupted her again, forcing his voice to stay even and calm.

"Aleah, I'm coming to you right now, okay? I'll be home soon and we'll figure this out. It's gonna be okay." He told her in a tone of certainty though he had gone pale as a sheet and on the inside he was panicking. 

Aleah’s heart was pounding in her chest, desperately trying to catch her breath and feeling like she might choke on her own sobs. She was sick with worry for her daughter now, she had been compromised and there was really no fixing it at this point. She forced herself to take a deep but shaky breath to calm herself, her hands trembling as Dean said he would come home to her. “Hurry. Please, Dean.” She pleaded with him on the other line.

She needed him; he was the only one who truly could keep her from flying apart no matter what went wrong. She waited the half hour or so it took Dean to get home to the bunker again, worriedly waiting just near the door. He asked her immediately when he entered what was going on, wanting to know exactly what happened and she took a shaky breath. She shook her head trying to gather her thoughts once more because they had thought this was behind them, so naive to think that they could let her go to school and have a normal life. “Dean I thought she would be okay…” She started, her lip trembling because a large part of her felt so overwhelmingly guilty for pushing the man into letting Mari go off to school.

“I shouldn’t have let her go. After we found out she was developing abilities like me… I’m sorry.” She cried and he grabbed her arms gently, pulling her to him and asking her to stop for a second. He bent and told her to tell him what went on, if anyone saw what happened. “There-there was an incident at school.” She started again more calmly this time so he could understand her. She met his worried green gaze, “She fought with her friend, Jimmy I guess. She told me he was teasing her with his friend so… she remember us telling her only to use her powers for protection. Apparently she thought poofing a little boy to the roof of her school was the only way to handle this.” Aleah explained.

Dean arched a brow and asked for certain if she meant she trapped the kid up on top of the building. “Yes. In front of all the other kids at recess. Her teacher was freaking out. The kids are freaked out and Mari was sobbing because she thought she was doing the right thing.” The brunette shook her head, “I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to tell our daughter… How do I tell her people will never accept her?” She cried, following his prompting when he pulled her forward to lean into his chest, telling her they would figure this out but the tone in his voice told her he was trying not to freak out himself.

“What if they come after her now? What if she’s on the angel’s radars now? She can’t go back there…” Aleah murmured into his shirt, holding onto him and begging for the answer to come to them. She was scared to death for her child and yet she couldn’t be, she was meant to be strong for her, to make her feel okay and she no longer knew how to do that. 

Dean held his wife tightly, the pieces of his broken heart bleeding with remorse as she told him what had happened. He could tell she was on the verge of coming apart completely and he took a deep breath, digging up every last bit of strength he had and pulling back to make her look at him.

"Listen to me Aleah." He said in a firm tone of voice, his green eyes pricked with tears but he made himself stay in control. "We are going to make it through this. I promise you. You're right, we can't let Mari go back there... But we'll home school her. Between you and Sammy, she'll probably get a lot better education than anything the friggin' state of Kansas can provide anyway." He chuckled lightly, trying to break her out of her spiral of despair at least a little.

"We knew, we always knew, that Mari's life was going to be difficult. But the important thing is that she's all right, we're all here together and we're gonna keep going. Maybe we jumped the gun a bit, letting her go out without us so young, but we're human too, right? We're gonna make mistakes. Now we know." He gently cupped her face, swiping at the tears streaming down her face and giving her a small smile even though his heart was twisting in his chest as he spoke.

"We're going to keep her here. Teach her, give her everything she needs to grow up into the amazing, beautiful girl we know she is. And once she's older, and truly understands why she has to keep her powers under wraps..." Dean saw Aleah start to fracture again and gently turned her face back up when she looked away.

"Not because she's any less of a person, not because we don't love every part of her. You know that isn't it, and so will she. But once she truly understands, we'll let her try again. We're gonna find a way, all right? One day at a time. One... Day at a time." He soothed, saying the words not just for her but also himself.

He hated basically having to imprison his daughter, but he had always known from the moment Aleah found out she was pregnant, that he was going to do whatever it took to keep his child safe. Even if it meant being the bad guy in the process. Even if it meant breaking what was left of his heart.

Aleah ducked her head but Dean was quick to grab at her and keep her from looking away from him. She stared back at his green orbs and listened to what he had to tell her, sniffling in the process and trying desperately to keep her remaining tears in check. It hurt more than she expected anything to, emotionally to know that her daughter couldn’t just live and act and be who she was. All because of her and Mari didn’t have a choice or a say in any of this.

She nodded at his final words, one day at a time and she supposed that was the only way they could do this, the only way they could hope to get through everything. Not thinking about tomorrow or the past but simply ensuring each today was good enough. “I know she’ll understand.” She muttered in response, tugging him down with her hands on his neck and face so he was level with her. The brunette rested her forehead against his, letting tears stream down her cheeks once more as her eyes fluttered closed simply holding on to him.

Dean leaned forward to meet her lips in a soft sweet kiss and she returned it lightly. “She’s hiding out in her room.” She answered when he asked where Mari was, pulling back to wipe the tears beneath her own eyes on the flannel of Dean’s she still wore from time to time mostly when she was going to bed or wasn’t feeling well. “I didn’t know what to do or say to her. She’s pretty upset herself… She gets that she made a mistake but I still think she believes she was only protecting herself like we told her to. Only this wasn’t really a situation that called forthat much protection.”

The hunter nodded and requested that she let him talk to her and then they could jump in to telling her about school. Aleah agreed, knowing that Mari would want to talk to her father out of anyone to get comfort, until she heard he wasn’t upset with her she likely wouldn’t relax anyhow. They walked hand in hand back to their daughters room the door was propped opened and she was on her bed curled up in the corner near her headboard flipping through the pages of one of her favorite Bernstein Bears books.

“Hi Daddy.” Mari greeted in little above a whisper, her chin resting on top of the teddy bear she was holding in her lap, hugging it closer as she turned to another page. She could see in her father’s face that he had found out what happened at her school and her lower lip quivered not out of fear but worry that she upset her family again. He climbed up on to her bed with her, lifting her over to his lap and she leaned against him with their legs sprawled together. Dean asked her what she was reading and she closed the book and showed him the front though he knew that she couldn’t really read it herself. He took it from her and flipped it back opened and Aleah could see in his eyes he was trying not to cry as he held her and started reading the book out loud to her.

Mari took advantage of the sweet moment with her dad, thinking perhaps he hadn’t heard what happened but in the back of her tiny mind she knew he wasn’t home just to sit here with her in bed. “Daddy I was bad today.” She muttered when he was in the middle of a page, running her hand over her teddy’s fuzzy head. Her father stopped, waiting for her to say more and she did, “Jimmy called me bad names… He pushed me so I poofed him like Uncle Cas showed me.” She admitted, turning her head to see if he was listening to her and he was, his eyes trained on hers and he simply bent and kissed the top of her hair saying he knew. “My teacher said I was ‘devil’s child’… The other kids were mean to me until Mommy and Uncle Sammy came.”

“They made me leave. They put me by myself in the classroom until Mama showed.” The tiny brunette mentioned, starting to cry again, “Why don’t people like me? Uncle Cas says my magic is good.” She buried her face into her stuffed animal and sobbed, feeling her father’s hand on her back, gently trying to comfort her through touch and get her to look up at him again. He promised that her ‘magic’ was in fact good that she just wasn’t meant to show others what she could do because not everyone could do the things she could. “But I said I was sorry. I didn’t mean it.” She whined, referring to the other kids as well as her teacher, as though that alone should right her wrong because in a toddlers mind it did. 

"I know, Bug. I know. It's good to say you're sorry. But sometimes... Sometimes that isn't enough." Dean told her, his voice cracking slightly with emotion and he took a deep breath to get a handle on himself again. He shifted to get a more direct look at his small daughter, gently brushing his fingers through her dark hair and giving her a warm smile.

"But you know what? Things are gonna... They're gonna be better now. Mommy and Uncle Sammy are gonna teach you, and Uncle Cas is gonna help you learn more about your magic and how to control it. And I'll play with you when I come home, and help you with anything that you need, okay?" Dean told her, his chest tightening when Mari told him she would like that, but then asked him in a wobbly voice if she could go back to school after she learned things from her mother and uncles.

Dean's brow furrowed and he put everything he had into not breaking down in front of his daughter. "No, Mari. No you can't go back to school. Your magic... It's too special, other people can't understand it. But maybe when you're older, if you're a good girl and work hard, you can try going to a different school." He explained, gathering Mari into his lap and holding her tight when she began to cry, saying that she didn't want a different school, she wanted to go back and see her friends.

He rocked her gently, hushing her cries and swallowing hard on the lump in his throat. "You're gonna make new friends someday babygirl. Good friends and you'll have lots of fun I promise. But right now... You've got to stay at home. That's just how it's gotta be." He murmured, holding her until she cried herself out, drifting off into a fitful sleep in his arms, her little body simply worn out by the stress of the day and all the emotions she'd been feeling.

Dean gently laid her down in her bed and tucked her favorite stuffed animal in beside her, placing a light kiss on her flushed cheek before slipping silently from her room. Her pained cries still filled his head, he knew she would understand the world and why they had to do this in time but for now it cut him into pieces making his little girl so sad.

The hunter finally broke, sobbing harshly and sliding his back down along the wall just beside Mari's door, sitting heavily on the floor and muttering his daughter's name and apologizing to her over and over in between labored breaths as he swiped his palms over his hair and face. He only allowed himself a moment or two of giving in to his despair, crying softly and railing at the world in his mind.

Dean made himself get up after a bit and took a few deep breaths. He still had no idea how to make this okay for his daughter or his wife but all he knew was that he had to be strong for them, had to show them that everything was going to be all right even if he didn't really see how that was possible himself. He cleared his throat and collected himself, going back out to the kitchen and getting into the liquor cabinet. Tonight he needed something a little stiffer than beer.

Aleah heard Dean out in the kitchen, biting her lip and knowing that meant he was done talking to Mari. She stopped by their daughter’s room to quickly check on her and say a gentle good night without rousing her much at all before she slipped out into the expansive living area and watched her husband toss back a glass of whiskey. He poured himself another and turned to head out with the bottle in hand and she waited for him to note that she was standing there.

Her eyes watered, knowing that Dean rarely broke into the liquor cabinet now a days and Sam said it had been that way for a long while. He mostly drank beer, had a glass of whiskey or something along those lines when he had a rough hunt so she knew full well he was struggling with all of this. “Don’t go crazy okay?” She pleaded softly and he grunted his acknowledgement heading out to the living room and dropping down on the couch.

Her brow knitted together with worry for not only Mari but now Dean; he spent his whole life trying to protect people, those he loved especially at the top of his list and she knew that Mari was his number one and it was killing him to know he couldn’t simply make the problem go away. He snatched her hand when she got close to the couch and she took his cue and sat in his lap. She ran her hand up his chest to cup his face, seeing he had been crying and her own eyes welled over but he told her firmly not to cry. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and nodded, “She’s gonna be okay, Dean. She’s smart and she’s tough. She’ll understand.” She assured him.

Dean nodded and offered her a drink from his glass, the brunette stared at it but took a sip anyways, wincing at the stronger taste and handing it back to him. “I’ll stick to the basics.” She said, making him laugh a little as he drank the remaining liquid. Her husband reached over and grabbed the remote, flipping on the television and she curled up in his lap, resting against his chest and quietly watching show after show together until she felt tired, her eyes growing heavy as she tried to stay awake.

The hunter nudged at her and told her to go to bed if she needed it. She shifted and looked up at him, fixing the grimy shirt he wore. “Come with me.” She encouraged and he shook his head saying he wasn’t really tired yet. Aleah nodded and leaned forward to kiss him slowly, “Don’t stay out here too long though. I don’t… want you dwelling on everything. She’s home and safe and we’ll fix it.” She comforted to the same manner that was usually his job with her. He nodded and she could see tears in his eyes when she pressed her lips to his a final time. “I love you, Dean.” She whispered, getting up to her feet from his lap and heading around the couch to go back into their room.

Aleah left him, her lip quivering as she slipped away and closed their door. She opted for a shower, taking the time to do just what she had encouraged Dean not to and let things stir, everything fully sinking in, the thought that their daughter could never go back to that school and be with the same kids she loved as her friends. The teacher she had grown to admire that now saw her as little more than a possessed child or something along those lines. She sobbed brokenly, standing in the stream of warm water for she didn’t know how long and simply letting it wash over her body as if it would rinse away her worries and fears. 

Aleah had asked him not to get too out of hand with the whiskey and in the back of his mind he knew she was right. He hadn't really felt the need to self-medicate since the half-angel had come into his life, but at least wanted to ensure he was going to sleep solidly after a day like today and knowing that this road wasn't going to get any easier for him or his loved ones from here on out.

The short-haired hunter took a few more shots, the muscles in his back relaxing a bit as his concern blurred at the edges. He still had small remnants of the urge to drink until he forgot his own name, but he kept picturing Mari and Aleah's faces smiling up at him and it was enough to persuade him not to drown out his sorrows completely. He didn't want to forget them, forget that he cared so much for his girls that it tore his heart apart when he couldn't soothe their hurts. Not for a moment. They were worth having to acknowledge the pain.

Dean took his bottle and glass back to the kitchen, putting it away and leaning against the counter looking at the small collection of drawings and assignments of Mari's that were hung up on the fridge. His features fell and he ambled over to the appliance, reaching up and fidgeting with the corner of red construction paper that his daughter had drawn a portrait of her family on: Crude crayon stick figures, one of him, Aleah, herself, Sammy and Cas. Both Castiel and Aleah sported wings and the full angel's face was surrounded by a halo of yellowy white light. In the margin her teacher had written in flowy cursive script that Mari had 'such a creative, active imagination.'

Dean shook his head, wishing for the time when Mari's teacher simply thought she had an overactive imagination rather than some kind of devil spawn power. The hunter let go of the paper and sighed, retreating to he and Aleah's bedroom for the night.

Over the next couple years Dean watched as his beautiful little girl grew and adjusted to life sequestered in the bunker. They all did their part to keep her engaged and busy, Aleah and Sam's curriculum was probably three or four times more rigorous than anything she would've gotten in public school and she learned a lot from Dean as well, he taught her to play guitar, took her camping in the small warded spot Castiel had set aside for them in the rockies a few times. 

Mari took her studies very seriously for such a young girl and there were more times than Dean could count where he'd come home from work and find Mari holed up with her uncle Sam pouring over books and all manner of ancient artifacts in the bunker's extensive collection. She soaked everything up like a little sponge and was always eager for more.

One afternoon Dean arrived home and caught the faint sounds of Mari crying from down the hallway leading to the bedrooms, his muscles tensing with worry and he quickly jogged down to find her, calling her name. He rounded the corner and found the little brunette inside Sammy's room, sitting with her knees drawn up to her face on the man's bed. She was weeping softly and looked up a bit startled when she saw Dean, standing up and scrubbing at her eyes trying to clear her tears.

Dean sat next to her on the mattress and gripped her small shoulders, looking her up and down for some sign of hurt and glancing at Sam's ajar door behind them, confusion written on his face. "Mari baby, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He asked gently, wondering what if anything her distress might have to do with Sam considering where he found her.

The little girl shook her head, murmuring that it was a secret, she wasn't supposed to know and started crying again, only confusing Dean more. "It's okay, tell me what's wrong Bug. Is it about uncle Sammy?" He prompted and Mari nodded, still trying to hold in her tears unsuccessfully. He waited a moment for her to get her sniffles under control, till she finally told him that she saw her uncle downstairs reading the 'sick book.'

"The what? Sick-book? What are you talking about Mari?" Dean asked, his brow furrowing with confusion and concern. The little brunette went on to explain in broken tones that sometimes uncle Sammy would hide, and he didn't know she was spying on him, but that he would go to a secret room, then read a book and the book always made him sick. She started full on crying again, clearly upset by her uncle being in pain and also apologizing for spying as if she feared Dean might punish her for being bad.

Dean's green eyes went wide, from what she was saying his mind could only come up with one explanation, and he didn't like it one bit. Sam was giving Crowley blood, and reading from the tablet again, but why? And why keep it secret? His mind wandered back to the handful of times over the last year that Sam had come down with a flu or some other bug that knocked him on his ass for a few days, and his brother had never really gotten sick much before... Had he been working off the tablet all those times?

Dean picked Mari up, hushing her and telling her that she wasn't in trouble, but that she couldn't hide in Sammy's room. He carried her out and called for Aleah, trying to find his wife and finally did across the bunker working on their laundry. The half-angel turned with surprise when she saw Dean enter the room, concern on his face and fresh tears on Mari's.

She asked what was wrong and he handed Mari over to her so she could soothe her, trying to keep his voice even as he backed out of the room almost as quickly as he'd come, determined to go find his younger brother and see what the hell he was doing. "I'm not sure yet. Watch over Mari, I need to go talk to Sammy." He responded firmly, rushing downstairs to find his younger sibling.

Mari had been watching her Uncle Sammy for a while now mostly because she admired the man but also because she was worried. With her sensitivity to people’s moods and emotions she could tell that his well-being had been nowhere near top notch the past little while. She hadn’t any idea what he was doing, at least not at first. Then she had the grand idea of spying on him, watching him as he would come and go from his room to a secret place down stairs that she had never been allowed to go and see before.

It scared her, thinking he was getting sick and hurting himself but she really didn’t know why or how it was occurring anyways. She was holed up on his bed in the corner crying to herself as quietly as she could to avoid gaining anyone’s attention that was until Dean came round the corner and into Sam’s room. She jumped and tried to control her tears at his sudden appearance, wiping her eyes with her fist. Her father looked around and she knew he was worried just as well as confused by the fact that she was even in Sam’s room in the first place.

He asked her why she was crying and she could barely gather herself to speak up. “It’s a s-secret Daddy. I’m not even meant to know. U-Uncle S-Sammy’s secret.” She stuttered, her breathing shaky with her tears. She nodded at his next question but wasn’t sure what to tell him exactly because she didn’t even know the whole story herself. “I saw Uncle Sammy… H-He took the sick book… downstairs.” She started through another little hiccup.

Dean questioned further and she did her best to explain what it was the ‘sick book’ was considering yet again she didn’t even really know herself. All she knew was that each time he took it with him he came back with a more damaged aura and she didn’t like it one bit. “I’m sorry I spied Daddy!” She practically yelled, her body wracking with sobs by now but he promised she wasn’t in trouble. The tiny brunette’s arms slipped around his neck when he picked her up and hauled her out of Sam’s room.

Aleah jolted at the yell of her name coming from her lover, his tone was adamant and it was very clear something was going on. “What?” She prompted as she turned, seeing Dean was carrying Mari in his arms and the girl’s eyes were bright red from crying as much as she had been. “Dean what’s wrong?” She insisted, dropping the shirt of his she was folding and rushed up to him, brushing her hand over Mari’s face and taking her from him immediately when he offered her over.

She started to follow, asking what happened, wanting to know as much as he did until he took off like a shot and headed down the steps that led to one place and she knew exactly what was going on. Sam was back to reading the tablet again? That was the only explanation of what was happening and why her lover was so frantic and desperate to get down there, maybe he had just now slipped into Crowley’s quarters or something along those lines. Her mind raced to all possibilities, worried for her brother in law but her attention refocused when she heard Mari ask for her. “What’s wrong, Bug?” She cooed, running her hand through the girl’s hair and kissing her head.

Aleah carried her daughter back into the laundry room with her, setting her up on the washer and gently asking her again what the matter was. “Is Uncle Sammy… Is-Is he in trouble?” The little brunette angel questioned, “He’s gonna be mad at me for telling Daddy his secret?” She sobbed and her mother hushed her in a gentle manner, kissing her cheek and pulling her to her chest.

“No, no. Sweetie your Uncle Sammy would never be upset with you. Daddy’s going to find out what’s wrong and he’ll be okay.” The older of the two promised though she wasn’t entirely sure considering if he was reading from the tablet again…. The last time he had almost died trying. Her own blue eyes welled and she pushed a few towels in her daughter’s direction. “Wanna help Mommy with the chores? Then when we’re done maybe we can have a brownie while we wait hmm?” She encouraged, watching her little girl tuck her legs up underneath her and she sniffled again and again, starting to fold up one of the little wash clothes in front of her and ensuring she got it just right. Aleah tucked the girl’s hair behind her ear and kissed her head one more time, trying to keep her worry at bay and make her forget what was happening for the time being.

Dean found Sam after some searching, confronting him about reading the tablet and trying to stay focused on the reasoning behind him doing it rather than laying into him for upsetting Mari unknowingly. The two men came up after a long talk, and Aleah was anxiously waiting for them in the library.

"Where's Mari?" Dean asked, nodding when his wife explained she'd sent the girl to play in her room for awhile. "Make sure you go talk to her when we're done here. She thinks you might be mad at her." The elder Winchester looked back at his brother, and Sam nodded. The tall hunter was pale and haggard, much how he always looked back when he'd been reading from the tablet often for the cause of reopening heaven.

Aleah snatched a tissue from the box on one of the long tables and handed it to her brother in law, gesturing at his nose and he patted his face gently, not realizing till it came away spotted red that it had been bleeding. She asked him what was going on and Dean fixed his brother with a weighted look, still not exactly sure how to feel about everything Sammy had told him.

"You don't need to worry Al." Sam began, taking a seat since he felt like he might vomit at any moment from the pounding headache he was currently sporting. "I've been reading from the tablet, but sparingly. Ever since what happened with Mari at her school, I... Well I've been trying to find a way to help her be able to live out in the world more safely." He explained, smiling weakly up at the half-angel since he had already given Dean a rundown of his activities.

"It's taken a long time, there were a few items I had to get that I couldn't exactly find at the supermarket. But... I'm close." The long-haired hunter told her, extracting a small box from his pocket and opening it to reveal a small silver charm about as big as a quarter, but it had a slight curve to it and Sam explained that it was a piece of the skull of a person who had been possessed by an angel cast in pure silver.

"I've been doing a lot of research, not just the tablet but everything I could find for warding spells and negating supernatural energy. I think I've finally come up with a way to completely nullify Mari's powers. Once I'm finished, as long as she's wearing this talisman her power should be one hundred percent suppressed, no matter how angry or scared or anything she gets. Between that and the protection sigils on her bones, she should be nothing but an average girl to even the most determined angels." He explained, smiling although there was sadness in it. He didn't like forcing Mari to hide part of who she was either, but in his mind this was the only feasible answer that would let her leave the bunker without it being such a terrible risk.

Dean looked from his brother to Aleah, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning closer when the half-angel picked up the little token and inspected the intricate carvings in the metallic surface. "From what Sammy says, this little thing will suppress her power, but if she takes it off she can still use them, it won't effect her at all. But..." He looked into his wife's bright blue eyes, anticipating the question he knew she'd want to ask but be afraid to.

"It's not powerful enough to suppress your powers though." He added, squeezing her shoulder gently and looking back to Sammy who apologized to his sister in law for not finding anything that would work for a half-angel versus someone who was only one fourth angelic.

"Sammy thinks he'll only need another session or two to complete the enochian runes on the talisman and it should be usable. But... I'm not sure that we should give it to her yet, wait till she's a bit older and really understands the need to not lose it, never take it off when she's outside unless she has to bolt for her life or somethin'." Dean mused, looking back to Aleah asking her wordlessly what her opinion was about all this.

Aleah sat in the library biting at her nails as she waited, her leg jiggling in its spot, full of nervous energy and even more so now that Mari wasn’t in the room with her to cause any distractions. Dean came rushing back in and Sam was in tow and she very quickly moved the pillow beside her so he could sit down in the short sofa as well. She reached over and handed him a tissue, giving him a worried look at the sight of his bloody nose, wondering just how much healing she would need to do.

Sam started on and explained himself and she wasn’t sure really what to say, it was an overly kind gesture, knowing he wanted so badly for Mari to be safe and still able to be out in the world. She sat with her hand on his knee, her legs tucked beneath her as she listened to him, having some form of contact always comforted her and she was partly trying to get a good enough read on him to know the true damage beneath the surface. 

He handed her the little token tied to the middle of a string and let her look it over for herself. Her brow furrowed as she ran her thumb over the etchings and the question rang in her mind if she was able to wear something similar then maybe she could get a real job like Dean she could help out just as much or hell she could hunt again without the aid of her uncle. Before she could even consider opening her mouth Dean bent and told her softly that it wasn’t enough to suppress her own abilities that it might barely manage to contain Mari’s anyways let alone hers. Sam quickly apologized and her eyes watered, looking to her lap because deep down she knew there wasn’t much hope anyhow. “It’s okay, Sammy. Really. My place is here anyways. Garth needs me answering calls.” She muttered though her voice was a little broken even to her own ears.

Dean squeezed her shoulders and continued talking about his own thoughts on this and it was obvious that the brothers had a chance to sit down a bit and he must have made Sam tell him every detail. She was hesitant because in the off chance this might not even be successful. “And… You’re really sure that this would help her? Do we need to test it on her… For all we know she could develop further when she’s older… Cas said it’s possible but not likely but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance.” Aleah murmured, feeling guilty for indirectly shooting the idea down.

Sam smiled at her, leaning forward and explaining that he was making it strong enough that it should be more than capable of knocking her down a couple angelic notches in a manner of speaking and keeping her from vanishing herself and others by mistake when she gets heated like she had. The brunette giggled a little, “You make it sound like my daughter is a holy time bomb.” She laughed, “So all she would have to do is wear it? No enchantments on her, no risk involved, and she can take it off if she needs to get out and quick.” She confirmed and both boys nodded at her in sync. She bit her bottom lip and looked at the trinket again before turning it over to Sam. “It’s worth the shot. I want more than anything for her to be living her life and outside of the bunker most importantly. I agree with Dean though we should wait a bit until she’s old enough to understand what it does for her and that she can’t lose it.”

Aleah shifted and turned to Sam, giving him a look. “As much as I love what you’re doing for Mari… I don’t like you risking yourself like that.” She chided and he started to cut her off and argue in return, “Sammy.” She said sternly and Dean laughed at the scolding he might receive. “Because of the risks involved you should have come to me or Cas… at least let one of us heal you. Hell Mari could do it in small doses in a controlled environment I’m sure.” She continued and he nodded, taking her hand and squeezing her fingers promising that it hadn’t been quite so bad this go.

“Don’t lie to me. It’s really not worth it when I can feel the difference. Come here.” She encouraged, tugging his hand and shifting forward so she could rest her palm over his cheek and he rolled his eyes swearing he wasn’t as bad as she was making it seem. She squeezed his other hand much harsher than she needed and he groaned until her opposite hand lit up as did her eyes and the blood from Sam’s nose cleared. She did enough to make his headache go away and keep him from passing out on them both. The pink tone to his cheeks returned as she pulled her hand away and he thanked her. “Well if you’re going to keep playing hero like that… the least I can do is keep you in shape.” She shrugged, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. “Thank you Sammy.” She muttered as his arms slid around her and hers did him in a gentle hug.

 

Sam finished crafting the talisman he had put together for Mari, fortunately it only took two more readings from the tablet to get all the symbols he needed for the suppression spell. He strung it on a heavy gauge silver chain, holding it up to the light and admiring his work. It had cost him a lot to make this charm but he knew once Mari was old enough to fully realize what she was and why she had to be extra cautious out in the world, it would be worth it. This would enable her to live a life outside the bunker, and while risk could never be fully eliminated this certainly gave her far better odds.

He took the completed charm upstairs and found Dean, Aleah and Mari watching one of the young girl's cartoon movies, though really the older two were mostly humoring their daughter rather than being truly engaged in the film. Castiel had arrived while he was working as well, and was sitting in an armchair with Manny on his lap, quietly petting the cat with a small smile on his normally stoic face. Sam chuckled and called Mari's name, getting her attention as well as the adults.

"Hey short stuff, can you come here a sec?" Sam asked, crouching down closer to Mari's level as she happily rushed over to him. He held up the charm so she could see it, smiling softly at her excited cooing over the object dangling from the chain. She told him it was pretty, delicately grabbing it and turning it over in her hand, running her fingertip over a line of carved sigils that covered the whole thing.

"I'm glad you like it. Will you put it on for me?" The long-haired hunter asked, holding the chain up over Mari's head and settling it around her neck much to her excitement. It was of course far too long a chain for her now, but it was intended for her to wear when she was older anyway. The girl turned and showed off the shining accessory to her parents and Cas, who were all keenly interested in what was happening.

"Mari, why don't you poof over to Uncle Cas?" Sam suggested, making his niece turn and look up at him with a curious expression. Mostly she was told never ever to use her powers, except when she was training with her uncle learning to control and hone them. But all of the adults encouraged her to do so, so she figured she must be in the clear to go ahead.

The little girl took a deep breath and her whole body leaned forward, but nothing happened. Mari gasped with surprise and stood straighter, her small handing balling into fists at her sides and she grunted a little with effort, obviously trying her hardest to move across the room by angelic means but having no success.

Aleah and Dean's faces lit up, more than pleased with the results as was Sam. Castiel looked at Mari with an air of concern, he had not known about Sam's project to come up with a way of totally negating Mari's powers. He commented that he couldn't sense even the tiniest bit of Mari's energy though it was obvious she was trying to use it. The angel stood and walked over to her, kneeling down and inspecting the pendant on it's chain for himself.

Mari asked her great-uncle why she wasn't able to 'poof' as they had come to call it, expecting Cas to be an expert on all things angel and with good reason. The full angel went off on a long explanation of how the charm was infallible due to its components, a piece of the skull of an angel's vessel, pure silver melted down from ancient relics of power, and began reading off the meanings of the enochian text carved into it but Aleah hushed him, approaching as well and praising Sam for his good work in making the talisman.

Dean approached as well, smiling down at his daughter and shaking his head. "Looks good Sammy. Well done. Now Mari, this is a very, very special necklace, you understand? Your uncle Sammy made it just for you and it's very important that we keep it safe and ever lose it." The short-haired hunter gently took the necklace off of Mari and let her hold it a little longer, it was obvious the gravity of what the pendant meant still went over her young head, but at least she seemed very pleased and grateful for the gift. He wasn't really sure if she even connected that the pendant was the reason she couldn't teleport or not but for now that was all right.

"Mama's gonna keep this safe for you in her jewelry box, all right? You can look at it whenever you want but let's keep it put up for now. It's too special to wear everyday, okay Bug?" He told her with a gentle smile. Mari nodded, not too happy about not getting to keep the necklace on but she seemed to understand he dad felt it was very important to keep it safe so she went along with his wishes as she always did out of her love for him.

Mari turned and leaped up into her uncle's arms, kissing his cheek and thanking him profusely for making her such a pretty necklace. Sam laughed and squeezed her tight, feeling very pleased that he was able to give his niece the one thing that would become more important to her than anything else as time wore on- Freedom.

Aleah and Dean both turned at the sound of Sam entering, watching the man as he spoke to their daughter, requesting she try out her newest accessory. Mari much like Aleah had rather taken to shiny things though not to the same extent she was always intrigued by her mother’s jewelry. She cooed at the silver object in her fingers, loving every part of it though she didn’t even know what it meant or why she was being given a gift at all to begin with.

Mari shot over towards him and wiggled as she let him help her put the necklace on, not understanding at first until he told her it was important. She tried her best to poof over to Castiel like her other uncle instructed and it didn’t work no matter how hard she thought or put the effort in to it. She grew frustrated almost instantly, huffing as she looked at him like he might be tricking her and then turned to Castiel asking him why she couldn’t just vanish.

“The charm that Sam has given you harvests its own energy meant to cancel out your powers including your ability to move at will like you might without it. It carries a piece of skull… that of a ‘retired’ vessel or rather one that has passed on along with its ‘driver’.” The full angel began, scratching behind Manny’s ears and giving a little grin to the feline friend he had in his lap. “The silver used in coating the token is that of an ancient relic one that holds a lot of power, far more than you will carry, Mari. The enochian transcriptions mean—“

Aleah cut him off gently, smiling at him and getting up to head over to Mari so that she could get a good look at the necklace Sam had made for her little girl. “Looks amazing Sammy. Thank you for doing this…. I still can’t believe that you managed to find a way.” She muttered to him, seeing him grin in response.

Mari smiled at the grownups, looking up at Dean when he approached and bent down to her level, taking the little charm off her despite her protests and he explained the importance of her holding onto it. She nodded at him in understanding and though she might not grasp exactly why, the tone he used confirmed that she might get herself into trouble if she didn’t stay away from the thing without his or her mother’s permission. She rushed to Sam and threw her arms around him, giggling as he scooped her up in his strong arms, always liking when he carried her because while her father was tall Sammy was the biggest and gave her the best view.

“Thank you, Uncle Sammy for the pretty necklace. I love it sooooo much.” She swore, holding onto him tight and letting him squish her frame in return. She kissed his cheek repeatedly and thanked him again making him chuckle. “You’re the best… I think…” She started, speaking quieter and cupping her hand around his ear, “We should get you some ice cream. You can share with me.” She encouraged, wiggling her brow much to the same manner that Dean would and making him laugh but he looked to Aleah for confirmation who over heard the girl’s not so quiet whispering, silently asking her if that was okay for her to have some and she nodded, laughing at them both as Sam trotted off with Mari in his grasp.

“Not a ton!” Aleah called after them, smiling as Dean slipped up to her and she put her arms around him instinctively, accepting his kiss. Her eyes watered a little and he asked her if she was okay. “Perfect. We just found a way to keep our daughter under the angel’s radar. Of course I’m okay. I couldn’t sense her and neither could Cas… Dean this is huge.” She grinned broadly, nuzzling into him and feeling him cling to her in return.

“I hope it sticks. You’ve got a really great little brother you know that?” She laughed, kissing his neck and hearing Castiel behind her mentioning that it would. He promised that it would last no matter what Mari’s age, it was a strong enough hold and a good enough spell that it would take and keep so long as the charm never broke. “Good.” She smiled, taking Dean’s hand and pulling him with her. “Now I want ice cream too.” She answered when he asked what she was doing and she walked back to the kitchen with the others, calling Castiel to follow.

\---

Mari spent weeks training with Castiel and running through her usual teachings with Sam and her mother as well as Dean, learning to play guitar and starting to finally know the words to 'Hey Jude' which was all she wanted to know for certain. She begged Sam to take her out from time to time, getting the chance to run errands with her father at least but when he was at work she tended to run at Sam's feet and stay with him consistently. "Pah-leeeeeeeeease." She begged, pulling at his pant leg to get him to ask Aleah's permission to take her to the park.

She had never been to a park before, gripping onto him and pouting until they both got their answer. Aleah agreed to letting them go, bending and making Mari promise to be good and come home when Sam told her to. She helped her into her little zip up hoodie, fixing her hair while she wiggled trying to get free when she spotted her uncle picking up his keys. "Mommy." She groaned, pulling back and Aleah laughed.

"Mari. Listen to me. You be careful okay? No breaking bones, don't let your Uncle Sammy on the swings. He'll get stuck and we need him." The half angel laughed, winking at her daughter when she burst with giggles as well. She kissed her mother's cheek and took off grabbing Sam's hand and letting him lead her out to the car.

 

It had been several months since the last time Mari was allowed outside, and Sam hadn't missed the way his niece had been longingly watching him leave the last few times he'd left the bunker. He discussed an outing to the park with Aleah, wanting to give the girl the chance to stretch her legs and get some fresh air after being cooped up for so long.

When the day came for him to take Mari on her little outing, the girl was beside herself with excitement, bouncing so much in the backseat of the car that he could hardly get her buckled up. "Okay, okay Bug. Hold still will ya? We'll try out the whole playground I promise." Sam chuckled as she rattled off her list of activities she wanted to engage in like going down slides and having him push her on swings. Aleah had shown her all sorts of playground equipment online that were found in parks, he hoped the real thing wouldn't be a let down for her.

They drove a fair distance, to the next town over since even though it had been a long time since Mari's little incident at her school she still was met with suspicious stares from the locals the few times they brought her into the town closest to the bunker. He took her to a small park at the top of a hill, smiling at Mari's delighted squeal when she saw the swing set through the car window.

He got her out and let her run ahead of him towards the playground, waving her on when she turned back and looked at him, as if unsure if she really was allowed on the equipment or not. "Go on, try it out short stuff!" Sam called, standing on the edge of the sandbox for awhile, snapping a few pictures with his cell phone of Mari climbing over bars and propelling herself down the slides for Aleah to see later.

They spent the afternoon playing, they had the whole park to themselves since any kids who might come to use the park were in school at this time of day. Sam pushed Mari on the swings, used his foot to be the other half of her teeter-totter, and chased her around the jungle gym making her squeal and shout with delight.

After awhile Sam went to sit on one of the park benches overlooking the playground, pulling out his phone so he could send off a few pictures to his sister in law and let her know Mari was enjoying herself. He watched Mari shoot out from the tall blue tube slide and land hard on her hands and knees, calling her name and asking her if she was all right.

Mari stood and waved at him, shouting that she was fine and tore off again to climb back up for another go. Sam shook his head and looked back at his phone screen, listening to Mari's excited commentary as she clambered over the equipment. 

Suddenly Sam's sharp senses alerted him to the fact that he and Mari were no longer alone on the grounds. He stood and pocketed his phone, glancing around and trying to pinpoint the source of unease he felt as he circled around the jungle gym to find Mari. He rounded the slides and saw a dozen people in dress suits slowly walking over the grass towards the playground and his heart began pounding in his chest. Because he knew they weren't people. They were angels. Somehow they'd been tipped off, he didn't know how but that didn't matter, all that mattered was keeping Mari safe.

"Mari!" Sam called urgently, reaching up and snatching his niece off the bars when she ran up to answer his call. "We gotta get you out of here." He told her in a tense tone, gripping her tight and sprinting across the sandbox towards the small brick outbuilding that held a few vending machines and a drinking fountain. 

The tall hunter set his niece down in the little building, looking back over his shoulder and seeing the angels progressing at the same easy pace towards them, fully confident that Sam and the young Nephilim had no means of escaping them or overpowering them.

Sam looked back at Mari who was crying now, she didn't really understand the situation but she could sense his distress and was apologizing for something, something about her fixing the owie on her knee after she fell off the slide, calling herself a bad girl for using her power but she wanted to keep playing.

The hunter cupped the little girl's face, quieting her and trying not to let the desperation show on his face. "Shh, it's all right Mari. I need you to focus for me, all right? I need you to go home." He told her, pushing her back further into the building and letting her go. He stood and drew his angel blade, he always took one with him when he left the bunker now, turning to face the dozen smiling angels that were getting dangerously close now. The young brunette protested, arguing that she wasn't supposed to poof anywhere outside. "Mari!" Sam yelled urgently over his shoulder, meeting her tear-filled gaze for a second and trying to fight his own emotions. "Go now! Go home and find your mom, okay? You have to go now!" He instructed, slamming the door shut between then and brandishing his silver blade.

Sam sent up a quick prayer to Cas, hoping the angel would be able to find him in time. The first angel dove at him and he dispatched him efficiently, but was thrown aside by a second and fell hard to the ground. Two more advanced but he still was able to watch the first who had assaulted him open the door to the building, his face lighting up with triumph seeing that Mari was no longer inside. The angel fighting him caught him across the face with the butt of his own angel blade, bloodying his face but he didn't care.

"You'll never get her you bastards. All you get is the consolation prize." He growled fiercely, forcing himself up and fighting back with everything he had despite being fatally outnumbered.

Mari screamed at her uncle Sammy in a way she might not normally but she was scared, felt his distress and knew she put them both in danger. She couldn’t fix this not now, she made a mistake and she hardly knew what it was causing around them until Sam seemed adamant about her leaving him. “I’m not allowed to poof when I’m outside. I can’t poof inside without Mommy or Uncle Cassie with me.” She sobbed in protest, jumping when he yelled at her. Her lip quivered but the serious tone he used told her she couldn’t fight him on this. She stepped forward to follow him, hug him or something but instead he slammed the door on her and she rushed towards it, slapping her hand onto it and screaming for him.

She trembled with fear just as well as her sobs but she trusted him, closing her eyes tight and clenching her fists the way she always did when she focused on her abilities. She imagined home, imagined her mother and father and when her eyes opened she was in her room, falling to the floor in a fit of emotions. Aleah heard her screaming for her, jolting at the sudden feeling of her daughter’s presence in the bunker. She sprinted down the hall and found her there, snotty face and tear stained cheeks and all. “Mari?... Mari what’s wrong? Where’s Sam?!” She questioned, wiping her fingers under the little girl’s eyes.

Mari shook her head, sniffling and letting Aleah pick her up without protest. “I u-used magic. Uncle S-Sammy made me leave him.” She explained little but the taller brunette understood, squishing her daughter to her frame and trying to keep her calmed until she could figure out what exactly was going on. She hushed her and tried to fight her own fears knowing now that Sam was in danger. She took her daughter out to look for Castiel who had been lingering the past few days with nothing more to do and starting more and more to feel like he was actually a part of the family but when she called to him he was gone. The family feline, Manny was positioned on his seat looking unfazed by the man’s disappearing act he was likely used to.

\---

Castiel heard Sam’s desperate call for back up, knowing he was the first and only one who could respond at the moment. He vanished out of the bunker, angel blade in hand and zapped himself to the edge of the sandbox. He heard nothing at first, no fight, no sign of the Winchester and his mind was reeling but he had little time to think about it when he didn’t go unnoticed as he arrived. A few lingering angels who must have been still hunting for the smallest angel addition rushed at him, their own blades held high but he was quick to block each pass with ease, driving his own weapon deep inside their vessels and watching the light leave their eyes.

The angel twirled the knife in his palm, catching it by the handle just in time to run it through another one of his ‘brothers’, their limp vessel falling to the ground with a solid thump. He took out the few that remained and headed towards the vending machines, pulling the door opened knowing that Mari had been there previously and Sam had to have as well. He saw nothing, no one inside, walking back out and rounding the corner in a hurry, stopping in his tracks when he found who he was looking for.

Cas vanished to the garage that Dean worked at, startling the man only slightly when he appeared right in front of him. Everything happened in an instance with little to no time for anyone to warn him or beckon him to the fight. “Dean.” He said in his usual monotone voice and the other cursed at him, telling him how dangerous and stupid it was for him to be there, asking in a harsh tone what he wanted from him. The angel’s expression changed and Dean must have noted the difference, knowing that something had gone wrong for him to even be here right now. He dropped down the tools he held on the table and demanded he start talking, asking about Mari.

“She is shaken but alive. I’m afraid that she let her abilities slip at the playground this afternoon. She was tracked down and the angels came for her—“ Castiel explained and Dean cut him off telling him to take him there for the fight, already starting to shed his overalls. He shook his head, “Dean…” He said again and he snapped at him just to bring him there whatever it took.

The angel reached out and laid his fingers on the man’s forehead, hidden from the other workers view behind the SUV Dean had been rebuilding for someone and the roar of the tools and engines burning was enough to mask his disappearance. Though he would have some explaining to do. They managed back to the battle ground and angel after angel lie lifeless on the sand or grassy plains then the hunter asked directly where Sam was. Castiel’s face fell and his gaze flickered to the ground just a few feet away near the larger of the three slides, Dean’s own eyes followed and he bolted over to him, screaming for him to get up that it wasn’t over yet and Cas simply watched.

Dean's first thought had been for Mari's safety, but once Cas assured him his daughter was alive and secure all his concerns bent towards the welfare of his younger brother. The angel took him to the park where Sammy had brought Mari to play, and the ground was strewn with dead bodies, the outlines of their wings scorched into the grass around them.


	4. Chapter 4

"Cas, where's Sammy?" Dean asked in a curt tone of voice, his heart beating like mad as his experience weighed the odds of a lone hunter, even one as skilled as Sam holding his own against a dozen or more God Squad members. They weren't good. His friend glanced over by the slides and Dean's gaze tracked his line of sight, panic clenching his chest as he saw his brother partially obscured by the playground equipment lying face down in the sand several feet away.

"Sammy!Sammy get up!" Dean yelled, sprinting across the sand and dropping to his knees beside his brother. There were four fallen angels surrounding Sam and more spread out further besides, he had taken a number of the bastards out before... The elder Winchester swallowed hard to keep the contents of his stomach down, panic and stress and anger all colliding in his system making him want to wretch as reality set in.

"S-Sammy..." Dean murmured, his apple green eyes tracking over the pattern of bloodstained sand beneath his brother's body. He gingerly reached for him, his hands shaking ever so slightly hovering just over Sam's shoulder. "Sam?" He whispered, his voice fracturing with emotion. The short-haired hunter finally made himself take hold of his brother and turn his body over, brushing away the sand clinging to the trails of blood that had seeped from Sam's nose and mouth. A ragged, quiet little exhalation escaped him and he gingerly touched his fingertips to the gaping stab wound in his brother's chest, one of the bastards had run him straight through the heart. 

He heard the crunch of footsteps approaching in the sand and Cas commenting that this wasn't necessarily the end, that the brothers had managed against all odds to bring each other back before. Dean shook his head, his hands balling into fists on his thighs.

"No, not this time Cas." He muttered harshly, his green gaze hardening. "We swore after what happened last time... No. The end is the end." Dean finished in a pained tone, hating himself for agreeing to abide by his brother's wishes but understanding why Sam had insisted on it. The hunter's whole body was trembling now, he was on the edge of screaming, crying, putting a few more holes in the bodies of the bastards that had taken his brother down, something. But he made himself get up, look Cas in the eye, and calmly explain what he needed from his friend.

He sat with Sam while Castiel disposed of the bodies, stating that he was casting them out into the arctic ocean but Dean hardly cared as long as any evidence of them was removed from this place. He took the time to text Aleah, he informed his wife that Sam been taken down protecting Mari from angels and that he was going to tend to his body before he came home. He knew he owed her more than a flat, concise text but he simply couldn't bring himself to speak the words aloud. Not yet. Right now in order to function, to do what needed to be done Dean had to disconnect, think of the body as someone else's, not his little brother he'd literally gone to hell and back for.

He had Cas take them to a secluded area close to the bunker, the angel helped him build a pyre and Dean methodically salted his sibling's body and set it ablaze, standing rigidly still until long after the sun set and there was nothing but ash left. Castiel left once or twice to check on Aleah and Mari, but when it was nearly dawn and Dean still hadn't moved, the angel finally spoke up, gently telling him that Aleah was waiting for him to return.

"I know, Cas. I know dammit!" Dean railed, kicking the metal gas can he'd used to set the fire several feet away and turning away from his friend, breathing in sharply trying to keep himself together. He ran his hands through his close cropped hair, his hands clutching the back of his head and he swore under his breath. The seasoned hunter in him had allowed him to function up until this point, think through the aftermath of this logically: dispose of the evidence, burn the body to ensure no afterlife visitation, just like any number of jobs he'd taken.

But Dean knew the second he went home, when he had to face Aleah and all the signs of his brother back at the bunker... That's when it'd become real. That's when he'd lose it. And he was goddamn terrified. 

Aleah waited for Dean worriedly despite Castiel checking in with her on and off to ensure that she was okay and give her an update on Dean. She checked her phone time and time again to be certain that Dean hadn’t tried to make contact though Cas informed her otherwise. She knew what Dean meant by Sam being ‘taken down’ but she hoped for everything it was worth that she might actually be wrong about this all. Her brother in law had to be okay, she needed him to be okay though deep down she knew for certain that he wasn’t anywhere near that.

The half angel bit her lip and paced around the bunker impatiently, trying to keep Mari entertained as she could for the time being until Dean and Castiel opted for coming back home to them once more. She didn’t know if to call or stick to what she was already doing, watching her daughter quietly sniffle as she played with one of her stuffed dogs along the floor, brushing her fingers through its longer fur. She moved and sat down alongside her, pulling her over to sit across her lap and the girl gladly did just so, clutching her animal to her chest and leaning into her mother’s frame for comfort. “I love you, Bug. Do you know that?” She cooed, kissing her along the side of her face and making her giggle slightly at the tickle.

Mari nodded and nuzzled further into her, “I know Mommy. I love you.” She returned, her eyes welling and it was very clear that she knew already what was going on. “I’m sorry… I hurt Uncle Sammy. Do you think he goes to Heaven, Mama?” She started and Aleah’s heart skipped a beat at her words, receiving her confirmation that Sam was gone even without her husband telling her straight forward. “I wish I could tell him that I love him…” She cried into the other’s chest, clinging to her mom. “Can I see my necklace?” She asked, needing it for comfort and a distraction.

Aleah kissed the top of her head, fighting her tears once more and shaking her head slightly as she cradled her only daughter. “Mari you have nothing to be sorry for, okay? Don’t you ever think that way. I-I don’t know what happens anymore, Bug.” She whispered in return, “Sure you can but… will you come back and sit with Mommy again?” She questioned in return and the little girl nodded, sticking up her pinky on reflex without saying a word of promise that she would come right back. Aleah simply knew as their tiniest fingers interlocked with one another and Mari took off down the hall to her parents room to find the jewelry box she was hunting for.

\---

Castiel waited for Dean until the task was done, being as patient as he could be with the man though he knew it needed to be cleared so they could both return home. “Dean.” He murmured again and the man snapped at him in a harsh tone to stop bugging him like he always did and just give him five minutes to think for himself. The angel waited, his hands balled at his sides and soon he joined Dean near the fire that he had gone out long ago. Nothing remained, the deed was done and there was no longer a way for Sammuel Winchester to return to Earth in any manner. “He passed with honor, Dean. Sam did what needed to be done, saved Mari so that you could carry on with your family. He knew that you needed her more than him now. He made the choice and you would have done the same in his position. It’s okay to mourn but I feel Sam wouldn’t want you dwelling on it.” He muttered, earning yet another glare from the hunter but soon it softened as he tried not to cry realizing that for once the angel knew what he was talking about with these kinds of things.

“We need to go. Aleah’s been patient… Mari knows. She’s very smart Dean you can’t keep it from her for a second. There’s an emptiness in the world now, one less presence and an important one at that… She’s seen and felt it as well. I can tell that she has. Aleah on the other hand she needs her confirmation from you.” Castiel continued, staring off into the darkness with his companion for another moment or two before Dean even said anything in regards to all of this. He asked Cas to take him home finally and without much preamble he reached over, putting a hand on Dean’s shoulder and vanishing them back to the bunker where the other’s sat in the living room.

Aleah flinched as she so often did, still not entirely accustomed to the angel coming and going while they were around to witness it and unannounced to say the least. Her blue gaze flickered up to Dean and her face crumpled at the sight of him, trying as best she could to keep her composure for Mari’s sake but she merely couldn’t, getting to her feet she grabbed her husband and yanked him into a hug whether he wanted it or not. She pinned him to her smaller frame and a broken sob ripped its way past her lips. “I’m sorry, Dean. I’m so sorry…” She whispered with her lips close to his ear, hugging him with everything that she had. “Did you… Is he—“ She couldn’t even make herself ask the things that she wanted to when she pulled back to see his face. She had never seen her lover so beaten down as he was now.

 

"He's gone." Dean said simply, staring down into his wife's distraught face. The words were like a catalyst, shattering the precarious hold he had on his emotions and the statement fell from his lips over and over, his voice getting more raw and broken the more he said it. He clung to Aleah weeping bitter tears of remorse and she steadied him as best she could. 

After a few moments a small sound pulled him back out of his sorrow enough to remember that there were others around him who were also feeling the pain of losing his brother. At some point Castiel must've offered Mari the shelter of his own arms, because his little girl was staring at him from the couch where Cas was holding her and whimpering for him to acknowledge her. Dean took a ragged breath and pulled away from Aleah who was still crying herself, taking his wife's hand and the pair went to join the angel and their daughter.

Dean sat down heavily and pulled Mari into his lap, crushing the little girl to his chest because for all his pain and sorrow, he was immensely grateful that Sam's sacrifice hadn't been in vain. Tears of joy mixed with tears of grief and when Mari tried to tell him how sorry he was, he halted her broken little voice with a gentle tone. "No sweetheart, no this wasn't your fault. Uncle Sammy's all right now, it's okay." He cooed at her, gently swiping away the tears from her small flushed face despite the fact that they hadn't stopped flowing much like his own.

Honestly he had no way of knowing if what he said was accurate or not, they knew Heaven was open again at least but not what kind of shape it was in. But he had to believe it, had to hold on to the hope that his brother was at peace now, or he was going to come undone. Mari was still upset but seemed to accept his words, nodding and nuzzling back into his chest. He let the small brunette cry herself out, holding her safe in his arms till she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Aleah was leaned up against him as well, quietly weeping and brushing Mari's soft hair with her fingers.

"Cas." Dean whispered, glancing back at his friend over the top of Aleah's head. "I know I've asked a lot of you today, but... Do you think y'could... I dunno, check and see if he's all right?" The hunter requested, quietly enough not to disturb his slumbering daughter. The sober angel nodded, not promising anything but at least agreeing to see what he could find out. He disappeared in less time than it took to blink, and Dean and Aleah were left alone with their little girl slumped against her father's chest in a deep slumber.

Aleah shakily asked him if he was all right, squeezing his hand that was entwined with hers and Dean sighed, trying to find something to say that wouldn't add to her sorrow. "I don't... I don't know how to live in a world without him, Al. It's like I said before, we've just gotta... Go on, one day at a time." He responded, his voice hoarse with emotion.

Aleah sat up against her lover’s side, stroking their daughter’s hair as she slept in Dean’s arms, her cheeks were still pink and her lashes soaked from her steady stream of tears but she seemed at peace none the less. They hadn’t ever anticipated anything like this, though they knew the risks involved everyday they didn’t think it would end up this way, didn’t plan for things to be like this not at all. She cried softly still feeling her tears come no matter how much of a fight she put up to keep them away again.

Dean spoke in a gentle tone over the top of both their heads, referring to Castiel and requesting him to see if Sam was truly at rest if he could. He gave a simple nod of acknowledgement, “I will look but I can’t promise a sign either way. He could still be departed without descending Dean… It happened to Bobby as you recall. Perhaps a run through of Sam’s things will give an answer but I can no longer feel his soul on Earth.” He muttered apologetically. He vanished without a response or any further instructions wanting to do this for his friend and clear his conscience as much as he could.

The brunette half angel trailed her fingers over Mari’s back when the girl drifted deeper into her slumber, glancing up over to Dean and asking about his well-being. She patiently waited with their hands mixed together near their daughter’s frame, watching his eyes flicker from her sweet sleeping face to the floor and back over. Dean answered that he didn’t know how to live without him at all but he would adjust, they all would in time. She nodded, “One day at a time.” She repeated quietly.

They lingered on the couch until Aleah started drifting off herself, slumping down against Dean and he gently nudged her to keep her upright. Even in her restful state her cheeks were still moist and her eyes still sore from crying, feeling like she could all night if she was allowed to do so. She shifted at his prompting and nodded when he mentioned they should put Mari to bed so she could sleep more comfortably. Dean lifted her up in the same moment that Aleah got to her feet, heading with him back to their daughter’s room, following him down to the bed where he placed her. “Daddy.” Mari whispered when he started to pull away from her, letting her slip from his arms and lay back on the mattress instead.

He stopped and seemed to want to break down at the simple sound of her voice, asking her in a hoarse voice what she wanted. “Hey Jude.” She prompted him around a yawn, clutching to his fingers and he said he wasn’t so sure if he could manage that right now. Mari stared at his large hand enclosing around her own, protecting it easily in his gentle grasp. She squeezed his thumb she was holding. “Please?” She requested waiting for him to agree and he did in a quiet tone, shifting to sit down on the bed with her. Aleah’s eyes watered again at her daughter’s request because it was one of few regular routines that she kept to, one of few things that comforted her.

\----

A few years passed and Mari had grown nearly to Aleah’s height, learning all that she could about her abilities and spending most of her off days with her Uncle Cas training. She had to prove herself so she could go back to school, nearing the end of what would be her middle school years she felt or at least hoped that she was ready to do such a thing. Dean worried for her, more than Aleah seemed to be and she hadn’t missed the talks that her parents had about her and her powers.

She clutched the token her uncle Sam had made her years ago, her eyes watering as she looked it over but she refused to let them fall quite yet. Her hand balled into a fist around it and she carefully tucked away the jewelry box that her mother had given her to keep the charm safe. She knew now that she wasn’t magic but in fact an angel or at least a quarter angel, her mother being only half and she went through a phase of cursing her grandfather for passing on such a stupid thing but now she embraced it. Decided that she was going to do everything that she could to prove herself not only to her parents but to show that Sam had saved her for good reason, that she deserved to be here.

Mari might be a young teen but she saw herself as being mature for her age, growing up with only adults surrounding her made her grow up quicker than another kid might. She pulled the necklace on, clipping the end around her throat and taking her dad’s old hoodie with her out to the living room. Dean’s eyes immediately shot up to her when she entered, asking her where she thought she was headed. “Dad…” She said in a small voice, always resorting to a sweeter tone when she addressed him alone. “Can we go… Can we see Uncle Sammy?” She questioned, casting her gaze to the floor and feeling small again the longer that he stared at her.

Dean set the television remote aside after clicking off the screen, listening to her when she started rattling off reasons she thought she should be allowed outside again. She had gone maybe once or twice but it was a rather rare occasion for her to get to do so, especially without Cas to back her up should they need it. “We haven’t seen him in a long while and… I’ve been really good about keeping everything under control. I’m wearing the necklace like you told me and I kind of…. I wanted you to take me.” She mumbled in a rush of words.

Her father shifted and looked her over, glancing to Aleah when she came in through the kitchen entry way to listen to them both. Her mother shrugged her delicate shoulders seeming to leave the choice up to Dean if he wanted her to go and he agreed to it. Mari wasn’t sure why she wanted so bad to see his grave site, knowing that there was truly nothing there, nothing but a memory and yet it was still a comfort to see he was at rest. She still felt a lingering connection to the man, her hand wrapping around the corner of the journal of her uncle’s she refused to let her father throw out in the fit of emotion he had years ago. She wasn’t quite old enough but she had wanted to learn all he could teach her about hunting even if Dean might not add to that right now.

She had been thinking about it for nearly a year now maybe longer, spending her nights before she went to bed secretly reading through the journal she housed under her pillow most days. She worried her lower lip with her teeth much to the same manner that her mother did out of habit and worry, squeezing the book as if it might offer her comfort and in an odd way it did. She felt like Sam was standing there vouching for her to get to go out again.

 

Dean could see the desperation in his daughter's clear blue eyes, could practically feel her need to get out of the bunker and visit her uncle's grave like a tangible force. It had been nearly two years since the last time they let her outside, and today of all days the man understood his daughter's need to go and pay a visit. She was so young when it happened, but still Sammy's death had changed her like it had all of them, left a void that nothing else would ever quite fill. Today was the anniversary of Sam's death and Dean had been gearing up all week to pointedly ignore it like he usually did, except maybe to have a few shots of whiskey once his girls were down for the night but it seemed this time around his daughter wasn't going to let him get away with it.

The hunter rechecked Mari three times before they left to make sure she had her talisman on, he knew it was overkill but he couldn't help himself. Aleah gave them each a hug and kiss at the door before they left, wishing them a safe visit and waving them off as they piled into the Impala.

Dean cranked up some Areosmith for the ride, his daughter had always shared his taste in music so her own head bobbed in time with the songs much like his did as they drove. The young brunette idly fidgeted with the pendant strung on the silver chain about her neck, tapping her nails on it and running her thumb over the symbols carved into the metal. She was old enough now to truly understand what she was and why it was so dangerous for her to use her powers outside the shelter of the bunker. 

Sam's death was a harsher lesson than Dean would've liked for her to learn these things but he couldn't say it hadn't been effective. The brunette hardly ever asked to leave the bunker and when she did they never had to actually tell her to don the necklace. She often wore it at home anyway just because it was precious to her.

"So your mom and I have been talking a lot about you starting high school..." Dean started, not liking the idea of further disappointing his daughter but he figured now was as good a time as any to tell her. "We wanna give it another year, let you start leaving the bunker more often first, get you acclimated..." He explained, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter at his daughter's crestfallen expression. The young brunette nodded, accepting his words but clearly she had been hoping for a different outcome. 

Mari was a great kid, more grown up than most but still he couldn't help but wonder if she'd keep falling in line like he always had, or if she didn't have a bit of her uncle's rebellious streak in her, waiting to surface. For the sake of his own sanity he rather hoped not.

The pair drove out to the secluded wooded area where two grave markers stood, simple smooth limestone slabs adorned with plain blacked out carved lettering, one for Kevin and one for Sam. There was little more than a bit of ash resting at both graves, but still it was nice having the physical marker, a place to go to remember their loved ones.

Dean let Mari get ahead of him several paces, ambling over closer to Kevin's grave and letting his daughter have a few private moments with her thoughts. "Hey Kevin." He said softly, hooking his hands into his pockets and staring down at the headstone of the young prophet. He still blamed himself for the boy's death, all he could hope for was the same thing he hoped for Sammy, that his soul had found peace. If anyone deserved it, it was the kid.

Mari fidgeted with the charm strung around her throat as she listened to the music until her father spoke above the gentle roar. He brought up the adult’s talk of her returning to school and she felt she knew what was coming but a part of her still clung to hearing him say that she could return this fall like she had been wishing and hoping for. She wanted to argue but she knew better than to try right now especially considering her ‘special’ circumstances so she simply nodded her understanding but did little to hide her disappointment on her pretty face.

The drove in silence after that because she didn’t know what to say to him anyways, tracing her fingers over the leather bound book in her front pocket. She piled out of the car with her father when they stopped, walking at a faster pace than him to get over to her uncle, appreciating that her father let her go ahead of him. She headed straight towards Sam’s tiny grave marker, sitting down on the grassy area without caring that she might get wet or dirty right now. “Hey Uncle Sammy.” She murmured softly, tucking her legs beneath her and getting as close as she could manage with a tiny smile playing on her lips.

Mari glanced over her shoulder wanting to talk to her Uncle alone for a however long that she had. “Daddy said that I’d be able to go to school again not this year but… maybe next. They still seem to think that I don’t have a hold on my abilities I guess. They’re gonna let me out more thanks to the necklace you gave me.” She said in little over a whisper, untucking the charm from her hoodie to indicate to him as if he needed a reminder. “Uhh… Anyways we miss you… I miss you.” She stated, her eyes starting to water again and this time she let the tears fall for only him to see, refusing to face her father at the moment while he visited with Kevin a man that she had never known.

“I’m gonna talk to my dad about hunting… Mom kept your journal. And I… I kind of took it so I could learn a bit.” Mari sighed, her heart starting to race at the idea of even bringing this up to her father. “I’ve been reading through it and kind of… seeing things how you did and yea… I want to hunt someday if Dad will teach me.” She shrugged, tucking the book back in her pocket when Dean approached behind her. She gave him a smile when he dropped down onto the ground beside her, kissing the top of her head and asking how she was holding up.

“Good.” She answered, though her eyes said differently. “Just… Talking. Hoping that he kind of… hears me I guess.” Mari shrugged again and watched him lean forward to greet his brother, brushing his fingers over the little grave marker and she bit her lip filled with worry about the subject. She tucked her hair aside, looking up at him when he adjusted his arm back around her frame. “Sometimes even when we’re not here I hear him though I think it’s just… a memory. That I want so bad to get his advice or something that he’s kind of lingering.” She muttered, catching his gaze and seeing the fear in his eyes when he thought she might feel him still there. “I mean… it’s just like I think that it helps me work stuff out. Umm… I want to show you something.” She stated, changing the subject suddenly and pulling the book from her pocket once more.

“I-I’ve been reading through it to… Help me understand what you do or… what you used to do with Uncle Sam and Uncle Cas. It’s mostly empty but…” Mari stammered, fearing what he was going to say.

Dean watched his daughter fondly from a distance, seeing her speaking to the memory of his brother though he couldn't hear her words. After what he hoped was a goodly amount of time he wandered over himself, folding his long legs beneath him on the dewy grass beside her and kissing her dark hair, offering her a warm smile as he got settled next to her. He asked her how she was holding up and at first he was happy to hear about her finding comfort speaking with Sammy in her own way, feeling his presence in a manner of speaking. 

But his expression darkened and his hands clenched at his sides when she revealed the journal Sammy had started keeping, his own updated compendium of lore concerning hunting, living up to their family inheritance as both a hunter and a 'man of letters.' Dean could see where her train of thought was headed and put a screeching halt on it, taking the book from her hands as if to confirm it was actually real when he'd thought it burned along with most of his brother's possessions to ensure that there was no possible way his spirit was being trapped in the realm of the living. 

Mari's voice tripped up a step in pitch with alarm as he flipped through it, explaining that Aleah had saved it out of a desire to keep at least a few pieces of Sam in their lives, maybe hoping that Dean would be more likely to give it back to her if she spun it as a gift from her mother. 

"All you need to 'understand' about what me and your uncles did back in the day is that it's a dangerous, horrific, bloody line of work and if you think even for a second that I'd let you hunt you've got another thing comin' young lady." Dean barked at her, his tone much harsher than he intended but he was already raw from the emotions of this day. Just the thought of losing Mari like he'd lost his brother and most of the other people he loved was entirely too much for him to keep his composure.

Dean stood up almost as soon as he got settled down, clearing his throat and trying to rein in his knee-jerk anger at the idea of Mari wanting to pursue hunting, trying to remind himself that she was young and had no idea what she was talking about, no idea what being a hunter really meant. "It's getting late, we should head back." He told her in a clipped tone despite knowing that they had only just arrived a few minutes ago. He roughly shoved Sam's journal into the inner pocket of his jacket, storming away and trying to harden his heart against the sounds of Mari softly crying as she followed along behind him. He hated hearing his daughter cry more than anything else, but again the young girl had no clue what she was dabbling in. 

She hadn't said specifically that she wanted to become a hunter, but her poking around in Sammy's journal and broaching the subject about Dean's own hunting history with her uncles only brought him to that conclusion and the thought made his stomach turn. She was already under constant threat of danger just by nature of the blood flowing in her veins, there was no way he was going to let his only baby girl go out looking for more danger on top of that.

The two generations of Winchesters made it back to the car and Dean revved the engine to life, flicking the music back on and sending Aleah a quick text that they were on their way back before he pulled out onto the road. They rode in silence for a long while and Dean's anger slowly started being replaced with guilt for having to be so hard on his daughter.

"Hey. I'm sorry I came down on you like that, okay? I shouldn't have snapped at you." Dean apologized, glancing at his daughter who was staring straight ahead at the road, her fingers idly fiddling with her talisman. She nodded slightly but said nothing, a little sniffle escaping her but she didn't look back at him.

"You've gotta understand Mari, hunting it's... It's no kind of life. It sucks while you're in it, and it always ends badly. No exceptions." He muttered grimly, the faces of the people he'd lost over the years scrolling through his mind.

The girl finally spoke up, commenting that it handed ended up so badly for him, and a dry chuckle escaped his throat in response. He bit his tongue on a dozen cynical, cruel remarks, reminding himself that she had no perspective and sighing long and hard.

"It doesn't matter how I end up, Mari. All that matters is that you and your mother are kept safe. That's all I care about, and all your uncle cared about when he was alive. Why do you think he sacrificed so much to make that pendant for you, hmm? Why did he give his... His life..." Dean's voice broke with emotion, and he had to take a deep breath before he could continue, "To protect you? So you could throw your life away? No. It's not gonna happen Bug. It's just not." He finished with a note finality, a tone he rarely had to use with his typically obedient daughter but when he did she knew not to talk back. They drove the rest of the way home in stony silence, and when they got back to the bunker the young girl immediately climbed out of the car and stormed inside, making a beeline for her room and not responding to Dean's calls after her when he followed her inside. 

Aleah watched her daughter storm by and looked back at him, both of them flinching slightly at the sound of Mari's door being slammed shut down the hall. Dean sighed haggardly, pulling the journal from his jacket pocket when his wife asked him what was wrong.

"This." He said simply, tossing the journal on the long library table and sitting down heavily in one of the chairs.

 

Mari sniffled in near silence, keeping to herself and focusing on the road ahead of them as they drove. She didn’t want to talk about it if she knew that her father wasn’t even going to hear her out. For him to take the journal from her, the piece of her Uncle she still had left, the part of him that he poured everything into and it was meant for others to learn. It was so precise so defined in detail that she clung to every bit of it, knew far more than what Castiel had ever taught her, far more than what she got from the stories her dad ran through and she had intended to keep to it and learn just like her family had wanted her to, only apparently this study wasn’t the subject they approved of.

Dean broke the silence mentioning that hunting wasn’t an easy life to live, that it ended badly and she knew that it was bullshit he was feeding her at the moment. “Seems like it worked just fine for you. Unless you think you’ve got it sooo bad.” She responded in a half mocking tone of voice and he simply chuckled at her which only irked her further. She crossed her arms tight over her chest when he continued on about how Sam had risked himself for her, claiming she would just be throwing it all away now if she hunted like they used to. Her eyes watered and she refused to even look at him, the way he spoke to her cut her deep and she again went through the process of blaming herself for the death of her uncle.

She knew better than to fight him on this at least not right now, not when he used the tone that he did. Mari was thankful when the car came to a full stop outside the bunker, tearing off her belt and climbing out of the car only to rush inside the building. She didn’t even greet her mother, her eyes spilling over with angry and hurt tears, uncertain which she felt more. She ran back to her room and slammed the door closed behind her, tearing off her hoodie and climbing in bed immediately, burying her face in her pillow and crying solidly against it until her body was shaking from effort.

Aleah watched her daughter dart past them and into her room, wincing at the sound the door made as it slammed shut within a few seconds. “What’s wrong?” She prompted, expecting to hear something rather silly to be quite honest though she should have known better that Mari didn’t fight just to fight with them like most kids might. She watched Dean tug something from his pocket and padded the few steps over to him and took the one seat closer, looking over the cover of the book he just laid out on the table.

Her eyes went wide and she traced her fingers over the smooth leather surface and part of her was pleased to see the journal once more, flipping it open to the first few pages recalling that Sam had held this in his fingers, worked hard on this book for the next hunters to come as well as himself. But she knew Dean was likely angry beyond belief that she held onto it in secret, not knowing how Mari even managed to get her hands on it. “Dean… I didn’t know she had this. I can’t even imagine how she found it. I put it in the basement storage with a bunch of other old stuff of your dad’s and Bobby’s and I kind of… I thought the place was long forgotten so it seemed fitting…” She started in an apologetic tone, flinching when he snipped that he swore to Sam he would get rid of it all if something happened, no trinkets that might keep him trapped here.

Aleah tucked her hair aside, “I thought you might want it… Dean you burned everything of his. Everything. Don’t you want something that holds his memory. He worked hours a day on this thing to make it perfect for the next generation of—“ She continued, catching herself when she realized that his reasoning for being upset was more because Mari had the journal in her possession and then she understood. “She’s kidding herself if she thinks she’s going to hunt. Not at this age and not right now. We don’t even know if she can go out without the talisman around her damn neck or if she’ll be hunted down like a prize doe.” She argued as if he might disagree with her and he reached over, putting his hand on her leg and telling her that he knew all of that already.

The brunette nodded, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it I know that but… I mean did she say she wanted to hunt?” She questioned further, shifting in her chair to face him head on. He shrugged saying that was what it seemed like but he hadn’t exactly let her get the words out on her own before he jumped down her throat but in his defense he didn’t want her to be a part of that life. “Well… Sweetie it’s kind of hard to say that when she’s part angel. She is that life. Maybe we need to teach her a few things, explain to her what we went through, try to change her mind but she should know how to protect herself in case the life finds her, Dean.”

 

It didn't really matter to Dean if his daughter specifically said she wanted to be a hunter or not, there was no way in hell he was gonna let it happen. He did eventually come around to the idea that it was important for Mari to have knowledge of the supernatural, just in case 'the life found her' as Aleah had put it but he always made sure to impress upon his daughter that if she was going to be following in any family footsteps it would be as a 'Woman of Letters' and not as a hunter.

He let her take Sammy's journal back, finding out later that his brother had put together a much larger database on his laptop that he had been slowly copying into analog form in the journal and that was why it left off rather abruptly with more than half the leather bound book left blank. After awhile though Dean started questioning the decision, feeling like Mari was somehow absorbing his brother's will to rebel from studying from his journal because the more time passed the more he found himself and his daughter butting heads.

As promised they let Mari leave the bunker more, trusting her now to keep her talisman on at all times less out of obedience and more out of her memory of losing her uncle. Dean taught her to drive when she was seventeen, he had planned on teaching her when she was sixteen but the girl had tried to take one of the cars on a little joyride after her first lesson and ran off the road into a ditch, so the punishment had been an entire year of putting off letting her operate a vehicle. He didn't feel that the punishment was too harsh, after all that their family had been through and all the blow back he got from her about the things that go bump in the night the last thing he was going to tolerate was losing his daughter to something as pedestrian as a car wreck.

But as his luck, or rather lack of luck would have it the universe or karma or whatever the hell if he knew what ran the show had a sick sense of humor. A couple of months before Mari's eighteenth birthday, he and his daughter had a particularly nasty fight and when he left for work the next morning he was still so angry and distracted that he left for work without his wallet. He called home to see if Aleah would bring it to him, they often had Mari run errands since it was less risk for her to venture out than her mother but with how things were between them that morning he didn't really have that option.

Aleah rarely left the bunker and so she was happy to take the opportunity, taking their other car into town and chatting with him about their daughter and the fight that she and him had had about Mari refusing to drop the subject of becoming a hunter. The last words he ever got to hear his wife speak were "Well, you know she really does love you Lancelot." And the last words he ever spoke to her in the living world were, "I know Princess, I just wish-" But he never got to finish his sentence because in that moment his beautiful, compassionate, perfect wife was hit head on by a semi-truck driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel after driving all night, swerving into her lane and killing her instantly according to the reports.

Dean had gone straight home from the hospital, reeling from the shock and faced with the impossible task of telling his daughter that her mother was dead. But as he should've thought of beforehand, the second he got back Mari was there waiting for him, having felt her mother's energy wink out of existence like a candle flame in a windstorm. The pair held each other, cried, spent the whole night sitting on the cold floor of the entryway of the bunker leaning on each other because they simply didn't know what else to do with themselves. 

In the morning, Dean was still so far recessed into himself that when Mari got up and left he didn't question her, only really realizing what was happening when she climbed the stairs again with a couple fully packed duffel bags and the Impala keys hanging loosely in her hand. He gazed up at her, his green eyes bloodshot and swollen from weeping, his body felt like lead and his mind fuzzy, running itself in circles trying to work out the fact that he was never going to see his wife again, hear her laugh, feel her touch. That he was left alone to raise his daughter who had seemed to grow to resent him more everyday.

The young brunette told her father in a wobbly, wounded tone that she was leaving, that she couldn't be here any longer only surrounded by things that reminded her of her mother. Dean swallowed hard, some corner of his mind screaming at him that he needed to get up, to stop her, to rant and rail at her until she obeyed and remained here. Something. Anything. Mari waited, looking down at him with an equally sorrowful expression and when he said nothing she nodded tightly and turned to go.

She opened the front door and finally Dean managed to rasp a single word, "Don't." He pleaded, his voice never sounding more broken and desperate. But all he got was a quiet farewell from the last living person on earth he loved as she strode out the door to who knew where for who knew how long.

Mari didn’t know what to feel when she found out about her mother, likely in the same moment Dean had. All she knew was she hurt, all over, inside and out, her body and heart and mind, all of it ached and she wanted it to go away, needed it to vanish or at least subside a bit. The one and only woman that she had to look up to, to talk to about things she couldn’t with her father. She simply couldn’t handle it for longer than the one night, tiring of crying already as she left him and packed up her things.

She took her duffles and tossed them over each shoulder, taking the keys to the Impala and heading towards the door. “I’m leaving.” She said simply to the man still hunched on the floor barely rousing from his slumber. Her voice wavered but she refused to cry in her departure, stepping over his legs and pulling opened the door to get out. She hadn’t missed his single worded argument, ignoring it completely and closing the door on him as she exited.

\---

She didn’t know where she was headed, what lead to take or how to even begin on any of this but she knew how to fight… sort of. She assumed it would be different than fighting someone she loved like her father or Castiel who likely were going easy on her but she was determined none the less to try out her first gig alone. Or… her first gig in general. She took to the open road, smiling lightly to herself though it was broken as she sped down the highway.

Mari was free, on her own for the first time ever and she planned on keeping it that way for good from now on. She took a basic job to get her going, a poltergeist haunting some old rural home a few hours outside of the bunker. The job went just fine in her eyes, saying the prayers that needed saying and running through it ritualistically but playing the game and living the real deal was two different things. Her heart might have raced every second and her arm might have nearly gotten taken off by a flying shard of glass that she blocked from her face but she did it.

The young woman found herself in a nearly deserted old mining town a hundred or so miles out west and she was hoping to make it to another job she caught wind of not long ago. She used all her money for the first few nights at a motel as well as the food she ate and the supplies she needed for each hunt. She never thought about the things she would need, goats blood, spray paint, gas, and ammo… mostly ammo. That was one thing she didn’t take with her or even think of bringing was extra ammo and clearly her father must not like keeping them in the trunk of the car with his arsenal. What good was a vehicle filled with weaponry when you had nothing to load it all with.

She remembered needing rocksalt, making her own rounds to the best of her abilities in her hotel room the second night when she ran out after the first. Mari needed money and fast and there were few things that she was amazingly good at and one of them wasn’t the most honest way to gain a dollar or two in your pocket. She stood at the edge of the pool table in a bar that she might not legally be allowed into had she not flashed her mother’s ID that looked just enough like her to get one of the bar tenders off her back for looking too young to be 21. She didn’t allow enough of a glance that he could read the date of birth or stare too long at the image but just enough to keep her from getting tossed out of here.

The younger hunter in training’s heart raced as she played her fourth game of pool, hustling the dozen or so fools that were keeping watch and betting against her. She played dumb a game or two and then lead them into ‘wow like magic she was good’ and really she was. Her father had taught her on more than one occasion how to play pool and cards and if she wanted she could count cards without another thought but that was little use in this setting. “Lemme buy yah a drink, darlin’. Bet you’re parched huh? Yah haven’t had a sip since yah stepped on in.” A larger bearded man slurred, stumbling a little into her and she cringed at the feeling of his greasy frame even near her.

“I’m good.” She answered quickly, “Anyhow you guys are just trying to get me drunk so I’ll be off on my game. Cute but no thanks.” The slender brunette purred over the roar of the music around them and the added talking of the other customers near the table. She lined up a shot and the cue ball hit the 9 exactly where she wanted it to, knocking in three others to follow and she smirked. “That’s ten a piece, gentlemen. Double or nothing, who here thinks I can get—“ She started happily until she felt another man slink up beside her, standing rather close and making her uncomfortable as he called her out, claiming she was playing them.

She shook her head insistently and the man made a grab at her waist while another boxed her in towards him. “Come on now. You’ve been playin’ us since yah got here. No hard feelin’s, Baby… But around here ladies earn their money the properway.” A dark haired muscular man hummed, hiccupping on his last word as he reached out and twirled her hair in his swollen battered fingers. She gulped and gave him a playful little smile trying to edge her way back from him but he didn’t let her move much, leaning into her space and whispering against her ear. “Why don’t cha get on your knees, sweets and… pray.” He chuckled and she knew full well that praying wasn’t really what he intended for her to do.

Mari flinched as he made a grab for her ass, pushing his chest to get away from him and suddenly the pressure of his fingers curling into her firm rear let up and she heard another voice over her shoulder, one much smoother, less drunken as he instructed the other to back the fuck off.

Parker had been hiding in this dump for the better part of an hour, rather enjoying observing the young brunette across the room throwing pool games till she had enough bets hedged against her that she could collect a fat wad of cash when she finally let her obviously superior skills show. It was nearly as entertaining how painfully obvious it was that she hadn't been in a dive like this before, in over her head and steering right into a trainwreck without even knowing it. He kept telling himself the fact that he recognized her without ever having met her before didn't matter, that he shouldn't get involved in her business no matter what.

When things started to go really bad for her, he again went through the whole laundry list of reasons he shouldn't step in for his own sake, but apparently his deeply suppressed inner boy scout had the better of him this evening. When he watched the hulking, greasy drunk grab they young woman's ass Parker got up from the stool he was warming and strode across the dimly lit room, tugging the hood of his black zip-up hoodie over his head and murmured just above the din of the crowd and bad music, "Hey pal, why don't you back the fuck off?" His voice was just enough to get the tall, sour-breathed man to turn and Parker landed a precisely aimed solid punch to the man's temple, flooring him in one devastating blow.

Parker laughed with triumph at the way the man hit the dirty floor, smiling brightly at his would be damsel in distress and ducking just in time to miss a blow from the man's companion just next to him, catching the movement out of the corner of his eye. The young brunette was staring at him, mouth agape and blue eyes owlish with shock. He had just enough time to reach up and gently catch her chin with his index finger, prompting her to shut her mouth before spinning to avoid the drunken onslaught of his first opponent's friend again. 

Parker surged back against the pool table, sweeping the eight ball off the felt and winding back for another hit, aiming not for his adversary's face but his fist that was flying at him almost comically slow to his sharply honed senses and reflexes. The man punched the dense, hard sphere straight on with all his force and Parker's combined force opposing it, howling in pain as his hand broke against the object and staggering back. The young hooded man let himself fall back over the table to avoid a third thug swinging his pool cue at him, grabbing the stick on the follow-through and using the man's own momentum against him to send him sprawling over the table.

Parker gripped his opponent's dirty hair and slammed his head against the pool table, hopping off the felt surface quicker than thought and turning back to see the girl still staring at him in utter amazement. He glanced down at the sizeable stack of cash resting on the corner of the pool table and grabbed it, stuffing it in his jacket pocket and reaching out to grab the girl's hand when she thrust it out after her money.

"Time to go!" Parker exclaimed, tugging her along with him towards the front entrance away from the converging group of burly drunks who now wanted a piece of both of them, but halting just a few steps farther, making his not necessarily willing companion crash into his back. He recognized the four men who were entering the bar just as he was attempting to leave it, spinning back around and taking everything in in a split second: The angry bartender at the back screaming at him to get out, the ever approaching patrons in varying degrees of drunken stupor after his blood just for the sake of having someone's face to punch in, and the professional team of killers at his back who wanted his blood for a much more sinister reason. Lastly he met the eyes of the girl he was still gripping tight, he read in her face fear, anger, mistrust, but also... Exhilaration. That was all he needed to see.

"Not that way." He tossed his head back at the front door, smiling his bright white grin and yanking her along back towards the kitchen door by the bar not giving her a chance to do much more than yelp at the sudden change in direction and stumble in her effort to keep pace with him. The pair darted through the small stifling kitchen, making the two cooks crammed in the space yell and curse as they barreled by, especially when Parker reached his free arm up and hopped, gripping the end of the long hanging fluorescent light and yanking it down off it's brackets. The lights popped and went out, swinging backwards and exploding in a cloud of white dust when they connected with the upraised arms of the closest man chasing after them.

Parker towed his charge along behind him out into the alley way, looking both directions and weighing his options. "You got wheels?" The young man asked, smiling for all the world like he had just won gold medal rather than being in the process of escaping men who were trying to kill him.

Mari had little time to process anything she had never had a bar fight and well she supposed she still hadn’t but she certainly had been the reason it all started. This man, her… rescuer if one could call him that knew was he was doing, blow by blow reading his opponents and quickly acting and reacting. Her mouth hung open simply in awe by this new addition and absently wondering why he would come to her aide in the first place when he had no need to do so. Not many would stand up for a stranger but she was pleased to have the grimy hands of the other man off and away from her.

He paused only for a second, the hooded stranger to reach over and coax her mouth shut with a little grin on his face. She flinched back at the cracking sound his attackers hand made when the eight ball roughly collided with his balled up fingers. The man who came to her aide grabbed the wad of cash she had earned and she surged forward, perfectly willing to make a grab for it especially seeing him come back for her. She stuck her hand out expectantly and he took her hand suddenly, telling her it was time for them to move and she squeaked as he dragged her along with him, hardly able to keep pace with the larger man.

They made haste to the front of the bar, that was until others were coming towards them from the entryway and he decided to change routes before she could even open her mouth to argue. Her mind was reeling, her heart racing as she clutched to this strangers fingers until they made it into the kitchen. He pulled away, tearing down the fluorescent lights from the ceiling, making her duck as if they might hit her and he pulled her again to the alley way. The cool air hit her bare upper arms and she shivered against the wind, nearly crashing into him when they came to a stop.

She blinked up at his barely visible face, watching him sweep his hand up to tug the fabric down from off his head seeing her hesitation despite everything that he had just done for her. “W-What?” The brunette stuttered, getting a descent glimpse at him and jolting when he tucked his index finger beneath her chin to get her to focus on the words he was saying, telling her they needed an out and he needed to know if she had a car to take. She simply dug into her pocket and pulled out the keys shakily, indicating to the street where she was parked just around the corner of the building.

Mari smiled when he took her hand again and led the way out to the road asking her which one but she pulled away, taking to the drivers side of the ’67 Impala and tugging opened the door. He called over to her that she needed to take him and she nodded, “Unlocked.” She returned, both of them filing into the vehicle and she thought he simply wanted to make a fast get away, leaving the place behind. Plus he had her money and she earned it game by game she wasn’t going to let him leave with it regardless of what he did for her.

He instructed her to start up the car and she did just so, pulling away from the curb and tearing off down the street, seeing his grin broaden further, all too pleased with himself. “Who the hell are you and just why did you step in like that?” She half demanded and he chuckled, commenting that no one else was going to and he saw her struggling for an out so figured why not. She shot him a glare and stuck her hand out again, keeping the other on the wheel. “Great thanks. Now give me my cash. I earned that.” She snipped at him and much to her surprise he pulled it out of his pocket, starting to hand it over but as soon as she reached the few inches for it he pulled it away.

“Real mature. Give it!” She yelled at the stranger and he laid out his terms, saying he needed a ride, was looking for an out and she had just given him one. He made mention that he had a friend he needed to pick up first and considering he just saved her sorry ass she owed him that much. “I didn’t ask you to help me, Tarzan. You just assumed I needed it.”

Parker laughed at her frustrated protest, holding the money back out of her reach. "Relax I will, I will!" He responded, flashing his bright grin again and getting more settled in his seat. "But first I need a ride. I appreciate the out you provided back there but I've gotta pick up a friend and you're gonna help me. Sorry if it's inconvenient for you but I did just kinda save your sorry ass back there, you owe me that much at least." He laid out what he expected in return for coming to her aid, more than a little amused by her proclamation that she hadn't asked for his help, implying that she would've been fine without his assistance.

"You know you are so right, Jane." He shot back in response to her Tarzan comment, hardly able to contain his laughter which only seemed to make the young girl more irate. "I'm sure you had the situation totally handled. Three big drunk guys, boxing you in and helping themselves to a piece of your ass, you were just about to spring into action, weren't ya?" He posed in a mocking tone, smiling at the way her face flushed with embarrassment because she knew she would've been in really big trouble if he hadn't intervened.

The young brunette gripped the steering wheel with both hands again, focusing on the dark road outside and grudgingly admitting that her exit strategy could use a little polish. Parker stuffed the cash back in his pocket and propped his feet up on the dashboard of the car, fully satisfied with his clean getaway from his pursuers and his current course that was going exactly how he wanted. "Right. What were you doing in there anyway? You're definitely not the type to be hanging out in a place like that. This your first time on your own?" He asked, chuckling again at her fluster when she tried to play off his insinuation.

"Oh come on, no point in pretending. You cut out what, maybe a week ago at most? Burned through all your money and now you're looking for some easy cash, hence the pool hustling. You've really gotta work on reining in the deer in headlights look if you wanna sell the whole badass lone ranger thing." He told her, pulling out his phone and checking the distance between their current location and where he wanted to get to. They had several hours to go, but he was already enjoying yanking this girl's chain a bit so he didn't mind. 

Mari stuttered at his assumptions about her, she wasn’t going to get out of there had he not come to rescue her nor had she ever been on her own before. She flushed red in the cheeks and made the attempt to argue, “Of course not! I’ve done this… loads of times.” She shot back in an uncertain tone that he clearly hadn’t missed at all. She clutched the steering wheel and focused on driving rather than the smug look on his face when he called her out.

She scoffed at his assumption though it wasn’t wrong, he was dead on about her. She had been on the road maybe a week, give or take a few days and she certainly blew through all of the money she stole from her father. It was stupid, all of it and in the back of her mind she knew it was but she didn’t want to go back to him, didn’t want to admit to him or anyone else that she screwed up to such a high extent and she mostly didn’t want to see anything that reminded her of her mother. Her eyes watered but she quickly kept her tears in check, focusing on her irritation towards the man in the passenger seat.

“And you think you’re gonna help me or something?” Mari quipped, scoffing in her throat like it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. “Just because I’m new out here doesn’t mean I need your help, thanks. You learn from your mistakes right? Well I’ve learned and I don’t need a Tanto, so how about I just drop you at your buddy’s place and we can split the cash?” She offered, hearing his hearty chuckle from beside her and when she glanced over he was shaking his head.

He told her it didn’t work that way, he and his friend needed a ride out of here for their own safety and he pointed out that she might need it just the same considering the men currently gunning for her or rather trying to tear her clothes off. She rolled her eyes and he asked again why she was out here on her own anyhow. She shifted and shook her head, “Long story. One I don’t really feel like spreading to a stranger. I’m here for work. That’s all.” She answered in a much lower tone, knowing she couldn’t just tell him she was hunting and scared shitless that she wasn’t going to make it through anyhow. Her father was in no condition to save her if needed, Cas couldn’t trace her with the talisman around her neck to which she reached up and stroked out of comfort with her thumb as they drove and he gave her directions to his friend’s place.

“Do I get to know your name? I think you owe me that much if I’m going to chauffeur you around I deserve an introduction don’t you think? ‘Less you like Tarzan. Then I’m good with that.” Mari smirked to herself.

"Work, huh?" Parker mused, his brow furrowing slightly with thought as he recalled what he'd seen of her, long before he'd ever actually met her in person. She wasn't exactly a door to door salesman. But then again, neither was he. He didn't miss the way her pretty blue eyes pricked with tears and he eased up a bit, not sure why this girl was on the run but obviously her reasons were close to the surface.

He told her which on-ramp to take and they rode for a few minutes in silence till she piped up again, asking for an introduction. Parker grinned, knowing from long experience on his own that it was better not to give names if he didn't have to, but... He had a feeling he'd be sticking around this girl for awhile. At least until he made sure that what he'd seen of her didn't come to pass, after that maybe his annoying sense of obligation would dissipate and he could get on with making himself disappear from Ryder's radar entirely.

"You want an introduction? Okay, well why don't I start with what I know about you and you can fill in the blanks, then I'll tell you a bit about myself. Your name is Mari Winchester. You're a hunter but you don't have a case, and this isn't your car. Am I doing all right so far?" He asked, chuckling at her shocked reaction to him knowing details about her that he shouldn't be able to.

He didn't wait for her to respond, her stunned expression was answer enough that everything he'd said about her so far was correct. "My name is Parker Black, and I'm a hunter too. The reason I know you've never been out on your own before is because I've been on my own long enough to recognize the type. The reason I know your name is because I have this annoying ability to receive visions of the future, though I can't control when they happen or how detailed they are. I've seen you since I was young, the same short scene over and over, and when I saw you in the flesh, well... Let's just say I'm a nice guy and I figured I better help you out." The young man gave his explanation, a sly grin on his features as he let the shocked young woman absorb his words for a second.

"I don't usually tell people about my psychic abilities, but... You know something about that don't you Mari? Having a power you have to hide? I told you mine. What's yours?" He asked, his eyes flickering down to the silver pendant she wore, he didn't know the specifics of what it actually suppressed but it was a pretty heavy duty warding charm, he was sure of that.

Mari stared at him in awe once more when he correctly guessed her name, wondering in the back of her mind if maybe he was meant to hunt her down. Perhaps he had heard about what she was or knew her blood line along her father’s side considering he was a hunter too. She refocused on the road to keep from crashing but her heart raced none the less and she took the road he told her to. She opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out, listening to him introduce himself in turn and claim he was a hunter just as well.

He had seen her since he was young? What the hell kind of creepy shit was that, even if he was psychic or whatever it was he claimed to be, why did he see her of all people and not once but multiple times in his life. “If you did it because you’re a nice guy you’d have given me my money and been on your way not claimed I owed you all these things.” She pointed out, her heart racing when he mentioned her own powers, asking what they were and she had certainly never told anyone outside of her relatives.

“My abilities are a little more… complicated.” The brunette answered, feeling him eyeing the chain around her neck making her uncomfortable. She reached up and tucked the charm away in her shirt, the object hanging just low enough to hide in her cleavage should she want it to. He pointed out how powerful that thing was, figuring it was meant to protect her for whatever reasons she wasn’t wanting to disclose to him and she said nothing for another short while.

“I’m nephilim.” She told him simply, her eyes pricking again and she felt a rush of fear even saying it out loud as if suddenly everyone would turn on her, as if she told the world and not just one man. “So if you wanna kill me, hunt me, make it fun for you I’m sorry but I’m not running. If you know I’m a Winchester then I’m sure you’re aware my father is Dean and should you lay a finger on me he’ll be on you like it’s nothing.” She muttered her warning, sitting stiffly and almost waiting for him to flip out on her but he didn’t and she glanced over at him. She was trying to sound tough, keep her voice even as though she wasn’t worried of what he might do to her. “Could you… say something please?” She prompted and he turned to look at her.

The man, Parker Black asked simply why she was running then and at first she didn’t know what to think of his question. “I told you it’s a long story… Hardly one I’d think you want to hear anyways.” She returned, reaching over and flipping on the radio to drown out anything else he might want to say to her. “And for your information I had a case I just… needed the money to get there first.”

 

Parker absorbed everything she told him, not missing the raw emotion in her voice she was trying and failing to hide. Hearing that Dean Winchester was her father was interesting, there certainly wasn't a hunter alive who didn't know at least a little about the infamous Winchester brothers, though now there was only one left alive. That she was a Nephilim was also a bit of a surprise, but now part of his recurring vision about her made a bit more sense at least so he took everything she said at face value for now.

He asked the question more relevant to the here and now, liking to stay as much in the moment as possible despite his 'gifted' mind trying to always get him to waste energy worrying about the future. "So. Why are you runnin'?" He sat back a little further in his seat, laughing a bit under his breath at her tactic for discouraging further discussion by cranking up her classic rock music. He let it slide for now, she was obviously raw from whatever had driven her to trek out on her own ill prepared for the consequences and when it came down to it he needed her at least tentatively on his side if he was going to continue to get the use of her car out of her.

The pair drove in silence for a handful of hours, a couple times Parker saw the girl crying silently out of the corner of his eye but didn't comment on it. He only spoke to give her a direction here and there, guiding her ever closer to one of Ryder's safe houses. He only hoped that no one was currently there other than who he wanted to liberate.

"Okay pull up along here, that's close enough." Parker whispered, reaching over Mari abruptly to kill the car's headlights before they could show up on the security cameras he knew his former foster father had posted around the perimeter of all his properties. Mari turned off the engine and asked him in a harsh whisper what was going to happen now, he leaned forward looking up at the telephone pole several yards away and spying the camera he knew was there.

"I've gotta take out that camera, should create a blindspot big enough for me to get close to the house and see if we'll have company to deal with. I'll take care of getting my friend out, you just stay here, be ready to haul ass outta here when I get back." He said in a low tone, his whole body tensing when he felt the cold pressure of a blade being pressed to his extended throat.

She prodded at his flesh with the flat of the blade, and he sat back letting her guide him with the weapon. Mari's jaw was set in a tight line but her eyes were bright with fear as she informed him that his plan didn't work for her, and all he needed to do to stay alive was give her the money and get out of her car.

Quicker than thought Parker clapped his hand over hers, but instead of snatching the knife away from his neck he pulled her in closer to him, pressing the sharp edge of the knife into his skin. "So that's your play, huh? Gonna kill another human being in cold blood, just like that? It's surprisingly easy to do, but you're holding the knife at the wrong angle. Here-" Parker murmured, taking advantage of her shock to reach up and adjust her grip on the weapon, aligning it perfectly with his artery and pressing it into his flesh enough to cut a paper-thin line into his skin that welled red.

"Go on. Do it Mari. Or don't, I don't care. Just decide quick because if you're not gonna kill me, I've gotta go save my friend and I don't have much time." He urged her, his sharp blue eyes deadly serious.

Mari gulped when he cut the head lights out and told her the plan and she didn’t like it one bit. Yea take out the one camera, give him a chance to off her without any chance of getting pinned for it. It was a quiet enough street, the lighting surrounding the area was dimmed and even more so now without the light of her father’s car peeking out the front. She cut the engine but kept the key in the ignition just in case she needed to make a fast get away and the longer they sat and stewed the more worked up she got wanting to simply get him out and get on her way but she needed the money first.

She drew her blade from her hip, the edge thin and wicked sharp but the handle feminine a gorgeous weapon meant to spill blood should she need to. It was something her dad gave her, the first weapon she was pretty sure she ever got to even touch. She shifted in her seat and pressed the edge right against his corded throat. Her jaw went tight and she forced her hands to remain steady, “Doesn’t work for me. Just give me my money and get out of my car. You and your friend can make your own way.” She muttered.

The man’s hand shot up suddenly and he guided the blade to the far side of his neck, forcing her to press it deeper into his flesh. She hadn’t ever killed anyone before and quite frankly she didn’t know if she could when it came down to it, exorcising demons and ghosts were just about the only ‘textbook’ things she could even consider managing. Her fingers curled tighter around the handle of the weapon and she had a mind to do it, where it was coming from she wasn’t sure but perhaps her survival instincts were kicking in or she simply felt she had to prove to this man she wasn’t as scared as he thought she might be… though really she was.

Her heart pounded in her chest, “You’d really let me kill you? Just like that?” She inquired, meeting his gaze and seeing how serious he was. Maybe he thought it was easier or he knew deep down she was hesitating to draw that blade along his throat. The tension in her body ease and his tight fist released her hand, “Some hero.” She scoffed, drawing back and sitting heavily in her seat. “Go. But I swear to God you take longer than five minutes in there I’m leaving your ass here.” She warned in as stern of a tone she could manage.

Parker smirked and used the pad of his thumb to casually wipe the blood that had trickled from his neck downward. She better get her money after all of this or she would ensure that she found the courage to march in after him and finish the job. She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, turning the key in the ignition just enough that the radio could softly play while she waited for him. “Go, Mr. Hero! I don’t have all night.” She urged, indicating for him to get the hell out of her car and tend to his friend so they could leave already.

The man filed out and promised he would be back in a moment or so. She waved her hand dismissively and he pushed the Impala door closed, doing just as he said, taking out the security camera with ease and jogging up to break into the place. Somehow this didn’t feel right, breaking in to a place to pick up someone who needed a ride? Who in their right mind did that, though from what she had seen so far, this boy wasn’t exactly in his right mind and in an odd way she liked it, found it a little more thrilling than she thought she might.

She waited, checking the time on her phone and it neared the mark she had given him, cursing under her breath knowing he still had her wad of cash on his person. She was just about to climb out, go in after him see what the deal was when she saw him rounding the corner in a hurry, giving a whistle and she started up the Impala once more, her brow furrowing when she didn’t see him with anyone though he looked like he was calling back to someone. He clapped his hands in a hurried fashion and an overgrown beast followed after him seeming more eager to play than he was for a getaway. “No. Oh no.” She muttered to herself, watching him draw near and still trying to figure out if this was a joke.

“What the hell is that?!” Mari whisper yelled to him when the door propped open again.

Parker was breathing hard from his run back across the property, shooting his companion a big smile as he poked his head in the car to catch what she was saying. She hissed at him, seemingly upset that his comrade was a dog and not another person, maybe he had mislead her a bit but after all wasn't it better for her that it was a dog and not another strange dude along for the ride?

"This is who we came out here to rescue! C'mon boy get in!" The young man responded, opening the back door and ushering his canine companion into the vehicle and throwing in a heavy black duffle bag he'd filled up while he was at it. Parker piled back into the front seat and twisted back to ruffle his hand through the huge Newfoundland's dense black fur affectionately. 

He looked back at Mari, practically bouncing in his seat from excess adrenaline and tapping the dashboard of the Impala as if to spur her on. "Well? Let's go I tripped the alarms when I went inside." He explained hurriedly, dark brows raising insistently when she sat prone, her hand frozen on the keys in the ignition.

Mari started babbling about how she never agreed to rescuing adog and that the animal couldn't be in car or her father would kill her. Parker scoffed in disbelief, reaching out to turn the key the rest of the way for her. "There isn't time to argue, we gotta go! The deal was you get me and my friend outta here, and Finn is my friend. He's the best people I know as a matter of fact." He said fondly, tipping his head back and letting the large dog lick his cheek.

"What does it matter if your dad doesn't like dogs in his car anyway? What's he gonna do, ground you?" He added as she back the car up and started speeding back down the way they came, laughing but then his smile bent a bit when he saw the genuine worry cross his companion's face. "Wait, can he do that? How old are you anyway?" He asked, both more relieved that he had saved an underage girl from being raped but also more worried because he didn't want to get in trouble for kidnapping or something.

The girl merely sputtered that she was old enough, earning a dry chuckle from Parker as his suspicions were confirmed. "Yeah uh-uh. That's code for 'underage.' You're what, seventeen?Sixteen?" He asked, wincing a bit thinking she might be far younger than he'd first thought, which made the fact that he found her incredibly hot more than a little uncomfortable. He pulled out her wallet that he had lifted from her jacket pocket when she was holding her knife against his throat, opening it up and pulling out the driver's license.

"What the- is this your mom's ID? Jeezus Mari. You really haven't been out on your own before have you." He shook his head, unable to stop the amused grin that spread over his face at how surprised she was by the fact that he had not only her cash but her wallet.

Mari winced when Parker lead the dog into the back of her father’s precious car. “I didn’t agree to picking up a dog! You didn’t say your friend was a dog!” She pointed out, “This wasn’t the kind of rescue I thought was going down; my dad will kill me if he catches wind of this at all.” She rambled, shaking her head and fearing what he might have to say about all of this, first a strange boy… an older boy at that then a dog in the Impala. Yea dead was definitely what she would be when she went home.

“He hates dogs in his car. It’s like his only rule. Well in regards to the car.” She continued, staring at him in utter disbelief that he would just pull something like this but maybe it was his usual thing for all she knew. Her face flashed with worry that she couldn’t hide even if she tried as he mentioned her father grounding her. She bit her lower lip when he questioned her age, her eyes narrowing harshly as she tried to be stern as she pulled away down the street. “I’m old enough, okay?” She snipped albeit a bit immaturely perhaps.

She drove a good distance at a high speed trying to keep her focus until he called her out and questioned her exact age and then she saw him with her wallet in hand. The car swerved as she reached over to try and snatch it away from him angrily. “How the hell did you get that? What’d you do pat me down without me noticing? That another ability of yours? Grope girls without their knowledge you pig.” She spat, flushing when he merely laughed at her and pulled his hand back saying she needed to chill he nabbed it from her jacket pocket when she was busily trying to murder him.

The brunette’s jaw went tight again and she gripped the wheel with both hands again, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself. She took a moment or two before she said anything else to him. “Yes it’s my mom’s… I’m seventeen and I haven’t been on my own before. Anything else you wanna know?” She grumbled, running her fingers through her hair and harshly sitting her back against her seat refocusing on the road and giving in to the man. She had never felt so silly before and the longer he talked to her about how he knew from the get go she was alone and for the first time the more she felt like she was being babysat rather than partnering up with someone.

Her eyes welled with hurt and angry tears, a mix of things coming over her as she turned her head to face him completely, starting to pull over. “Do you want me to dump you out here ‘cuz I will? You and your mutt. You can walk and I’ll find another place to earn my cash, you keep all that shit on you, just… stop interrogating me.” She muttered her last words getting quieter and her voice caught in her throat and at this point she didn’t know what she was crying for anymore. She was on the verge of a breakdown and her grip on the steering wheel grew tighter and tighter, the vehicle slowing on the dark empty roadway as she simply let up on the gas. “I don’t know why you even saved me. I just… want to get out of here.”

Parker's heart raced a little faster when he took a good look at the photo of Mari's mother on her ID, suddenly realizing that he knew a bit more about why the young brunette was more upset than she might otherwise be. He wasn't sure why he had such a connection with this girl and her family, but he now realized that he hadn't been seeing Mari's death since he was young, but her mother's. The dream he'd had more recently about Mari being killed at that bar, he had managed to put a stop to that, but it seemed like he was off base about seeing the brunette dying in a terrible car wreck.

He put the ID back in the wallet and handed it back over, but still kept the cash to himself. "Hey, take it easy, okay? I'm sorry." He murmured, gently prying her hands from the steering wheel and helping to guide the car to the side of the darkened road. Mari put the vehicle in park automatically but said nothing, simply staring at her lap and sniffling trying not to completely fall apart.

Parker hopped out of the car and quickly circled around, opening the driver's side door and using the same gentle tone of voice to prompt her to scoot over and let him drive. "I know a place we can stop for the rest of the night. Leave it to me, all right?" He said as he sat down and adjusted the mirrors to his own height and got the car out on the road again.

Mari didn't really have good reason to trust him but it seemed she was simply too tapped out to give a damn either way at least for now. They drove another hour or so without speaking, letting the music fill the emptiness between them and Parker spent the time considering all that he had seen in regards to both Mari and her mother's deaths. Her mother's had already happened, he was sure of that now, but he felt it best not to bring that up. Not for now anyway.

He had seen Mari herself bite it in the back alley of the bar he'd met her in, and now that he'd managed to circumvent that fate he felt the need to keep an eye on her awhile longer, make sure she got home all right because clearly that was what she needed to do whether she liked it or not.

His reasoning for sticking with her weren't all selfless however, it was easier for him to avoid being sniffed out by Ryder's cronies if he was travelling with someone and they were expecting him to be alone. He could at least put some good distance between him and his most recent pursuers, he wasn't even sure how they'd picked up his trail again in the first place. Parker had been running from his former foster father for nearly three years now, and he was getting damn sick and tired of it. 

He'd managed to stay under the radar for almost six months before getting pegged again, and now he needed to make himself scarce once more since he wasn't willing to kill Ryder or his men to make his problems go away. All he could hope for was that by choosing a place to run with a random stranger like this, Ryder wouldn't be able to anticipate his course of action since he himself hadn't.

They arrived at the destination he had in mind, a run down old trailer park with a beat up gatehouse on the roadside that he didn't even stop at for permission to enter. He brought the Impala to a halt outside one of the shabbier trailers, sighing and smiling at Mari when she looked at their surroundings and back at him with a confused expression.

"Here we are, the Four Seasons." He quipped, climbing out of the car and letting Finn out as well. He grabbed his bag and the bags she had of her own and went to the trailer to unlock it, looking back at Mari over his shoulder when she hung back by the car asking him if this place was safe.

"Yeah, we're good here. This is one of my safe houses, picked up the habit from my old man. This is one he didn't know about though." Parker responded, opening the door and going inside leaving her to decide what to do with herself. Though he had all her money and possessions so he was fairly confident she'd follow him inside. The trailer was old and small, but fairly spartan and extremely clean inside. Ryder had trained Parker at a young age to keep his space immaculate, and not to hang onto frivolous possessions unless he had a specific use for them.

Parker dumped the bags on the floor and sighed, going immediately to the cupboards and looking through them. "I haven't been here for awhile so there isn't much, but I'll make up some chili if you're hungry." He said as he pulled a couple cans out and a pot. Finn was whining at him, shoving his big snout into his side and Parker laughed. "Feed the mongrel will ya? His food is in that bottom cabinet there." The young man instructed, tossing his head at a lower cupboard behind him.

Mari didn’t argue, scooting over silently at his prompting and letting him take her place in the driver’s seat. This would only make it worse if her dad knew a stranger was driving his car at the moment but right now she didn’t really care. They drove in quiet most of the way to wherever it was he was planning on taking her and she didn’t even ask, her gaze lingering on the dark road out the window, curled up in the passenger seat until he pulled up into a ratty old trailer park.

Her brow came together and she looked around the space in wonder, following him out of the vehicle and asking where they were and if it was safe here. He nodded, promising that it was out of the way and no one knew he even owned this place as a getaway. She simply stood there by the car for a moment while he hauled their bags inside, hesitating to follow but he had everything including her keys on his person.

The brunette followed in after him, relieved to see that the place was neat and scrubbed down unlike the outside of most places around the park they passed. He tossed their things aside and offered to make her something to eat, whatever he could find and her stomach rumbled now that she had the chance to think about something other than running. She nodded, not saying anything to him and whether he saw her agree to the food or not he started making up the cans of chili in his nearly bare cupboards.

She smiled slightly at the sight of Finn nudging him to be fed himself, bending down where he instructed her to and pulling out the descent sized bag of dog food. Finn ran over to her instantly and she dragged out the bag along with a large metal bowl that must have been set aside for him in particular, taking them to the front of the trailer and pouring out a good amount for the dog. She set the bowl on the floor for Finn to take and he immediately started scarfing down all that he could like it was his last meal and she pat him gently as she straightened out. “I guess he didn’t get to eat at your other place huh? Though I suppose a dog like that has to eat every couple hours anyhow.” She muttered making quiet conversation with the man mostly to ease the heaviness in the room, feeling a little awkward.

Mari shifted nervously in the center of the trailer, watching him cook and uncertain of what to say or do. “Did you want some help?” She offered and he shrugged her off with a little grin on his face saying chili wasn’t so hard. She nodded again, asking him if she could use his restroom and he pointed back towards the only bedroom in this place where a tiny door was and she knew by the looks of it that she wasn’t going to really have much to work with. She padded back into the small space and turned on the faucet, splashing a bit of cool water on her flushed cheeks and lingering in there, staring herself down in the tiny mirror above the sink.

Eventually she made her way back out but rather than joining him awkwardly in the kitchen nook she stayed in his room. It was empty except for a mattress mostly, no surprise but it was obvious this safe house wasn’t often used, the bed still perfectly made and she traced her hand over the top before dropping down to sit on the end of it, needing a moment or two to herself though it didn’t last long because a happy slobbering Finn nudged the door open with his nose and trotted in to hop up on the bed, barking at her and making her jump. It wasn’t harsh, the dog wagging his tail but she had never really been around animals before except for Manny who they had when she was little and he was a rather quiet cat.

Finn woofed at her once more and she quickly stood up from the bed, not fearing him but feeling herself about to fly apart again. It wasn’t long before Parker stuck his head in and told her the chili was ready and when she walked back out she noted he wasn’t wearing his hoodie anymore, perhaps warm from cooking. Mari bit her lip as she caught glimpses of his tatted up arms and shoulders and chest, trying to keep control of her breathing as she imagined herself kissing each one as he told her their meaning. He didn’t seem to notice her gazing at him, at least not at first, pouring them each a bowl and setting them at the small table on the other side of the space.

She walked in and sat across from him, watching him as they ate in quiet. The brunette chowed down, hardly catching what he said about her appetite when she finished off her meal before he did. “What?” She questioned in confusion, looking away from him finally and glancing down as she was about to scoop up a bit of nothing considering her bowl was emptied out. “Oh.” She murmured, her cheeks turning pink again and she cleared her throat when he chuckled and ask if she wanted more. “No I don’t want to eat everything you have here. My dad’s always teased me about my appetite but… not much of it sticks.” She shrugged, gesturing down to herself and forcing a smile as she watched him take her bowl to carry it back to the sink and rinse it out, making her bite her lip when his fingers brushed over hers as he took hold of the glass.

Parker quickly did the few dishes he'd dirtied, again old habits died hard and he didn't plan on staying here long. The only thing that kept his safe houses secure was the fact that he never stayed holed up in one for long. He dried and put away the dishes, wandering past Finn and patting the bear-like dog's head before crouching down by his black duffle bag he'd brought in.

He unzipped it in one smooth motion and rummaged around through the various items he'd retrieved from Ryder's place. "You can take the bed, I'll crash on the couch but I warn you, Finn will probably bunk with you. He likes the bed." Parker commented with a chuckle, and upon hearing his name the enormous dog chuffed low in his barrel chest and wandered over to where Mari still sat at the table, resting his fuzzy head in her lap and sighing.

"In the morning we'll go take care of that job of yours. It's in Iowa? Bit of a drive. You'll need more than the couple hundred bucks you won from those pool games." He advised, holding up his hand showing her several rubber band bound stacks of hundred dollar bills. "This outta cover it I'd say." He quipped, laughing at Mari's flabbergasted expression and tossing the money back in the bag. She asked him where he'd gotten the money and he shrugged, pulling out a small toiletry kit that he'd left behind at Ryder's place so he could use it tonight.

"I know the combination to the safes at most of Ryder's places. That's his whole problem with me really, I know too much." He said in a bit of a darker tone than he intended, glancing back at Mari and noticing that she was only half paying attention to his words, her blue eyes wandering over his frame, though mostly staring at his arms and shoulders. He made a tsking sound and shook his head, speaking a little louder to make her look at his face again.

"Hey I know I've gotta lot of ink, but staring that much is kinda rude you know?" He teased, chuckling at her blush and wandering back to the bathroom to brush his teeth and give his face a quick wash. "If you wanna brush your teeth you'll have to use mine." He called from the tiny washroom, giving the tool a good rinse in case she decided to take him up on his offer. "I promise I don't have any weird mouth diseases or somethin'." He added, wandering back out and grinning at the sight of Mari sitting on the floor now with Finn halfway in her lap.

"He likes you." Parker commented, sitting down across from her near the large dog's other end and scratching his rear hips. He caught Mari openly staring at him again, his expression painted with amusement. He was used to getting more attention for his copious amount of tattoos but even this was a bit much. "Hey. You wanna take a picture or somethin'? They're just tattoos not extra limbs." He chortled. She seemed embarrassed again and he shook his head, cutting off her apology.

"It's okay. I'm pretty used to it." He responded, his features getting more serious when the brunette asked him why he had so many tattoos. Parker looked down at his own painted skin, his tone more subdued when he spoke again. "They're... A reminder." He met her gaze again, not sure if it was a good idea to say more when she was just starting to relax a bit around him.

Mari flushed when Parker called her out for staring at him, watching him leave to brush his teeth and offer her to borrow his if she needed it. She smiled lightly and nodded in thanks as she positioned herself more fully on the ground with Finn seeming to forget he wasn’t exactly a lap dog. He was nearly sitting on top of her, covering most of her frame as she scratched at his head just behind his ears.

She sat with her feet beneath her, cushioning most of Finn’s upper frame on her legs and abdomen and surprisingly enjoying the simple comfort of something like a dog. Parker joined them again and sat across from her and spread his legs on either side of the dog starting to scratch at his hips and back. "Good to know he won't eat me... I've never really been around dogs before." She stared at him a bit too long, intrigued by the tribal looking designs over his shoulder and the nearly completed sleeve along his left arm. Of course she wasn’t so clueless that she hadn’t seen tattoos but she never saw so many and never would have thought herself the type to think that such pieces of art were attractive on a man.

He caught her again when her eyes traced up to his collarbone where one ended, not meaning to stare but she was curious about each and every one. “I didn’t mean to… Parker I haven’t, I’m sorry….” She stammered, trying to find the right words and fearing she was upsetting him when right now she needed the man for protection and shelter more than she would ever admit out loud. He shook his head and promised that it was fine and he was used to the attention when he had his shirt off or didn’t wear sleeves.

She nodded and took to petting Finn’s nose, “Why do you have so many of them?” The brunette asked quietly, wanting to know truthfully about them all though maybe it was just something he liked to have. He answered very simply, they were a reminder and she didn’t pry for more, accepting that maybe it wasn’t something he liked talking about and she had after all asked him not to give her the third degree, therefore she owed the same respect didn’t she?

They sat in quiet for a moment or two before she broke it, looking up over at him, “Can I know why you’re running like you are? Pretty obvious you’re not a little kid so, why couldn’t you just pack up and move out like anyone else might? Isn’t that the way to do it?” She asked, listening to his explanation that he didn’t exactly have the cookie cutter family, going into a bit about the man who raised him, ‘Ryder’ and the danger he was. Her brow came together and she felt sympathetic for him, her face falling a bit at the thought that she was running from a man who loved her to death not someone that might hurt her. “I’m sorry.” She whispered to him and he shrugged, saying he took whatever came though she could have sworn she saw in his eyes that it affected him, there was more to it.

Mari and Parker sat with Finn until the dog was snoring and she was drifting off on the floor herself, making the man chuckle as he reached out and flicked her foot poking out beneath the dog, catching her attention. Her eyes shot open again and she jolted, stirring Finn awake as the man across from her pointed back to the bedroom and nudged Finn to get up off of her, telling him to take her back to bed so she could sleep without the dead weight over her legs. She laughed at herself, flushing red and starting to get to her feet when she realized she had been dozing. “Umm… thanks for… everything. You know at the bar and stuff.” She muttered nervously, standing awkwardly in the center of the room and he simply grinned up at her, getting to his feet himself and reaching over to brush her arm with his large hand in acknowledgement.

Mari grinned in return and started back to the bedroom when Parker began pulling his pants off his frame while she was still in there, making her fluster even worse than before. “Good night.” She said hurriedly, feeling Finn hot on her heels and practically racing her to get into the bed first.

Parker chuckled and shook his head as he watched Finn barrel after Mari and heard her chastising the dog from the other room about not taking the entire bed. With so many days on the run under his belt, the young man had adjusted to being able to sleep pretty much anywhere and so when he flopped himself down on the beat up couch in his living room, no pillow, no blanket, he still managed to drift off fairly quickly.

It was rare for Parker to pass a night without some sort of vision. When he was little he just figured everyone had extremely vivid dreams like he did, and when he tried to tell his parents about them they mostly dismissed what he said, when he dreamt about strangers dying they told him sharply to stop talking about such dreams and restricted his media intake thinking he was watching bad tv shows or something.

But when he dreamt of his parents themselves dying, he wasn't able to keep it to himself. He pleaded with them to take him seriously, crying and getting hysterical every time they left the house because he had seen them die in a fiery car wreck though he had no context for it or any way to know when it would happen, all he knew was that it was far too real to ignore. His parents as usual got frustrated with him, not wanting him to be in distress but obviously not willing to put their lives on hold and stop driving to work just because their six year old warned them about a dream he had.

Only a few days later, they were gone, exactly how he had dreamed it. Parker learned that his dreams weren't just dreams, they were visions of the future or at least of a very likely future since as he grew up he learned that he could sometimes change the outcome of his visions for better or worse. 

Ryder had helped him learn more about his 'gift,' trying to help him learn to control and hone it especially for his own ends but when that proved fruitless he simply learned to ignore his visions for the most part. Only a few ever stuck out to him that he couldn't quite ignore, like the dream he'd had of who he now knew was Mari's mother. He guessed it impacted him more because she died in a car wreck like his own parents had. 

That night however he had no visions of the future, instead he got to relieve a highlights reel of all the harsh training his foster father had put him through, leading up to the moment when Parker finally stood up to him, restraining one of his adoptive father's enemies, gun in hand and refusing to take any more human lives. Realizing in that moment that Ryder was going to kill him for his betrayal.

Parker woke up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding and his head aching. He sat up from the couch and ran his hands over his closely cropped hair, sighing and wishing for about the millionth time that he could go back, change things, maybe speak up about his disdain for the work Ryder made him do from the very start. He had to remind himself that he was better off as Ryder's enemy rather than his ally anyway, but that didn't stop him from pining for the loss of the man he'd spent most of his life believing loved him like a son. Ryder always had extremely high expectations for him, but still he never thought when it came down to it if he didn't live up to those expectations Ryder would assault and attempt to murder him.

As with every morning that he had the time to do so, Parker got up and started his strenuous workout routine. Another keepsake from his foster dad, the mindset that your body was your most valuable tool and it was crucial to keep both body and mind in the sharpest condition possible. The young man had nearly zero body fat, driving himself past his limits as often as possible trying to further them. He changed into a pair of athletic shorts and stripped his top off, going to the bar he'd fixed in the doorway between the small kitchen and living room and starting his workout with dozens of sets of pull ups.

Mari slept fairly soundly for the first time since she left the safety of the bunker, perhaps feeling a little more comfortable with Parker in the front of the trailer either as a guard or hell as a distraction to any intruders. Finn slept pressed up against her back most the night and when she woke he was snoring softly and she was nearly hanging off the right side of the bed with the dog beside her. She shifted and rolled over to face him, laughing lightly when his tail started thumping against the mattress, her movements having roused him. “I know you’re bigger than me but we could have split the difference of the bed, bud.” She chided the enormous dog lightly and in response Finn nudged her hand with his nose making it plop on his head and she took his cue to scratch his head for a moment or two.

She lay there until she could hear the sound of heavy breathing outside her door and down the hall way, sitting up and Finn took off through the propped open door. Clearly Parker was awake with the way that the dog seemed excited to get out, perhaps wanting breakfast already. She got up as well, fixing the clothes she slept in on her frame and following out the opened door. Sure enough Parker was up and active, very active; he was pulling himself up time and time again on a pull up bar in the doorway. Her heart raced a little faster, eyes tracking over his every muscle that she could see and he hardly seemed to notice her this time. More of his tattoos were visible and again she found herself staring and absently wondering just what each one symbolized, seeing some of the ink he had trail down and disappear into his low hanging shorts.

“You don’t expect me to do all that right?” She teased as she headed down the hall further, catching his attention and he laughed airily as he did another set before jumping down to grab a cup of water, responding from the small kitchen. “’Cuz about the only lifting that I do in the mornings is with the mug in my hands.” She called back to him, following into the space and looking to him almost pleadingly, “Do you have coffee?” She questioned finally and he shook his head, saying he didn’t have much of anything in this place considering he didn’t really stay here long anyways.

The brunette frowned but accepted it, “Well with that fat stack of cash you got the least you could do before we hit the road is stop off at a Starbucks or something.” She requested with an arch of her brow, getting nothing from him as he walked by her again to get back out to his training routine. She bit her lower lip feeling like she shouldn’t take advantage and linger to watch him continue but she spotted Finn front row waiting his morning meal and she took the shot, feeding the dog and sitting beside him that way if he asked why she was hanging around she could use him as a reason.

She scratched along the dog’s shoulders until he was done eating, eyeing Parker not so subtly as he started doing pushups with ease. He pinned one arm behind his back and for a moment she though he might be showing off for her, lifting and lowering his weight on one hand until his nose nearly touched the floor, hardly making a sound from the effort. “What were you like ex-military or something? Might explain your need for a good bar fight.” She teased, trying to break the lingering tension between them, hearing him chuckle as he rolled up onto the tips of his fingers and started another round. “You make that look so easy.” She pointed out and he glanced up at her but never broke his form, claiming that it was and she should join him.

Mari’s brow rose and her lip twitched up into a smirk, “Yea right.” She laughed, patting Finn who trotted off to go drink from the toilet she assumed when he rounded the corner into the bathroom. “You know on second thought maybe I will… Care for a wager, Tarzan?” She hummed, getting up from the floor to stand over him. “Bet you can’t do your fancy fingertip push-ups with extra weight on you. You’re accustomed to your form but not others.” She muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and jutting her hip out as she challenged him.

All right, so maybe he was showing off a bit. But the fact that Mari hadn't been able to tear her eyes away from him the second she came out of the bedroom made him want to strut a bit. He was secretly amused by the way the girl came up with the excuse to hang around Finn while the dog ate his breakfast so she could watch him doing his push ups.

He didn't break his stride until she proposed her little wager, stopping and bracing on one forearm, twisting his body up to look at her directly. "You're on, but what do I get when I win?" He asked, entirely confident in the outcome considering how Ryder had always forced him to wear weighted vests and cuffs on his wrists and ankles when he worked out. He knew exactly how strong he was, but he was eager to see just what he could get out of this deal for himself.

Mari considered his question for a moment, glancing over at Finn who was flopped on the floor watching them, his tail wagging when the girl looked his way. She offered to give the dog a thorough brushing and Parker made an exaggerated show of considering her offer. "Hmm... Not quite good enough. Give the mongrel a bath and brushing, then you've got a deal." He countered, grinning hugely at her perturbed look at the idea of bathing such a huge, furry beast. But after a few seconds she agreed, commenting that there was no way he was going to win so she had nothing to worry about.

Parker chuckled, lying himself flat on the floor and prompting her to climb on. "Sit on my back and hang on to my shoulders. You'll either want to sit cross-legged or kneel to keep your balance I don't care which. If I can do forty push-ups in a minute, you're on Finn bath duty. If I can't do it, I'll wash and vacuum out your dad's car of all traces of the pup. Deal?" Parker proposed, holding back a snicker at how skeptical Mari was that he'd be able to pull off what he said he would, when he knew full well that he could do closer to fifty weighted push-ups in a minute. Oh well, her fault for suggesting a bet in the first place.

Mari accepted his bet and climbed onto his back, squeaking a bit as she tried to find her balance and get settled. Parker swept his arm over the carpet so he could reach his watch and set a minute on the timer, gathering himself and pushing off from the floor making his passenger yelp a bit at the sudden motion. "You ready? I'll count it out but you've gotta keep track too, make sure I'm being honest." He chuckled, rolling up onto his fingers again and hardly straining from the additional weight of her on his back.

Mari responded that she was ready, her grip on his shoulders near his neck tightening and he could tell by her uneasy voice and stance that she wasn't so sure she'd made a good bet after all, but it was too late he wasn't letting her back out now. "And... Go!" Parker called out, starting his watch and immediately falling into a rapid pace, counting out his push-ups and trying not to laugh at Mari's various noises as she struggled to stay atop him, at this point the only thing that would make him lose this bet was if he let himself laugh and break stride so he stayed focused on his task, finishing up with several seconds to spare and lowering himself back to the carpet, panting from the effort but by no means terribly winded.

"I hope you like the smell of wet dog 'cuz you just got owned Missy." Parker teased, shifting and anticipating her climbing off of him but when he turned to lie on his back she stayed kneeling above him, her blue gaze transfixed on his painted skin and seemingly without realizing it she reached out to lightly trace her fingernail along one of the dark swirling patterns of flying birds that were etched into his pectoral along with dozens of other designs. She didn't even react to his comment about bathing Finn, so absorbed in examining his intricate tattoos at a closer distance. His breathing was still shallow and harsh from his exertion, but her straddling him and lightly touching his chest wasn't exactly helping his heart rate go down.

"Didn't I tell you staring was rude?" He asked in a teasing tone, but again she didn't seem very fazed by his jibe.

Mari struggled just keeping herself steady as Parker ran through his pushups like it was nothing even with her added bit of weight. She knew before he even got close to his count that he was going to win without question and sure enough he did his forty with time still on the clock. He lowered himself down onto the carpet and she didn’t move up off him, too far in a trance by the muscle movement in his back and the tattoos along his skin.

She missed what he said entirely, lifting herself off him only slightly, just enough so that he could roll over. She lowered herself back down and sat over his abdominals, her eyes flickering over the inked flesh of his upper half. She reached out and softly ran her nail over one dark image and then another a bit lower along his chest. Her finger danced over to his bicep, letting her palm drop and she braced herself on his shoulders beneath her only grinning lightly when he brought up how rude she was being for staring at each mark. But she couldn’t help herself.

The brunette ran a line with her finger along his neck where she previously held her blade to his throat, acknowledging it and having to force herself to resist the urge to grab him and tug him up for a kiss or two. “I’m examining. Not staring.” She corrected, her motions slow and her voice smooth. She had wondered what his bare skin felt like outside of just his rough hands and the tattoos felt no different the his unmarked skin, warm and soft.

“Parker…” She started, sighing his name as her eyes tracked down his arm to view each tattoo in turn that was visible to her. He had been straight forward with her about his abilities, accepted what she told him about her own but he didn’t exactly come out and explain what he meant when he said these images were a reminder of his past. “What did you mean by that? That these are a reminder…” She hummed quietly feeling his one hand hook along her calve while the other took her wrist of the hand tracing over him.

The man beneath her, her rescuer guided her finger to one dark image tellintelling her its story. How he hunted a man under his father’s guidance and instructions. She stiffened above him, that wasn’t exactly what she expected to hear come from his mouth especially when he made it seem so easy to talk about. Parker stared up at her as if waiting for her expression to change, to show that she was going to run but she refused to let his stories get to her. He continued and pushed her hand a little lower near his bellybutton and along his right side, her breathing changing as his hand neared her center and she could hardly hear what he was telling her about the tattoo he bore. Her mind playing out what it might be like to have his hands on her, a perfect stranger, a man she was just learning everything about and yet he knew parts of her before she even said them.

He must have thought the hitch in her breath was out of fright, asking her in a low tone if she was afraid of him. Mari’s blue eyes flickered back up his body, “No.” She answered simply at first, absently taking his hand that held onto hers for guidance and bringing it to rest along her thigh, her heart and mind racing but she still felt oddly relaxed in his hands like this. He mentioned that he had killed a lot of people, many that didn’t deserve it as if he was trying desperately to push her away but she shifted and gripped his neck again, guiding him to sit up just a bit so she could truly look at him, shaking her head again. “The fact that you’re running doesn’t scare me, that I just met you doesn’t scare me, the blood on your hands…” She muttered, shaking her head still in indication that she really wasn’t worried.

He made mention of the dreams he would have, that some of the marks he had were in their name, the people that he watched die and never even tried to save. The brunette’s chest clenched as she thought of Sam’s death, one she could have prevented if she were smarter back then about her angelic ways. “I think I killed my Uncle. I caused it.” She stated matter of factly. He didn’t ask her about it, the pair simply sitting on the floor together until she drew her face close to his, raking her nails through his damp hair along the nape of his neck, “You’re getting yourself out… You don’t scare me Parker.” She repeated.

The brunette sitting atop him was fully engrossed in his various tattoos, running her fingers over individual marks and making him have to work to regulate his breathing. It had been awhile since he'd had a girl in his lap, and Mari was very pretty... And very seventeen, he reminded himself curtly, trying not to imagine pulling her down to the floor with him and making her say his name in that breathless way she did over and over.

She asked him for more of an answer concerning his tattoos and his stomach tightened with apprehension. Parker hadn't ever told anyone the true meaning behind the marks permanently painted into his skin, but for some reason in that moment he felt compelled to answer her. He gently took her wrist and guided her finger to one of his first tattoos, a spider hanging from a torn web that spread from his shoulder towards his collarbone.

"My old man Ryder, he raised me to be a hunter, one of the best. But he doesn't just hunt monsters... He and his group are... Well they're like freelance assassins. He does dirty work for bad people and when I was sixteen he brought me into it. He had been training me since I was a little boy and I never even realized it, honing me into a killer not just of vampires and ghouls but of people too. I got this tattoo after my first kill, all of Ryder's men have a spider mark of some kind. After that... It just became a ritual for me. Even though backe then I lived for Ryder's approval and knew what he'd do to me if I refused, I still hated killing and I never wanted to become numb to it. I got a new tattoo for every person whose life I took, directly or otherwise." He spoke softly, bracing himself the whole time for her to recoil in horror and disdain, but when she said nothing he continued, guiding her hand to a few more of his tattoos and giving her a brief summary of the stories behind them.

"So now you know what they mean, and I'm covered with them. Covered with the lives I took. Are you afraid of me now, Mari?" He asked, his sharp eyes searching her face and his heart going a million beats a minute despite his outward calm. She responded in the negative and he almost wondered if what he'd told her just wasn't sinking in. She couldn't be okay with finding out he was a murderer...

"You sure 'bout that? I've killed a lot of people Mari. People that didn't deserve to die, for petty reasons like blood money and third party vengeance. I was Ryder's right hand, his best asset. He trusted me with the worst jobs, because no one ever thought a punk kid would be the one putting the knife in their back. I finally reached a point where I couldn't look at myself in the mirror anymore, couldn't look at my hands without seeing them drenched in blood. I knew what defying Ryder meant, but I did, and that's why I've been on the run for three years. He won't stop chasing me until I'm dead." He said in a grim tone, waiting for her to realize just how much she didn't want to be associated with a man like him.

But again her response surprised him. His brow furrowed with disbelief, opening up to her further, telling her things he would never tell anyone else on earth. "Not all of them are for people I killed in cold blood, but I'm still responsible in a way for their deaths. My gift... It shows me the most significant events in people's lives, and quite often the most significant is the one that ends it. I've seen people die in my visions countless times, but how could I ever save them? I never know when and where they are or how to send any kind of warning... I've been witness to so much death and turned a blind eye to it all." He bit his tongue on telling the girl how her mother was among those he'd seen perish and been helpless to intervene, not quite able to muster the courage for that final addmission.

Mari spoke again, sharing at least a part of his feelings of guilt and remorse believing she had caused her uncle's death. It was obviously something that effected her greatly, and so he didn't push her for more details, not for now at least. The air between them was getting heavier by the second, a tension building between them that Parker wanted to break but feared the consequences of doing so. Mari craned her body over his, murmuring again that she didn't fear him and the notion was incredible to him to say the least.

He had never told anyone these things, never believed anyone he did tell would see him as anything more than the monster he knew himself to be. It was both liberating and confining at once, realizing that she had managed to get under his skin in such a short time, deep enough for him to confess his darkest secrets and accepted them without blinking. Who was this girl, really? Why did she have such an effect on him? Parker's more cynical side barked at him that she simply didn't understand, didn't know how truly low of a creature he was. But... He recognized the pain in her eyes as well. She had lost those dear to her, she had felt at least a small dose of the guilt he felt by believing she was responsible for her uncle's death. If there was anyone who might at least begin to understand what he felt, it was her.

Parker's grip on Mari's leg and hand tightened and he closed the small distance left between them, pressing his mouth to hers and kissing her deeply. She immediately responded to the contact, her nails pressing into his neck and her thighs around his middle tensing, opening her mouth to him so he could slide his tongue intimately against hers. She felt good, really good, and it took everything he had in him to break away from her, panting for breath and forcing himself to remember that she was still only seventeen and they had only just met the night prior besides.

"We should... Hit the road." He rasped, shifting to get up but despite his best efforts his hands lingered on her hips a bit longer than was strictly necessary. "Let's clear out." He instructed, clearing his throat and going to swipe off the worst of his sweat from working out in the sink so they could leave the safe house as soon as possible.

Mari hadn’t missed his tone, the way he was trying so hard to get her to believe and understand that he was some sort of monster. She refused, not after he risked himself to get her out when he didn’t have to. She wasn’t stupid, though she might be young she wasn’t naïve, at least not as much as he might see her as. Any man who was well and truly a cold hearted killer would never stick his neck out to stop a cruel bar fight for a girl they didn’t even know, not truly anyways. She kept her eyes on him, never letting a flicker of uncertainty cross her features no matter how much he tried.

She shook her head and promised she wasn’t afraid, confessing that she believed she killed her uncle and in a way she certainly had. Though most said it was because she had been young, didn’t know and didn’t understand but that didn’t mean she was any less at fault. She called those angels whether she intended to or not and with who she was they tracked her instantly without another thought and the man died for her, to get her home to her family. She felt guilty for leaving like she did after losing her mother in turn but she couldn’t bare it not for a second more and not with how alone she felt. Aleah was the only one who understood being different like she was after all.

She bent over him further and his grip on her tightened slightly, closing the little gap left between them and forcing his mouth to hers which she gladly accepted willingly. Her nails bit into his skin lightly, her body tightening around his own to pin him close to her and keep him there as long as she could, opening her mouth to him and mewling with want against his lips as he kissed her long and deep. She responded in kind, desperately craving more from him, the one person outside her family she ever was capable of opening up to and perhaps the same went for him.

He pulled away and she was reluctant to let him go at all, following him upwards to a sitting position. Her breathing was heavy as he told her that they should get moving for the hunt she had nearly forgotten about entirely. He got up and his hands still lingered along her small hips, standing in her space and it was clear that he wanted her at least, she hoped he wanted her. She dragged her nails from his neck down along his shoulder to his chest, her eyes darkening slightly as she imagined him taking her right where they stood. “Right now?” She questioned in a sultry tone almost wanting to lure him into agreeing with staying a bit longer so he could act on what she wanted him to.

Parker mentioned them clearing out and pulled away from her before she could do much else against it, watching him move away to at least wipe down his chest. She crossed her arms over her chest, pouting a bit at the fact that he simply stopped when she wasn’t ready for him to. She walked back and grabbed her few things she had here, taking them straight out to the car. He kept the keys almost like he thought she might just disappear on him entirely and right now part of her had a mind to do so. She climbed in the driver’s seat that was left unlock and waited for him when he poked his head in through the passenger side door after packing up the dog and his own things in the trunk. She stuck her hand out, “I’m old enough to drive. Wouldn’t be out here if I wasn’t.” She pointed out, wiggling her fingers and smiling when he slapped them into her palm. “Thank you.” She quipped and he chuckled at her.

Mari took to driving, liked it in fact just like her father did it was far easier, one of the few things in her life she could control entirely. They drove the few hours it took to get out to Iowa and he started listing off what needed doing, how they were going to go about this hunt, recalling all that he saw she had in the trunk of her car. She rolled her eyes, “Wow you’re gonna be loads of fun to work with.” She teased, smiling at him none the less when he glanced at her. She bit her lip recalling his mouth against hers, how good he felt and how badly she wanted more of his taste and not until he reminded her they were working and needed to get in and get the job done did her mind clear. “Okay hot shot; show me how it’s done then. Since I’m such a noob.” She instructed playfully, catching his blue gaze in the setting sun.

Parker laughed at himself a bit when Mari called him on his immediate assumption of the leadership role in the job that was technically hers, but as far as he was concerned it was his job to keep his companion safe, it was the least he could do while basically using her and disrupting her life to run from Ryder. 

"Hey you said it not me." He responded, with a small shrug, grinning from ear to ear at her exasperated expression. They drove out to the farmer's field where Mari had picked up reports of a monstrous creature had been mutilating and killing cattle, the only eyewitness being the farmer himself and the quote from him in the article described it as a 'nine foot tall red eyed scarecrow with a ripped up burlap sack for a head.' The article went on to cite the farmer's history of being a bit of a local wolf-crier, so it was obvious no one was taking the man's claims seriously, as well they shouldn't since none of the townsfolk knew like Mari and and he did that their worst nightmares really did exist.

The pair pulled up to the farmhouse and Parker reached back into his duffle bag to pull out a falsified college student ID on a lanyard for Minnesota State University, it was the closest ID he had for something like this and when she questioned what her story was gonna be he winked at her. "Don't worry, I got this just follow my lead Jane." He said with a little chuckle, donning a pair of black framed non-prescription glasses and grabbing a binder and a nikon camera out of his bag as well. 

"Just like I said in the car, I'm a journalism student building my portfolio and you're my intern helping me run my blog. He won't check you're creds, nobody cares about the intern that's what makes it such a good cover. He'll like us because we're gonna tell him we believe his story, I'll throw a bunch of tech jargon at him to overwhelm him but still act young enough that he won't want to be seen as less intelligent than a punk kid so he won't question us. C'mon!" He said in an enthusiastic tone, it had been a long time since he'd been on an honest to goodness hunt and with any luck he had thoroughly confused the men tailing him by coming up to Iowa considering they knew him well and this was about the last move he'd make.

Parker handed Mari the binder and slung the camera over her neck, giving her a quick once over and nodding as he put the lanyard around his own neck. "Showtime." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, leading the way up to the porch and knocking on the door.

The plan went exactly as Parker intended, using a balance of charm and intimidation with a bunch of incoherent webspeak, only fifteen minutes later the pair had permission to search all over the man's property and stake out the place all night if necessary in their quest to capture his purported 'wild scarecrow' on film. They headed out to the pasture and sent Finn on the trail and it didn't take the dog long to sniff out some of the patches of torn up grass where a few of the cows had been dispatched.

It was obvious by the deep gashes in the turf and the amount of dried blood spattered all around that there was definitely something gnarly hunting here, too big even to be a werewolf and Parker did pick out a mangled scrap of what looked like blood-soaked burlap or some other coarse fabric from one of the sites.

The young hunter straightened out and glanced at his partner, not missing the mix of excitement and anxiety in her blue eyes. Seemed she was the type who gravitated towards this stuff naturally, even if it scared her, though that shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering who her father was. Maybe that was part of why she hadn't bolted from him at the knowledge that he had killed people in his past, but still he couldn't help but wonder how much of her apparent ease with his history was real and how much was bravado like she was showing here.

"Pretty big gashes in the ground." He mused, eyeing her and gauging her reaction. "Still wanna take this thing on?" Parker asked with a small crooked grin. The brunette glanced at him, then back to the bloody ground, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath before nodding, confirming that she was ready for whatever this thing had to dish out. "Good, that's what I like to hear. It's likely this thing, whatever it is, won't come out again till after sundown. Wanna head back into town and find some food?" He asked, whistling for Finn and turning to head back to the Impala, not waiting for her response, confident that she would want to eat knowing the appetite on her now after seeing her demolish two bacon cheeseburgers in the car earlier for lunch. They might want to get some snacks for the stakeout tonight too, or she might end up taking a bite of him... That thought was altogether too appealing. 

Mari followed Parker’s lead just like he requested of her though she didn’t really know why, perhaps because the few chances he had this far she didn’t have any reason not to trust the man. They kept an eye on Finn, following after him through the fields as he tried to sniff out a trail, guess a dog wasn’t such a bad idea as a hunter. This was her first hunt, her first real hunt and so far it seemed she had a good team going for her.

She bent down with him to examine the marks in the grass and the blood stained fabric that gave every indication that the story the man told them was actually true despite what the others in his little town said. She was both excited and scared to be involved in such a situation though she had tried to anticipate all of this, to build herself up to a larger hunt like this might end up being. Perhaps having Parker was a good thing considering she might just be in over her head had she come alone.

She still had a curiosity to know what this thing was just like her father might, the process the build-up and the satisfaction of clearing it out was what she looked forward to most. The brunette straightened out, tucking her hair behind her ear and meeting her companions eyes, swallowing hard but nodding none the less. “Yea. I’m ready for whatever this… thing brings us.” She assured the other, smiling as he offered another meal. She jogged after him to catch up with his longer strides, heading back to the Impala without resistance.

They had found a descent taco place that Mari thought sounded appealing, ordering enough to feed a few full grown men and keeping good pace with Parker in their taco count. She giggled as he shoveled the last bit of his taco into his mouth as if in challenge to her, knowing full well he was teasing her without saying anything. She shook her head and handed off the last of her own meal for Finn to chow happily on. When they finished up she drove them all to fill up on gas, heading inside for drinks and snacks to hold them over should they end up there late tonight.

It was fully dark by the time they got out to the fields once more, everything they needed packed in the cab of the car within reach. They sat for a good solid hour or so keeping watch and waiting for a sign of this thing outside their windows. Parker propped his feet on the dash like he had the first night she drove him to pick up Finn and she wrinkled her nose in discomfort, fighting the urge to scold him for relaxing like he was. She tore off another piece of her laffy taffy she bought, cherry flavor, her favorite and he must have caught on glancing at her and asking what was wrong. She looked to his face in the advancing darkness and nodded to his feet. “Shoe prints on the dash.” She mumbled knowing he was going to tease her about her obedience to her father. “What?” She laughed at the look on his face as he tugged his leg down and set it back on the floor.

Mari shook her head and continued grazing on the things that they bought up the road and she still felt him looking at her. Her eyes flickered back to the side where he was sitting, “You’re supposed to be keeping watch on your side. Staring’s rude, remember?” She teased with a little smirk, hearing him chuckle and comment that he didn’t know where she put all the food she inhaled. “I’m sorry am I eating your share?” She teased, offering him the taffy she was eating but snatching it away before he could do much of anything, taking the last bit in her mouth.

She heard him laughing at her and she smirked, biting her lip as she swallowed down the last bit of her treat and got an idea. “You can still have a taste if you want.” She purred teasingly, shifting in her seat and running her hand up his leg to his chest then his neck and gripping him much to the same manner she had that morning. She had wanted nothing more than to feel and taste him again perhaps a little more if he was willing.

 

Parker tensed when Mari drew her hand up his body to clutch his neck, knowing exactly what she was getting at and wanting nothing more than to taste her again despite all the warning bells ringing in his head. He couldn't deny that there was something between them, a connection that ran deeper than he was accustomed to feeling around another person, much less a girl but he wondered if it had to do with the fact that he'd seen her in one of his visions.

Mari craned her head up till her lips were a whisper away from his, and he could smell the sweet cherry candy on her breath but more enticing than that was the flush in her cheeks and the want in her eyes. Parker's eyes flickered between hers and he closed the remaining distance between them, kissing her softly and enjoying the way she immediately responded to him, gripping him tighter and opening her mouth to him eager for more. He drew his hand up to cup the back of her head, tipping her head up for better access and deepening the kiss.

Mari leaned into him and he took her eagerness as his cue to continue, tasting the sweet candy flavor on her tongue and nipping at her full lower lip. His hands swept down her frame, learning her curves and hollows and getting more turned on the more he explored her and heard the desperate little sounds escaping her throat. She gripped his shoulder and started to swing her leg over his lap, but before she could climb up onto him he pressed his hand against her thigh, keeping her from proceeding even though his baser instincts were yelling at him to drag her into his lap and make her scream his name.

"Hey, easy there killer... We're supposed to be watching for a big murderous scarecrow remember?" Parker reminded her in a teasing tone, taking a deep breath trying to rein in his own response to her closeness. Mari made a small noise of disappointment and sat back on her own side of the seat, but both of them continued stealing glances at each other in the growing dark.

A little after midnight Mari was getting more and more restless, drumming her hands on the steering wheel and fiddling with the candy wrappers, making little percussion noises with her mouth. Parker had been on many long stakeouts so the waiting didn't bother him, but when Mari started trying to muffle her yawns he couldn't hold back his amused chuckle. Parker let his head loll over the back of the bench seat to look at her, a crooked grin on his face. "This could take awhile. If you wanna try to get some shut eye in it's all right, I'll keep watch." He prompted, slipping his larger hand beneath hers on the seat and curling his fingers up to entwine with hers. He ran his thumb over her digits, not really sure if the contact was welcome or not but it just felt natural, and he was pleased when she didn't pull her hand out of his grasp.

The young brunette scoffed, claiming that she wasn't tired, but almost immediately having to stifle a yawn after her statement. Parker laughed and shook his head. "Sure you're not. Look it's better if you get a little rest now while things are still quiet rather than being off you game when things do start happening." He reasoned, tugging at her arm. "You've had a rough couple of days, no shame in being tired. C'mere." He said in a softer tone, pulling her over to rest against his chest and wrapping his arm around her.

Mari kissed Parker in earnest, gripping him and making the attempt to settle herself in his lap until she gripped her leg and denied her advance. She wasn’t sure what her deal was, why she felt such a pool to this man in particular and what made her so desperate to have him all she knew was that she wanted it and bad. She pointed when he gently pushed her back to ease into her seat again, reminding her that they were working right now. She took her place again but she wasn’t entirely detoured from trying, to her that just meant no right now but she still felt a bit of disappointment.

It grew later into the night and she got more and more restless, fiddling with everything within reach, bugging Finn every so often though he didn’t seem to mind much. She turned her cheek once more to hide her yawn from him, hating that she wasn’t lasting quite as well as he seemed to be. She was fidgeting and the more tired she got the more anxious she became as well, wishing this thing would just show its face and they could get the job over with.

Parker glanced at her and gave a little chuckle at the fact that she was trying to hide her exhaustion from him like this. He offered to keep watch while she slept a bit and caught up on some rest and she was about to scoff and give him a comeback… if she could think of one but then his hand slipped under hers along the seat and her heart raced, her mind drawing a blank when it came to words at feeling his touch. Her blue eyes tracked down to watch his thumb running over her knuckles, gentle and comforting and for a moment she couldn’t work up anything in her mind.

Her gaze shifted up to his face and her fingers curled into his in response, finally managing to open her mouth. She rolled her eyes as if nothing else was occurring like it was, “Please. I’m not even tired.” She returned, her free hand extending up and she covered her mouth to fight a yawn without success. He didn’t miss it, there was no way he did, making her laugh a little through it as he insisted that she just take his offer and sleep for a bit. He tugged at her and she didn’t fight him though she was a little surprised by his actions, following his prompting and leaning into his larger frame.

His arm slipped around her and she smiled, letting her own hand snake over his abdomen to cuddle in as close as she could manage in the car. Mari sighed and reached up to take his opposite hand to lace their fingers together once more. “Wake me in about an hour… sooner if something happens. Okay?” She requested, breathing in his scent and nuzzling her cheek against his chest to get comfortable. She curled up into him completely, her eyes falling shut when he started absently tracing his fingers over her shoulder while she rested.

It wasn’t long before she had drifted off against his frame and while she might not have been sleeping long it was the best nap she ever remembered taking. She likely could have slept easy until morning but then she heard Finn’s heavy barking from the back making her jolt with each sound. Parker shifted suddenly, pulling away as she started to sit up and reaching to pat his dog’s head and get him to calm down but apparently he had every reason to be getting excited like he was. Mari’s heart raced and she figured something was out there whether they could see it quite yet or not, Finn smelt a change.

 

The quiet was broken by Finn's barking in the backseat, making Parker jump and Mari rouse abruptly from her slumber. The young hunter craned his head back and put his hand on the massive dog's shoulder, feeling the tension in the animal's muscles and following the dog's line of sight out the window.

"Hey buddy, you got somethin?" Parker asked, an eager grin crossing his face and he scrambled to grab his weapons and climb out of the car. Mari followed suit and came to stand beside him, shining their flashlight over the darkened field and holding her knife in her opposite hand. They didn't know exactly what they were dealing with yet, so they both bore blades and guns, hoping whatever arsenal they had in the Impala would be able to take down the monster they were facing.

Finn stood in a tense stance before them, his hackles raised and his teeth bared. Neither of them could see anything amiss yet, but Parker had never known his faithful dog to be off base when it came to sniffing out an enemy be it human or supernatural being. The dog took a few steps forward, growling low in his chest and Parker drew his gun from the back of his jeans, cautiously following the animal's lead.

"Here we go, this is it. Stay behind me." Parker whispered, crouching a bit as he walked ready to spring whenever their 'scarecrow' made it's appearance. They moved slowly forward in the grass, Parker suddenly catching movement to his left. "Look out!" He called, leaping back to narrowly miss being caught across the chest by the clawed hand of a towering being, it looked like a patchwork of decayed flesh and stuffed homespun cloth sacks. It's long limbs ended in inch long steel claws and while it wasn't exactly a scarecrow Parker could see why the farmer had compared it to that.

Finn howled ferociously and dove towards the creature, taking it at the knees and Parker fired three rounds into it's head. The construct roared and reeled back, a sickening wet tearing sound coming from it's body was all the warning the got and the scarecrow separated it's upper half from it's legs that the dog was locking down with his vice like jaw.

New limbs grew from the stump of its midsection and it sprang towards the pair of hunters, the bullets through its misshapen head not seeming to effect it whatsoever. "Mari run!" Parker yelled, pushing her back and drawing his silver blade, swiping the creature when it got close enough and crying out as it raked his chest with it's claws. They silver knife didn't seem to be working either and it forced Parker back onto the ground, it took all his strength to hold it's featureless face away from his own as it dug it's claws into him and bore down on him.

"Mari! Try the iron!" Parker growled, his blue eyes going wide with alarm as a seam along the things head split open revealing a slavering mouth full of sharp jagged teeth. It's blackish drool dripped down onto his face and Parker growled with the effort of keeping the thing from biting into him.

His companion came running back brandishing a sharpened iron spike. She took aim and drove the weapon into the creature's shoulder, screaming in alarm when it wailed in pain and lashed it's clawed arm back at her. It would've hit her if not for Finn springing in at the last second, clamping his jaws around the scarecrow's forearm and tearing viciously at the creature, keeping it from hurting Mari.

Parker took the opportunity his four-legged friend created, holding his now free hand up to the young brunette and calling to her, "Mari! The spear!" He cried harshly, shaking her from her frozen state and taking the weapon from her, driving it into the scarecrow's body and turning to roll atop it, yanking the iron spike free and driving it where the creature's heart would be, assuming it had one.

Finn tore the creature's arm completely off, tearing it to shreds and Parker twisted the iron pike in it's chest, holding firm until it's cries quieted and it twitched once or twice before finally going slack. Parker sighed roughly and fell back off the thing, moaning in pain and reaching up to gingerly brush his fingers over the long cut across his pectorals.

"Ow... Motherfucker this was my favorite jacket. Ah..." Parker winced, fidgeting with the tattered cloth of his hoodie and looking back up at Mari who was paler than a sheet. "You all right?" He asked, putting aside his own injuries wanting to be sure she was okay. He made himself stand and gently gripped the young brunette's shoulders, looking her over more closely.

Mari watched in horror when this unwritten creature took to fighting her companion. She was in a near frozen state as Parker instructed her to run and get out of there at first, the beast ripping into pieces but only regenerating from its broken down mess of a body. The silver blade he bore did nothing to slow the creature and instead it tore into his flesh, knocking him down and he did everything in his power to keep the thing at bay as much as he could, yelling for her to use the iron spear they brought with them.

She jolted at her name, grabbing the weapon and running full force back to where he was, driving the thing into his shoulder. She yelped as it swung back at her and tried to make a grab for her, startling her further but Finn came to her aid and bore his teeth, sinking them into the creatures arm. She hadn’t missed Parker’s voice, her fingers dropping hold of the iron piece and he took it to drive through its possibly non existing heart.

Mari panted heavily as her partner finished up the job until the thing went silent and both he and his furry friend pulled off. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the marks along his chest, seeing him peel open the torn bits of his hoodie. He asked her if she was all right but her concern wasn’t at all on herself right now. She tried to open her mouth, her breathing coming in deep heavy gasps and she felt like she might pass out or puke or possibly both.

Parker forgot all about his own hurt and reached out for her, gripping her shoulders and she pushed at him to keep him at bay but that only seemed to worry him further. He spoke her name again, “Jeezus you… you’re… bleeding really bad.” She pointed out, trying to swallow everything down and keep her fear and sickness back. He asked her in a light tone if she was gonna make it and she shook her head, turning and quicker than thought he helped tug her hair aside as she rid herself of the contents of her stomach.

Mari rested her hands on her knees to gather herself, “I’m okay.” She promised, feeling his hand on her back comforting her. “I’m sorry…” She muttered and he chuckled saying it was fine, between the rush of adrenaline and the fear she felt previously it made sense for her to be as worked up as she was. “I just… have to build my tolerance.” She assured him, taking slow breathes.

Parker gently took her hand and she turned to face him, her eyes lingering on his face trying to avoid seeing the marks on his skin should she be affected by them again. She took a moment, gripping his biceps lightly to keep herself steady and the look in his eyes, full of concern for her was enough to pull her back knowing she needed to take care of him. Her eyes flickered down to the wounds in his chest and she reached out, brushing her fingers near the marks and asking him if he was okay. “I… Parker I’m sorry I froze. I can do this, I swear that I can.” She stammered, her eyes starting to water and he laughed, lightly teasing that at least she didn’t puke on his shoes.

Mari laughed and the tension she felt building eased almost instantly, hitting his arm. “That’s not funny.” She whined, “We need to get you fixed up.”

Parker chuckled at his companion, sympathetic to her rawness when it came to her weak stomach. It was likely she had never seen a bloody wound for real or death with the reality of taking down a supernatural creature such as this. As dangerous as exorcising ghosts could be, it wasn't quite as grisly as a tangible beast like this. He patted her gently and and walked back with her to the Impala, wincing as he opened up the trunk to get the gas can and some matches.

"I'll have to wait, we gotta finish up here first." He told her, setting the can on the ground and guiding her back towards the front of the car. "Why don't you go sit down, sip some water while I take care of this, hmm? See if you can look up the nearest prompt care center while you're at it, huh? I think I need stitches." Parker chuckled, keeping his expression as light as possible despite the pain he was feeling.

Mari didn't seem to happy about being told to go wait in the car, but when she looked back at the body on the ground she swallowed hard, grudgingly accepting that she wasn't able to deal with the remains of the scarecrow, not without getting sick again. Parker smiled at her and went to work, sprinkling gas on the body and setting it ablaze. It broke down fairly quickly and he stirred the ashes into the ground a bit with a shovel, though he didn't do quite as thorough of a job as he might've otherwise if he wasn't injured. Still, a big storm was supposed to be coming to this area, the rain would help the remains soak into the earth and erase the traces of it.

Parker smiled at Finn who was running around the field, the dog always got energetic after a hunt. He whistled and called him back to the car, petting his head before he jumped in the back seat. "Good boy." He praised, more than pleased at his faithful friend's performance keeping Mari safe when he was pinned down.

Mari drove into to town to the small hospital, pulling up to the emergency entrance. Parker looked over at the girl who looked even more pale than before gazing up at the medical building. "Hey. You don't... Have to go in if you don't wanna..." Parker slurred, he didn't want to put the girl through any more for one night but he had lost a good deal of blood and his vision was getting a little fuzzy.

He climbed out of the car, telling Finn to keep Mari safe and stumbled out of the vehicle onto the curb. His wound didn't hurt anymore which he knew was a bad sign. Parker took a few steps and the world tipped on him, before he could regain his balance he hit the concrete, uttering a curse as his knees and hands hit the pavement. In a moment Mari was at his side, asking in an almost frantic tone if he was alright. She tugged at him trying to help him stand but his weight was too much for him. Fortunately a couple hospital staff members rushed outside, helping Parker inside with a worried Mari in tow.

They gave their falsified IDs, claiming he had fallen through a window to explain his injury. Parker was admitted almost immediately, there weren't many other patients total in the ER and he was by far the most serious case. A nurse helped Parker peel his bloodied shirt and jacket off, gasping and gaping openly at his muscled, ornately tattooed frame.

They got him cleaned up and hundreds of stitches later they finally left Parker in peace, crisp white bandages wrapped around his defined torso and an IV in his corded arm. The young hunter glanced over at his companion, his features softening with sympathy when he saw her sitting stiffly in the chair by his bed, hands balled into fists in her lap and trying her best to keep her tears in check. He could only assume that on top of everything else she'd been through the past few days, being here in this hospital had to remind her of what happened to her mother. He didn't know if she'd gone to see her mother at the hospital or not, but there was no way such a painful event wasn't on her mind.

"Hey." He murmured, leaning forward and putting his hand on her knee. "Once they let me outta here... Let's take you home, okay? I know you're going through some rough stuff with your dad but... Life's too short. He's probably wondering if you're in a place like this right now, hurt, lost, alone. I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but.... You're lucky Mari. Lucky that there's still someone around who cares about you." He prompted, craning his head down to meet her tear-filled gaze.

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, only a strained little sob. Parker's heart clenched, he hated seeing Mari in pain. He pulled her forcefully up out of her seat and into his arms, hugging her tightly and clenching his jaw against the pain of her putting pressure on his wound. He held her snug and gently rocked her as she cried herself out, hushing her now and then and petting her hair. It was clear that she hadn't really let herself cry for her mother until now, cry for the loss and the remorse she felt for leaving her father alone.

Mari hated hospitals, cursed them for all that they brought to her family. Not a single doctor or nurse could save her mother and perhaps she forced herself into being numb to it all. She didn’t want to go inside but with the way Parker crashed in the parking lot back there she didn’t have much choice. If it was up to her and she had the strength to leave this man she would be in the car with Finn and leaving everything to the others. But in a way she didn’t trust the doctors and nurses here either despite that they had her companion stable and fixed up to the best of their abilities. She feared she would watch him slip as well.

The last place she saw her mother was resting with a sheet over her frame in a bed much like the one he laid on now. She clenched her fists tight, white knuckled and her nails digging deep into her own palm near enough to draw blood. He reached out and his touch alone was nearly enough to send her falling over the edge that she was teetering on currently. Her emotional state was compromised and no amount of running was going to fix that no matter how much she wanted it to.

Parker leaned over, speaking in a soft tone and telling her she was lucky but how come she never felt that way. A Nephilim, the only one in existence as far as anyone knew and the one and only woman in her life left her to figure out her abilities completely on her own. There wasn’t a single person that understood, not even Castiel grasped the concept as much as he might try to. It was different for her, risky every day and it took a lot for her not to simply take off the talisman and throw all of it away, end it and be able to relax again. Perhaps she was being dramatic but she often thought of the fight her family put into keeping her here and Sam would never want her to do such a thing after sacrificing himself to send her home.

She broke finally, her lips parting and a sob ripping its way out of her throat. She was limp and unable to fight at all anymore, completely falling apart to the point that she hadn’t even felt her rescuer lift her out of her chair the way he had. His strong arms wrapped around her and she could never remember feeling safer than she did now, strange considering she had hardly met the man but a few days ago yet she felt so connected to him like he wanted things to truly be righted in her world not that he simply saved her to keep his conscience clear.

The brunette curled up in his lap again only this time she simply clutched at his upper half completely unconscious of his wounds in the moment, her body wrapped around him as much as it could be on the mattress they sat. She cried into his chest and shoulder, comforted by his arms around her and his hands brushing through her hair and down her back. She felt horrible, how could she leave her father like that when he likely was taking this just as hard if not harder. He lost it all, his one love and the one and only brother that he had and his one final relative left alive had stolen his car and his money and left him to rot on his own.

She cried until she didn’t have a single tear left to shed, easing up on Parker’s chest though he didn’t make a sound or tell her she needed to she realized soon enough she was harming him. She still sat on his legs, letting him touch her and hold her hand until they were released later in the evening or rather early in the morning. Parker mentioned her going home and she looked at him as they slowly strode through the hospital doors hand in hand. “But it’s not fair… That I have a place and you don’t after all of that?” She muttered, refusing to let go of his fingers even if he wanted her to though he didn’t seem to mind at all.

She stopped just short of the driver’s side door and Finn was hanging his head out the window, wagging his tail and whimpering until his owner scratched his head with his free hand in reassurance that he was breathing and okay. “You need a safe place to stay right? Well… it just so happens that my homestead is the safest place around. None of that high tech camera bull that you and what’s his name had going but it’s warded and heavily and well my uncle is kind of an angel.” She half laughed, shrugging her shoulders and looking up at him. “Parker you should come home with me.” She suggested.

Parker stiffened at her offer, torn between the appeal of not leaving her side and the risk of keeping her involved in his mess. Maybe Ryder didn't know about her place and if it belonged to a Winchester chances were it really was guarded just as well as she claimed, but Ryder wasn't just good at what he did, he was the best. And his business was hunting down and ending people who didn't want to be found. He scratched behind Finn's ears a few seconds longer, sighing and looking back down at Mari who was staring up at him expectantly.

She must've been able to see the doubt in his face. Mari took his hand and pleaded with him to accompany her, saying it was the least she could offer him after he had saved her life twice now. Parker chuckled, tugging her closer and tipping her chin up to bring their faces closer together. "You don't owe me a thing Mari." He whispered, pressing his lips lightly to hers. "But I will take you up on your offer, at least for awhile. Honestly I don't really have a safe place to go right now... I need to lie low, just long enough to get off Ryder's radar." He said matter-of-factly, smiling at the way she was blushing from his soft kiss. 

He walked around to get in the car in the passenger's side. "You okay to drive? These pain meds they gave me are pretty sturdy. I think I better crash for awhile. Let's find a hotel, hmm?" He suggested, sitting down heavily into the car and groaning a bit when the movement tugged at his stitches.

Mari climbed in after him and they cruised around the small town for awhile till they found a place to stay. The young brunette had to handle getting them checked in, doing a good job of selling their fake identities and Parker had to hold back a chuckle with how pleased with herself she seemed to be pulling off her lie. They retreated to their rented refuge, Parker sat down heavily on the room's solitary bed.

"Can't help but notice you didn't spring for the two queen beds." He commented with a snicker, groaning in discomfort as he tugged his plain gray t-shirt the hospital had given him to replace his sliced open one over his head. Mari hurriedly responded that ordering a room with two beds would've seemed strange with their cover, blushing and stealing rather unsubtle glances at his bare torso.

"It's all right. With these painkillers I'm sure I can sleep on the couch no problem." He responded, kicking his shoes off and digging in his duffle bag for the pair of athletic shorts he had packed with him. Mari mumbled under her breath that she didn't mind sharing the bed, which Parker only chuckled and shook his head over. The idea was more than appealing to him as well, but he wasn't about to risk being caught in a motel room sharing a bed with a minor, it was bad enough that they were sharing the room really. 

He stood and shucked off his jeans, completely unperturbed by being mostly bare in front of her and quietly pleased by the way Mari was devouring him with her eyes, worrying her lower lip with her teeth as she watched him tug his shorts on and snatch a pillow for himself off the bed. "You and Finn take the bed, I'm good here. I'm sorry I've just gotta sleep this morphine off." He commented. Parker hated the fuzzy feeling from pain meds far more than pain itself, but the doctors had pumped him full of the stuff even when he declined it.

Mari was staring more than a little and she definitely knew that she was but he wasn’t exactly making it easy on her not to. She worried her lower lip and watched with interest as he shed his jeans and exchanged them for his athletic shorts. She wouldn’t have minded if he left those aside and slept nearly bare at least shirtless gave her enough. She watched him toss his pillow from the bed onto the couch and followed over to stand near him, making him arch a brow. “Fine but…” She started, taking his wrist as she stood as tall as she could on her toes, still not quite reaching him.

She tugged him gently until he bent just enough that she could kiss him on the corner of his mouth, smiling in response to his own grin. She pulled away and let him drop down onto the couch, smirking as she started to work open her jeans and wiggle out of them. He avoided looking at her purposefully, perhaps knowing she was teasing in return as she tugged her father’s old hoodie over her head and patted the mattress for Finn to jump up. The dog did, climbing up right beside her as she tucked herself in and she could feel Parker’s eyes lingering on her knowing she was easy access by now.

The brunette pulled her hair up into a messy bun and flicked off the light, “Night Tarzan.” She called, “Does that make you Cheetah?” She cooed to Finn, hearing the tapping of the dog’s tail on the top of the covers as she scratched beneath his chin. She smiled when Parker responded, quickly setting his alarm and with that they both drifted off or at least he did. It took Mari more than a little while to fall asleep no matter how hard she had tried, remembering how it felt in his arms, how well she rested with him holding her even for that hour and she wanted nothing more than to have him curl up with her but he seemed determined to deny any of that.

She finally fell asleep at some point, waking to the sound of Parker’s watch beeping but it didn’t even faze him. Mari groaned awake and then again when Finn happily licked at her face, pushing him away slightly as she rolled to the side of the bed. She had shed her hoodie sometime in the night perhaps from warmth, wearing her panties and the tank she bore beneath her layers the last few days. She reached out and grabbed her companion’s wrist, pressing the button on the side and it must have been enough to startle him as his free arm shot out and his eyes flew open. “Easy.” She yelped when he gripped her suddenly as if he might use her own limbs against her. “We need to get moving… Like you said. It’ll be a long drive before we get out to the bunker.” She whispered as though she were trying not to wake others even though it was only them.

She flushed red when his sharp eyes flickered over her bare legs, clearly noting her lack of clothing. Rather than addressing it she dropped down to her knees beside the sofa and smiled, seeing him start to sit up and wince in pain. She laid her hand delicately over his chest in a spot unmarked, “Doc gave me a couple extra pain pills for you… said you might need them in the morning.” She muttered a little worried that he might end up over doing it by simply being on the road. Mari absently laughed at the story they gave in order to make sure she got to be there for him at the emergency room, telling the hospital staff they were newly engaged. “Want ‘em? We’ll have to change your bandage too before we leave while we have a place.”

She saw his eyes flicker from her face down to her thighs once more and she stood, “I’m gonna shower. Meds are in your duffle in the side pocket if you want them…” She purred, putting up everything she could to encourage him further to want her like she did him. “You could join me… I mean if you want.” She called, trotting away to the door.

Parker shook his head, trying to sort out the jumble of pain from his wound, agitation from being woken in the middle of a bad dream, and arousal at seeing his companion half naked and all but sending him an engraved invitation to take her. She lingered a moment by the bathroom door, seemingly waiting for his response and he chuckled, waving her off.

"Go shower, I gotta take Finn out." He replied, denying her offer but unable to stop himself from picturing her naked and wet from head to toe in the shower, licking his lips unconsciously as his blue eyes swept over her frame. Mari pouted and retreated into the bathroom, and Parker had to take a moment to collect himself and get his body under control before standing up from the sofa he'd slept on. It helped to dig his thumb into the end of his wound, the sharp pain reminding him that his actions had consequences and he didn't want to rush into making a choice for both of them that they could easily regret later.

The young hunter pulled his white tank top on and laced up his shoes, taking Finn out to do his morning business as well as going on a quick run with the dog around the block. It wasn't nearly the distance he and his canine companion usually went, but they were short on time and the pain from his injuries sapped his endurance anyhow.

When they returned, Mari was sitting cross-legged on the bed, clothed and braiding her still damp espresso hair into a long side braid. Parker wandered over to the dresser and tugged his sweaty tank off, gingerly inspecting his bandages that had bled through in places, more so now after his little run than before. It hurt, but he had endured far worse than this.

Mari came to stand beside him, holding up the small orange bottle containing his pain meds, making the pills rattle in the bottle and offering them over. Parker shook his head, putting his hand over hers clutching the container and gently pushing them away. "No." He responded, going to his bag to grab his only other change of clean clothes for after his shower. "I've dealt with worse, I'd rather have the pain then the fog from taking those things. S'pecially when we're out in the open like this. Gotta be sharp." He clarified, smiling crookedly trying to reassure the brunette that he was perfectly capable of operating under this level of pain.

Parker showered off quick, donning his jeans and coming out still holding his shirt, having discarded his old bandage. Mari seemed pleased to admire his frame at first, but then her eyes skimmed over his exposed stitches and her face went a little pale. He approached her and held out the roll of clean gauze, trying to comfort her with a gentle tone but it was clear she still was pretty affected by the sight of his wound and the memories associated with it.

"Think you could help me out Nurse Mari?" He asked with a playful grin, sitting down on the end of the bed so it would be easier for her to wrap the bandaging around his broad torso. He held his inked arms up high so she could wind the roll of gauze around his chest and cover his wound, his sharp gaze tracking her face waiting to see if such close proximity to his injury got to be too much for her or not. But judging by the flush in her cheeks and the way her pupils were blown, she wasn't really thinking much about his wound.

Parker felt Mari's soft breath on his cheek and neck every time she leaned forward to pass the roll of gauze from one hand to the other behind his back, it was an exercise in restraint he never thought he'd have to endure not to capture her lips with his every time she drew back to make another circle with the wrappings. The pain the light pressure she was putting on his injury was probably the only thing keeping him from making a complete fool out of himself, the sharp bite stemming his arousal and helping him keep his mind focused where it ought to be. Still, it was difficult not to let his mind wander when she was so close, so beautiful, so obviously willing to give him whatever he wanted. But that was part of the problem, he knew she was rushing herself, focusing only on the attraction between them and not considering what giving herself to him really meant for her. Parker had a few years on her to learn not to let his hormones dictate his actions, but he remembered what it was like and he was determined not to let her make the stupid mistakes he had. According to her driver's license, herreal one not her mother's, she still had a couple months before she was legal so if she had that time to get to know him better, get to know what being in a relationship was better and she still wanted him by then, well he was more than willing to take her places she had never dreamed of. He would be lying if he said he wasn't eager for the chance.

Mari eyed Parker when he got out of the shower without the gauze covering up his extensive wounds along his chest. She did nothing to hide that she was looking him over and growing steadily affected by it but not in the same manner she had before, seeing him torn up and having taken it worse to keep the beast from coming after her instead was doing a number on her. She wasn’t a fan of watching someone in pain at all if she could avoid it but when she offered the bottle of medication for him to take a couple pain pills he denied them entirely, deciding that he would much rather tolerate the pain and be alert enough to cover their asses than not.

He offered the gauze to her with a little wiggle of his hand and she smiled as he sat down in front of her on the edge of the bed, taking the bandages from him and peeling the end. She moved around him and started her work with slightly trembling hands, helping to ease the wrap around his muscular torso and suddenly she forgot about his pain and only wondered once more about what he felt like. The brunette let her hands trace over him a little more than needed to pin the bandage down along his frame each time she pulled back.

She worked until every line was covered and padded enough that he hopefully wouldn’t bleed through it until she could change it again when the time came back at the bunker. Mari’s hands lingered against him even after she tore off the edge to finish up the job, her body instinctively leaning forward almost without really thinking and she braced up against him, her breathing ragged and her eyes blown wide as she felt his hands grip her hips. Parker didn’t pull her to him like she anticipated, gently tugging her back and away from him so he could stand but she could see in his face that he was struggling with his own desire to take her like she was encouraging him to. Her eyes flickered up to his when he straightened out, breathing heavily as he took the left over gauze from her hands and walked off to put it in his duffle, telling her in a rough voice that they needed to get going to make it to her place before midnight.

“Right.” She half snipped at him in return, feeling stupid again for even letting herself feel anything towards this man when all he kept doing was brushing her off anyways. She picked up her few things, grabbed his pills and her keys and started over to the door until he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, cupping her cheek and promising that he wasn’t trying to hurt her. She didn’t know exactly what he was referring to at the moment, her brow furrowing but he silence any questions she had by pressing his lips lightly to her own and she sighed into it, melting into his frame even from the soft contact.

He pulled away and smiled at her, taking her hand and tugging her through the door way once opened. They piled back into the car with Finn and it was hours, some silent and others filled with classic rock along with Finn’s barking. She liked being on the road with them for whatever reason it was relaxing and she felt safe that was until she pulled up to the bunker, the safest place she knew and while she didn’t fear her father but she did fear what he might have to say to her now that she returned after nearly two plus weeks having been missing.

She felt Parker’s large hand over hers and he turned off the ignition when she realized that she still hadn’t, handing the key he pulled out for her and gently encouraging her to go in and talk to him first. Mari glanced at him, “You’re… But I thought you were coming with me.” She whined, starting to panic when she thought the man she had taken to so easily was going to simply leave her side all the sudden. He chuckled and promised he was going to but she needed to talk to her father first, let him know she was okay and ease him into things rather than showing up and giving the man a heart attack at the fact that she was accompanied by a dog and an older boy. 

The brunette angel laughed lightly and squeezed his fingers feeling her eyes prick with tears because she didn’t know what to expect when she walked through those doors. She climbed out of the car after some more gentle encouragement and a kiss from Finn, heading down the steps and into the familiar space. “Daddy?” She called in the most innocent sweet voice she could manage, hoping to ease the blow should he be angry with her. 

Dean had been in hell since Mari left fifteen days ago. She knew enough to turn off the gps in her phone, she had only taken cash not his credit cards, and the more time passed the more frantic he got. He had Cas sweeping the country but with the runes on her ribs and her pendant the angel was flying blind. He put out calls to Garth and every other contact he had to look for his daughter, but that was delicate too because most of the hunters they knew might be good at their jobs but not trustworthy with naive young girls. And on top of being reduced to this shot in the dark method of looking for his daughter the hunter was trying not to be crushed by the weight of his despair at losing Aleah. 

The hunter was bent over one of the long tables in the library, marking off locations Garth had sent him where no signs of his daughter had been found in what he considered a reasonable radius from the bunker she could have traveled to. While there was always that fear in the back of his mind that she would take her necklace off and poof herself somewhere completely different, he was fairly sure Mari wouldn't resort to something so drastic and dangerous even with how upset she was.

Dean picked up his glass and downed another dose of whiskey, clearing his throat against the burn and trying to keep his hand from shaking as he crossed coordinates off with his red sharpie on the map he had spread over the table along with his mess of other materials he'd been amassing in his search. A small voice coming from the stairway made his stomach do a flip. The hunter straightened out and looked over to see Mari just getting to the bottom of the staircase, her blue eyes full of tears and a hesitant smile on her lips.

"Oh my God." Dean stammered, his voice raw with emotion and he took a shuddering breath, dropping his marker and jogging across the room to yank Mari into his arms, a broken sob escaping him as he trapped her tight against his frame, in that moment the only thing that mattered to him was the fact that his little girl was safe in his arms again.

He could feel Mari sobbing against him and he held her tighter, his own breathing ragged with emotion. "It's okay... It's okay now... I'm here." He soothed, saying the words just as much for his own comfort as for hers. Out of all the horrendous things he'd endured over his lifetime, not knowing if his daughter was alive or dead was the worst. "I was so worried about you..." He muttered, swallowing hard on the lump in his throat and pulling back just enough so he could see Mari's face when she started apologizing, her own emotions making her words barely intelligible.

Mari practically fell into her father’s hold, letting him cradle her as she fell completely to pieces once more, so sorry for having left him, sorry for not mourning her mother like she should have and the words barely could come out even now as she gripped him just as desperately. She sobbed into his shoulder, hearing his comfort despite his own emotions and despite that she had left him, made him think he lost his one and only daughter completely.

“I’m sorry Daddy… I’m so s-sorry.” She muttered over and over again, hearing him shush her gently and promise her they would talk later he was simply happy to see her again, feel her in his arms again and that only made her cry harder. They both cried themselves dry until he pulled back to look at her, brushing her bangs aside and cleaning the smudges beneath her eyes with his sleeve. “I couldn’t be here without her… Everything made me think of her…” She breathed out finally and he pulled her close to him again.

Dean gently coaxed her to join him on one of the long couches in the other room towards the entryway and she gladly sat practically on top of him, resorting to a childlike state and curling up into his side with him supporting her most the way. She sniffled when he claimed to understand, starting to say something about how worried he had been, how he thought he lost her too. “I know it was stupid but… I had been researching on some more basic hunts and things like that and I just…. I needed something to do and that was the best thing.” She muttered quietly, fidgeting and waiting for him to tell her how reckless she had been, how truly dumb all of that was and he did, scolding her for even getting involved in a line of work that he didn’t want his daughter ever being a part of.

She pulled away from him and looked him dead in the eyes, “I came home… I did just fine. It’s part of me… that world you’re hiding me from, I’m one of those things too just like Mom was and I want to learn so I put myself out there.” She snipped and he grabbed her wrist almost seeming worried she would vanish on him again he nodded and she eased back in her spot next to him. “I wasn’t alone anyhow… Not recently. There was an incident at a bar I was—“ She started and Dean repeated the words harshly asking her why she was at a bar. “Hustling pool for money to get to the next town and pay for my motel.” She answered easily.

Her father looked like he might be sick when he asked her to continue and she nodded, “Some guys were getting a little too close and—“ She said and Dean spoke up again but that didn’t stop her from getting to what she needed to get to. “Daddy there’s someone with me and that someone kept these guys from hurting me. They need a place to stay and I told him that place was here.”

“They’re the one that encouraged me to come home in the first place because… I didn’t really have intentions on doing so.” Mari explained, her eyes watering as she felt guilty saying that. Dean stared at her seeming to try and take everything in for what it was and she avoided the most key detail, that the someone she brought home in hopes that he could stay was in fact a male.

 

Dean tried to hold his peace as his daughter explained a bit about where she'd been and who she'd been with the past two weeks but he couldn't help interrupting a few times, nearly beside himself thinking of all the danger she'd put herself in. She kept coming back to this mysterious person he knew nothing about, but it was more what she wasn't saying about her companion that bothered him than what she was saying.

"Mari... This 'person' who helped you... What aren't you telling me about them?" Dean started in a warning tone, his hackles raising because he knew if she was going out of her way not to say they were a guy that could only mean that he was, and the fact that she felt she had to avoid the subject only made him more suspicious since she probably would've had no problem being forthright with him if the man in question were older like Bobby or something.

His daughter winced a bit at his change in tone, mumbling that her rescuer was in fact a man, another hunter as a matter of fact. The older hunter made himself school his expression into something slightly more neutral, clamping down on his knee-jerk response of wanting to yell and go rearrange this guy's face. No matter what else he might be thinking, he was grateful if the man convinced Mari to come back to him, and had kept her safe and seemingly whole in the meantime while Dean couldn't protect her.

"So what, he's still outside then?" Dean asked with a ragged sigh, scrubbing away the lingering moisture in his eyes with his fingers and getting up off the couch. Mari nodded and stood as well, keeping her head bowed avoiding his glare that he couldn't quite keep in check no matter how much the rational side of his brain was reminding him that he at least owed the guy the benefit of the doubt for saving his daughter out there... As long as in saving her he hadn't thought himself entitled to her in place of the men he'd ran off. 

They walked back up the stairs and outside, and Dean's heart lifted a bit when he saw his beloved car, looking to be in good condition. Mari's companion was on the other side of the vehicle, seemingly dancing around and Dean cocked his head curiously, but soon the man's strange movements were explained because he and a dog the size of a grizzly bear came walking around the front of the car when Mari called out to him.

Dean looked from the strange young man to the slobbering beast beside him, his green eyes nearly bugging out of his head. "Oh hell no, you said nothing about a friggin' dog. Was that- He was- Was that thing in my car? You let a big, drooling, hairy dog ride around in Baby??" The hunter exclaimed, completely dismissing the young man for the moment, fixating on his precious vehicle and the fact that it was now likely covered in fur and slobber inside. 

Parker waited outside with Finn for a long while, though he figured as much since Mari probably had a lot to discuss with her father. He and Finn ran around the grounds outside the bunker for awhile, Mari hadn't been kidding when she described it as such. When he heard the young brunette call his name he turned and smiled at her, seeing her now accompanied by a tall middle-aged man who could only be Dean Winchester, her father.

The young man rounded the vehicle with Finn, whistling at him a bit to keep the dog from bounding over, not wanting Dean's first impression of him to be of his huge dog knocking him down and licking him. He opened his mouth to greet the man but stopped short when the infamous Winchester started railing about Finn being in his car. Apparently Mari hadn't been kidding about her dad's borderline obsession about his vehicle either.

Parker crossed his arms over his chest and muffled an amused grin with his hand, watching and trying not to laugh as Mari protested her dad's rant, stating that the dog was her friend and had even saved her life, and Dean coming right back at her arguing over something so relatively innocuous considering they had been apart with no contact in the wake of a tragic family death. It almost seemed like they were using the fight about Finn as a way to vent their built up frustration with each other, so he did nothing to intervene and simply waited for them to blow off their steam while trying not to make it worse by laughing out loud at how similar the two were in their arguing.

Finally Mari seemed to talk her dad down a bit from the Finn issue, at least enough for the man to recall that Parker was even there in the first place. He took his hand from his face walked a few steps forward, extending his hand in greeting to the man. "Good to meet you sir, my name's Parker Black. The big, drooling, hairy dog is named Finn." He said in a friendly tone, citing Dean's own unflattering description of his best friend, not the least phased by it.

Mari finally confessed to her father that her savior had been a male in fact, waiting for his reaction to be beyond livid that she had spent days with a man, staying in a room together, hunting and being even within inches of the other. She nodded at his question in regards to where Parker was, confirming that he was outside waiting for them to reconnect so he could have his chance and keeping his fingers crossed in hopes that he got to stay with them.

She walked with her head low out to the Impala, grinning when he seemed pleased that his baby was totally unharmed, her smile only broadening at the sight of Parker bent and playing with Finn who excitedly bounded around to the other side of the car. Dean’s gaze locked onto the furry black dog and that was what got him going, knowing she broke his only rule when it came to his precious car. She rolled her eyes, not missing the little smirk on Parker’s face as he got his confirmation about the man being obsessive about his car’s condition.

“Dad… Dad!” She hollered, trying to get him to stop rambling on to himself and her as well about how he wouldn’t tolerate that crap. “Oh my god. It’s a car! It’s one dog, one time and he barely even sheds.” She argued, getting at each other’s throats because perhaps that was easier than him being upset and hurt that she left him like she had and her being upset that she hurt him as much as she knew she did deep down. She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded, “Yea I did let a dog in the car and we had tacos a taffy together on a stake out.” She smiled, trying not to laugh herself at her father’s utter distress towards the vehicle. “Daddy it’s fine I promise I’ll clean out the car and all that.”

Dean’s gaze fixated on the man across from him as he approached and finally their argument eased but she figured it wasn’t done, watching happily as Parker introduced himself as well as Finn. She giggled at Parker’s introduction of the dog, shaking her head at him when he gave her a little wink over her dad’s shoulder and he glared from him to her as if trying to figure out where they stood and what to think of all of this.

Mari took to Parker’s side rather than her father’s, wanting to be able to talk to him as they shook hands briefly. “Parker this is my dad, Dean Winchester.” She hummed, “Dad, Parker’s my rescuer not once but twice.” She emphasized and he looked like he might be sick from amix of things, his daughter hunting and the fact that he might have to give this guy a chance. “And Finn here…” She muttered, bending down and letting the dog lick her cheek much to Dean’s dismay as she scratched at his back and head. “He’s a hunter too. Both of them are and they need a place to stay.” She smiled sweetly at him.

“Sooo… It seems only fair that since we have so much room and it’s just the two of us… sometimes three that we give Parker one of the spare rooms.” She explained, already thinking it over in her mind quickly so she had the upper hand. “Finn will sleep there too of course.” Mari continued, looking up at both men and smiling despite herself. “I mean wouldn’t you want to thank the man that kept me safe the last few days?” She prompted her father, straightening out completely.

Dean didn’t say anything at first so she clapped her hands and called Finn with her to the doorway, grabbing her father’s hand as she passed and pulling him with her. “How about you boys talk it over a couple of beers, hmm?” She suggested, taking the lead into the bunker so they could talk and stuff.

Parker did his best to rein in his amusement over the way Mari was talking to her dad, it was pretty obvious that her father did not like the idea of letting him and Finn stay in his home but he also could tell the man understood that Parker had had a direct hand in keeping Mari in one piece out there. He followed a few paces behind the pair of Winchesters with Finn bounding at his side.

The young man glanced around the expansive space, whistling at the sheer scope of it and going off of Mari's short description of the place this was just one chamber of many chock full of supernatural information and items. Mari shuffled them further in to the couch and chairs set up to make a kind of living room area at the back of the large room, offering Parker a seat and scampering off mentioning that she'd grab some beers for them.

Dean bit back a curse when the dog known as Finn made himself right at home, jumping up onto the couch beside him and nosing at his arm trying to entice him into petting him. He reluctantly patted the dog's massive head once or twice, focusing most of his attention on keep the animal walled out from climbing in his lap completely.

Parker chuckled, his companion seemed to have a sense of who needed the most convincing at any given time to be his pal, laying on the doofy charm as thick as possible until the person gave in and adored him. He got the feeling it would take a little more effort with Dean than it had with Mari, though at least the elder hunter didn't immediately shove the dog away from him.

Parker waited to sit until Mari came back, thanking her when she held out a chilled bottle for him and cracking it open one-handed with a quick flick of the cap on his thick silver ring rather than waiting for the church key. Dean scoffed a bit in his throat at him but Parker paid it no mind, understanding that he had a lot of ground to cover to convince the man he wasn't a bad guy. Mari sat down on the couch on the other side of Finn who enthusiastically turned his attention to the girl, licking her hand until she started scratching his scruff and cooing at him affectionately.

Parker sighed and figured he'd better get everything about himself out in the open as soon as possible, if he was going to request Dean's hospitality letting him hide out here for awhile, the man deserved to know exactly what he was agreeing to. The young man unzipped his jacket and smirked at Mari when her blue eyes went wide with alarm, realizing what he was doing. She looked from him to her father as Parker removed his jacket, revealing his heavily inked upper body, his tight white tank top not leaving much to the imagination concerning his tattoos and physical stature, not to mention the wrinkle of his bandage making an outline in the cotton material. 

Dean's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw how Mari's 'rescuer' was tatted up practically from head to toe. So not only was he a stranger who carried himself like a trained fighter and had a giant, obnoxiously friendly dog, he was apparently some kind of thug. The man was still raw and so any filters he had which weren't much to begin with were completely down. "Oh you have gotta be friggin' kidding me! Did you get those in, what, in prison or something? How old are you anyway?" Dean exploded, waving his hand up and down Parker's form for emphasis. Mari started to speak up but Parker interrupted, holding up his hands almost as if he were at gunpoint.

"I know, I know, the tattoos are a bit intense, it's okay. I get this reaction a lot." Parker chuckled, smiling reassuringly at Mari then sitting himself down in the chair opposite the couch and preparing himself for his grilling. "I just wanted to make sure if you let me crash here awhile you know what you're signing up for. What Mari said was true: my buddy Finn and I are hunters, damn good ones at that. I also have some psychic ability, though it's not a power I can really control. Basically ever since I was little I've had dreams that have a bad habit of unfolding in the real world just how I observed them in my sleep. I met Mari about a week ago and it became mutually beneficial for us to stick together." He explained, glancing at the young brunette and winking. Maybe it wasn't in his best interest to yank her dad's chain like that but after all he was used to dealing with far more dangerous, murderous men than him. 

He could tell that the best thing he could do to win Dean over was to be upfront, no ass-kissing, no lying, just lay it all out and let him take it or leave it. Parker knew who he was and what he was about, if Dean thought he could scowl him into submission he was dead wrong.

"Mutually beneficial?? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean practically roared, almost springing up out of his seat but Mari's hand on his leg stopped him. She pleaded with her dad to hear Parker out, reminding him that she owed the young hunter her life and the man grumbled, giving his attention to him again.

"I've never been to prison, but I've done things that would land me there for the rest of my life. I know I'm not the only one of us in that particular boat." Parker conticontinued, his tone casual and even, though his blue eyes darkened a bit as he recalled his past. "I'm 23 years old, and my past isn't something I'm proud of. But that's why I have these." Parker looked up and down his painted arms, wincing a bit as his wound twitched but not letting it effect him, "I have these tattoos as a reminder that the choices I make have lasting impact, the good or bad you do leaves a mark on a person that the naked eye can't see. I ran from my old life, and the man I ran from took that very personally. But I'd rather live a good life always looking over my shoulder, trying to make up for my past, then continue how I was. That's what I meant by mutual benefit, Mari needed help staying alive, no offense-" Parker smirked at the girl and she blushed but nodded, "And I needed a place to lay low for awhile. She told me this was the safest place on earth, and now seeing it I'm inclined to believe her." Parker added, glancing around the room and sighing.

"I know I don't look that great on paper, but I promise you I've paid a dear price to change my ways and what I wanted more than anything coming here was simply making sure Mari got home safely. She's pretty amazing... You should be proud of her." Parker smiled at Mari again before continuing, "I'll earn my keep, pay rent or whatever you want. I just need a safe place to get off the radar of the men after me. And trust me when I say I wouldn't be here if I thought for a second that those men could follow my trail here. That's pretty much it I think. What do you say?" Parker asked, looking Dean straight in the eye neither trying to intimidate or implore.

Mari kept her hand firmly over her father’s leg to keep him planted, gently touching him and reminding him that he needed to listen to Parker. He owed him that much at least to hear him out and give him a fair trial for his right to stay here. She blushed at Parker’s first mention of her, shrugging her shoulders when he said no offense to her needing his help. She supposed he was right considering she got hurt on her first job, almost got raped or worse as far as she knew and then on her second job she would have been in way over her head with that scarecrow thing.

She gave a nod and the man continued with his whole life story or at least the parts that Dean really needed to hear from him right now. She worriedly bit her lip, her heart wrenching a bit when he said he didn’t look good on paper it made her believe he thought himself unworthy of much really but she thought differently based on his actions the past few days. Her cheeks burned hot once more when he caught her off guard and called her amazing and she could feel the muscle in her father’s leg tensing as he clenched up and tried to fight off his urge to straighten out and call this guy out for that remark but then he seemed to think it over, to process what he might mean and he nodded his agreement, gently taking her hand off his thigh and getting up to his feet.

The brunette watched worriedly for a moment, hearing her own heart beating in her ears and her pulse racing as she waited for her father’s positive or negative response. She shot up before he could say anything and stepped in front of Parker, her eyes getting a little watery out of fear she might lose him and while that might be silly after only knowing him for little more than a few days she couldn’t help it. “Daddy before you say anything you should really know what he did for me I mean he didn’t have to react at all but he did. These guys they were being… unkind to me and not very gentlemanly and—“ She rambled but then she felt Parker nudging her aside to get her to stop to let her father simply talk.

She turned her head to look at him and he gave her that crooked little grin he had seeming fairly okay with whatever it was her dad might dish out. Her gaze shifted over to her father’s face and he met her eyes, running his hand over his scruffy face and sighing heavily, starting on about how Parker would need to do his part and pay his own way, groceries and all that were on him. “Dad.” Mari whined, pushing his hand down when he raised it to cut her off. “Dad.” She said more sternly, “He doesn’t need to pay his way for everything. You know how jobs are out there and we’ve managed to feed more than three mouths before.” She argued and he shook his head, “Okay fine then I guess he’ll just work at the shop with you everyday.” She suggested, crossing her arms over her chest and knowing he wouldn’t really take that as an option.

Dean grumbled under his breath and gave in, telling them both it was temporary and laying down ground rules, being sure to include that Mari’s room and any of the rooms on her end of the hall were off limits, seeming to try and read if the pair had gotten anywhere yet. She flushed pink and cleared her throat, “Okay he gets it.” She snipped and when he nodded, saying he was only ensuring he understood she was precious and his. She smiled at her father and threw her arms around him, hugging him tight and feathering kisses along his cheek to thank him.

“One last thing…” She muttered while still embracing him, hoping her holding him would keep him wrapped around her finger and more willing to say yes to her. She pulled back just slightly, gripping his arms and still grinning at him, “Parker got banged up pretty bad like… hundred or so stitches bad and well I haven’t ever done anything big like that before. I don’t really know if you’ve heard from Uncle Cas or anything but well… I thought that maybe I could give it a shot?” She suggested, wincing automatically before he could even answer. He stared at her and she saw the fear in his eyes. “Dad I’m home now… I don’t know if… I mean if Parker’s up for letting me try… can I?”

 

Parker smiled happily, thanking Dean for agreeing to let him stay and promising to respect the man's demanding rules with a little chuckle. Mari told her father about his injury and started requesting he let her perform some ambiguous task that was directly related to it. The young hunter gave his companion a sideways look, standing himself since they were and taking a drink from his bottle.

"What're you talking about Mari? What exactly do you wanna try?" He asked, looking from the girl to her father and back.

"I dunno, Bug. I mean you can clear up little scrapes and cuts no problem, but something that big..." Dean responded with a note of skepticism, releasing his daughter from his hold and crossing his arms over his chest. It took Mari a long time after Sammy died to be willing to try using her powers in any capacity even in the bunker with Cas at her side, but once she started training with him again it was discovered that the girl could heal things like bruises and scrapes with little effort. She never tried to heal anything bigger, the opportunity never really came up since the few times Dean would go out on hunts after that and came home with a bad wound, Aleah or Cas always patched him up. "Maybe we should see if we can get Cas here first, hmm? Come on Parker I'll show where you and... Finn can bunk." Dean finally said, the dog's name still carrying a great deal of irritation when it passed his lips.

Parker watched Mari's face fall at her dad's negative answer, smiling at her softly in sympathy but shaking his head at her when she opened her mouth to protest further. "Sounds good, I appreciate it. C'mon boy." He replied to Dean, calling the dog to follow him as the older man led the way down a hallway off the library. They gave him a small but nice room that was sparsely furnished, still it was nicer than a lot of places he'd holed up in and he could practically feel the hum of all the wards and spells over this place. Maybe he picked up on it because of his psychic ability, but either way it was clear that a supernatural nuke could go off in this place and it wouldn't cause a single ripple in the outside world. No wonder this was the ideal place for housing a Nephilim like Mari or her mother.

The hunter got settled and again had to hold back a laugh at the way Dean all but dragged Mari out of Parker's room after a quick goodnight, stating that breakfast was at seven if he wanted it and that he was free to scavenge what he wanted till he could get out and buy his own groceries. Mari was obviously not happy about being herded out of Parker's room so quickly but he at least managed a little wave and good night before Dean shut his bedroom door for him with a note of finality. 

Parker shook his head and sat down heavily on his bed. All things considered he felt his first meeting with Mari's father had gone much better than it might have. The young hunter flopped back onto the bed with a groan of discomfort, his cut was hurting and he knew he needed to change his bandage before he went to sleep. It would be a bit of a pain but nothing he couldn't manage. Still as he tugged his shirt off and removed the old gauze he couldn't help but recall Mari doing this task for him and his heart raced a little faster.

Parker wandered out across the hall to the bathroom Dean had shown him for his use, making full use of the supplies left there. He brushed his teeth, showered, shaved and carefully cleaned his cut so he could re-wrap it. The young hunter looked over his intricately painted skin, shadows flickering in his eyes as he reminded himself for the millionth time that he had to spend the rest of his life fighting to make up for all his wrongs. He knew he would never be able to make up for all of them, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

Parker retreated back to his borrowed room and performed the slow, painful task of fixing a fresh bandage over his wound. It wasn't quite as neat as if someone else did it for him, but it would do. He got changed into his shorts to sleep in and settled on his mattress, hoping sleep would find him quickly but his pain made him think that wasn't likely. An hour or so after he turned his lamp off, Finn's ears perked up and he whined at the door from where he lay at the foot of the bed. The dog's sharper senses picking up on someone approaching before Parker could pick them up, it was one of the many things he appreciated about his four-legged friend.

A quiet knock at the door confirmed Finn's reaction and Parker sat up with a growl of pain, flicking his lamp back on and wandering over to open his door a crack. Sure enough, Mari was standing in the hallway, dressed in a tank and shorts for sleeping but still her silver amulet hung around her neck. "Does your dad know you're out of bed young lady?" Parker teased, chuckling softly at Mari's annoyed look before she pushed her way into the room and shut his door behind her.

The young brunette told him that Dean had parked himself on the couch in the living room so he could do exactly what Parker was teasing her about, catch her sneaking over to his room but apparently the man was passed out cold where he sat. Parker couldn't really blame the man, after being put through the wringer for so long worrying about Mari he was probably a lot more exhausted than he'd ever admit.

"All right. So what can I do for you Mari?" Parker asked, knowing that breaking the biggest rule Dean had set for him his first night here wasn't exactly the way to get in the man's good graces but he had to admit he had spent most of the last hour he should be trying to fall asleep thinking about her. 

Mari snuck past her father rather easily considering he was passed out on the sofa, arms crossed tight over his chest and his head cocked the opposite direction despite her knowing that he had been wanting to watch the hall way and make sure she didn’t slip over to Parker’s room which… she did anyways. He seemed to have fallen asleep rather quickly likely because he could finally fully relax knowing at least that she was home and safe even if she hadn’t come back alone.

She tiptoed to the other’s door and knocked, biting her lip and listening carefully to see if she could catch signs of him coming to answer her beckoning him. He pulled the door open just enough for her to see he was freshly bandaged albeit a bit messily but covered up none the less. She smiled up at him, slipping in before he could tell her to go and nudging the door shut quickly and quietly behind her. “Dad’s on the couch keeping an eye on the hall or at least on my door to make sure I wouldn’t come out here but get enough beer in him and wait just the right amount of time and he’s done for the night. He’s getting older whether he likes it or not.” She chirped quietly.

The brunette got a little distracted by his frame while he questioned what he could do for her and she had to force down the line of dirty things she wanted to list for him to tend to. She bit her lip harshly to pull herself back and force her eyes up to where the edge of his bandage was. “Gonna fix you up if you’ll let me try.” She informed him, still keeping to her hushed tone to make sure her father stayed asleep like he was. His brow furrowed and he took her wrists telling her gently that he wasn’t so sure if he should let her do that, perhaps having caught onto the apprehension in Dean’s tone previously.

She pulled out of his hold and took to unraveling the gauze covering his torso, prying it off slowly and hearing him hiss in pain with almost every motion she made. She winced with sympathy for the man as she tugged off the final bloody layer from his body. She balled up the bandage and set it aside on the nightstand to be disposed of later and he asked her how all of this would happen on both ends. “Don’t know but we’re gonna find out.” She answered, gently letting her fingertips ghost over the markings in his skin.

Mari nudged at his hip suddenly and he chuckled as she coaxed him to the mattress. “Lie down okay? I won’t hurt you I don’t think… I shouldn’t I mean your skin will regenerate a little quicker and…” She muttered, trying to think and figure out if she might harm him. He stared up at her as he eased back on the bed, seeming to want to trust that she could make him better. She crawled to the side of the bed so she could kneel beside him on the mattress, resting her hands over his abdomen and chest where he was injured. He asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this, seeming a little worried himself that she didn’t know what she was doing. “Parker I have to learn somehow and my dad will never let me get the experience so we have to go behind his back. If you’re worried about getting in trouble I’ll tell him it’s all on me. Lie down.” She insisted.

The man shifted and lay back once more, Finn curiously watching them and Mari traced another mark as if memorizing their locations. She really didn’t know what she was doing, where to begin or what she was capable of but she wanted to make him better, having already grown tired of seeing him in pain like he was. She caught his gaze and she tugged the talisman from around her neck, setting it at her side before replacing her hands and not long after her eyes glowed faintly blue in her effort to fix him up.

The healing process went well at first until she felt more and more of his pain, her chest starting to heave and she flinched as she caught glimpses of the things he saw. She never learned how to put up that barrier, to protect herself from other’s deeper running hurt and their emotional scarring. The young Nephilim hadn’t heard his voice telling her to stop, his arm shooting up to grab her wrist nearly hard enough to bruise begging her to let him go but she didn’t, she couldn’t. She was so focused it took her a moment or two to realize until she felt his blood from his wounds drenching her hand as it seeped passed his stitches.

Mari’s glowing eyes dimmed and she finally caught the sound of him saying her name, Finn whimpering lightly as she further hurt his owner. She pulled off him instantly, yanking her red stained hands away from his body and while it might have been caused just from the pressure of her touching him and stirring the still fresh wounds she still knew she only made him worse not better. Her eyes welled and she stared down at his prone form shaking her head, “I’m sorry… Parker oh god I’m so sorry.” She stammered, keeping herself from touching him for fear of what she might cause again even as he reached out she pulled back and made him leave her be at first.

Her blue eyes caught his in the dim lighting of his quarters and she caught glimpses of the things he saw and felt every day and night. “I’m sorry.” She said again this time more in regards to his far deeper feelings than the exterior wear and tear though he might not know that’s what she meant. Her bloody hands smudged her shorts as she moved and he reached out, taking her face in his hands and telling her it was okay as she started to break once more. How could one man handle as much as he did day in and day out, there were still bits of his story she didn’t know and she promised herself she would learn them on his accord and not her own, letting him hold her to keep her there. How could she feel so comforted by a man she had only just met, want him so deeply despite not knowing all of his demons and yet she felt they had a far deeper understanding of one another. She reached up and held his wrists of each hand, running her thumb over his skin lightly, she wanted so bad to do it, to be like her mother and be capable of extraordinary things because if she was going to have a gift she wanted it to be big and useful not a burden to the world.

Parker made himself sit up despite the excruciating pain in his chest, trying to regulate his breathing as he gently cupped Mari's face and prevented her from bolting altogether. "Hey, no need to apologize, you didn't do it on purpose." He soothed, holding back a shudder of pain because it felt like rather than healing his wound her actions had only worsened it. But that hadn't been her intention in the least and he knew that. 

The young brunette gripped his forearms and tried with little success to keep from weeping, smearing his arms with his own blood but he didn't care. All he cared about was the fact that failing to heal him had deeply upset her, much more so than he would've thought since apparently she'd only been able to heal small scrapes up until this point.

"Don't worry about this, okay? Like you said things like this take practice and if you've only healed little stuff before... Maybe moving up to something this big was a bit of a jump. I'm sure if you put the work in you'll get to where you can use those funky angel powers to heal stuff like this no problem." Parker insisted, brushing away the tears that were flowing down her cheeks with his thumbs. Mari shook her head slightly, and he could tell that nothing he said was going to comfort her right now, she was just too shaken. 

All he could guess was that with her mother being Nephilim as well, maybe she had been an expert healer and Mari was simply disappointed not to be living up to that legacy. But she had to understand that she couldn't be expected to perform miracles just because she felt like it, she had to work on honing her abilities first.

He wasn't sure what else to do so he fell back on his usual route when he was trying to get rid of sadness, if he couldn't comfort her maybe he could at least make her laugh and forget her upset for awhile. "So you call yourself a Nephilim, huh? I dunno, seems to me you're more like a pixie. You've still got a ways to go before you earn those feathered wings Tinkerbell." He teased, laughing lightly trying to demonstrate to her that he wasn't upset in the least by what had happened. She laughed at least a little through her tears, he would take what smiles he could get at this point. 

"Think you could help me out with a new bandage before I bleed all over the bed here?" He asked, shifting to sit on the edge of the bed and grabbing the roll of gauze from where he'd left it on his nightstand. The brunette reached for it and he snatched it back, making a tsking noise in his throat. "You might wanna go um... Wash your hands first." He suggested with a crooked grin, looking down to her bloodstained hands and back up to her face. She made a face at him but agreed, slipping out of his room momentarily and returning from the washroom cleaned up and holding a wet washcloth to clean him up as well.

Mari sat beside him on the bed and gently wiped away the blood from his arms where she'd gripped him, moving on to mop up the excess blood from his tattooed chest so she could bandage him. She seemed more in control of her emotions now but Parker didn't miss the way her hands trembled slightly as she cleaned him up. His brow furrowed with concern and he stopped her before she could take the gauze again, hooking his finger under her chin and tipping her head up to make her look at him.

"You don't have to do this if the blood bothers you that much Mari. I'm fine, I promise." He murmured, grasping at straws now for why she was still so affected by what had happened.

Mari slipped back into Parker’s room having insured she got most of her tears in check before returning to him. She sat down and started to clean up his forearms she had unintentionally blooded up, sniffling lightly as she replayed everything in her mind. Her hands shook as she started to clean up his chest and tend his wound, taking the gauze to begin her work of wrapping him up once more in a fresh bandage.

Parker gently tugged her chin to make her look at him, seeming to be trying to get a good read on what it was that she was still so upset about. He chalked it up to her previous sickness brought on by his excessive bleeding that she had early. She blinked rapidly to clear her tears, shaking her head, “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She promised, her gaze lingering on his own that was filled with worry.

He stared at her momentarily and she knew she should say something to him because he was waiting for a response, a reaction or an explanation. “It’s not the blood… I mean I don’t really like the blood but…” She trailed off, fiddling distractedly with the end of the gauze she was going to use for him. “I couldn’t do it because I got distracted I think… By the uhh—The things that you’ve seen.” She started, avoiding looking at him directly.

Parker’s brow furrowed and he seemed concerned or confused, asking what she meant by that. “I-I didn’t see everything I mean I wasn’t like… lingering long enough but I—The pain that you’ve gone through, couple of your visions. I wasn’t trying to see them. I didn’t even know I could do that.” She stammered, squeezing his leg when her hand rested over it, trying to keep him from leaving or getting angry. She wasn’t sure what he would think of that but it worried her. She clutched at him to keep him there for forgiveness, “I wanted to take that all away too but then I don’t think I could focus on one or the other so I was running with both and it got all mixed up in my head and then I just… I hurt you.” She whispered with a little broken sob, not expecting his pity nor was she asking for sympathy.

“I’m sorry, Parker. I wasn’t doing it to try and break into you like that I swear to God I wasn’t.” She repeated.

Parker didn't quite understand what Mari meant at first, but the more she struggled to explain the more he started to put the pieces together of why she was so upset. He wasn't sure if it was because of his psychic ability or her own angelic powers or a combination of both, but somehow she had gotten a glimpse inside his head and he knew better than anyone that that wasn't exactly a pleasant place.

The young hunter took a deep breath, he never imagined that by letting her try to heal him that he'd be exposing her to his poison. Mari was innocent, she didn't deserve to witness any of the horrible things he'd seen and done over his lifetime, and his gut clenched with guilt. He cupped her face and shook his head, hushing her apologizing further.

"No, no Mari it's my fault. I'm sorry I never would've let you if I knew you'd see..." Parker muttered, biting his lower lip and trying not to run through a catalog of his 'greatest hits' wondering what exactly it was she'd been witness to. "Look it's not your responsibility to try and fix what's broken in me, all right? I don't think there's really a way to do that anyways." Parker chuckled, smiling crookedly at her when that comment only served to make her eyes well over more.

"Ah c'mon don't cry, I'm all right." He assured her in a gentle tone, going still when Mari gently laid her hand on his chest just above where his heart was but carefully avoiding his wound. She slowly shook her head, countering his words saying she knew he wasn't all right at all, and the genuine worry in her bright blue eyes when she met his gaze again twisted his heart. She asked him how he could bear all that pain, how he could joke about it and he laughed somewhat sheepishly. 

"I dunno... You get used to it I guess? But at the same time you really don't. It's my life Mari, it's all I've known so I can't really do much else but carry on the best I can. Please, don't cry..." Parker pleaded, leaning forward to press his brow to hers, his other hand drawing up to grip her slender waist. "It's like I told you before, that's why I have all these tattoos, that's why I'm gonna spend the rest of my life trying to make up for everything I've done. But it's my burden to bear, all right? Not yours. I am grateful that you'd cry for me though." He murmured, smiling softly at his companion and searching her blue eyes with his looking for some kind of reassurance that she wasn't going to break down.

Mari smiled ever so slightly in response, nodding despite the tears that were still slipping past her dark lashes. Parker grinned wider and tipped her head back, feathering light kisses over her lips trying to pull her out of her sorrow at least a bit. She melted at his touch and he deepened the kiss, savoring her soft sweetness and humming low in his throat as he tasted her. 

Mari's hand slipped down his chest and Parker flinched as her palm pressed against his wound, cursing under his breath and laughing at the girl's flush of desire mixed with embarrassment. She apologized and he shook his head, taking a deep breath trying to collect himself. The brunette picked up the gauze again and began wrapping him up, promising that her uncle would come soon and he could fix this up for him in an instant.

Mari shook her head at him when he promised he was just fine but she knew he wasn’t, it was buried deep in him and while he might be trying to hide it and keep it that way she knew his drive to make things right again was because of the years of guilt he felt. “How can you go through all that… feel all the pain that you do and then just joke about it?” She questioned, her hand on his chest lightly running her thumb over the unmarked flesh as she waited for his response.

He chuckled like he always did and told her he just got used to it, claimed this was all he knew and she wanted nothing more than to change that for him if she could, make him forget but aat the same time maybe he wanted or needed the reminders like with his tattoos. He pleaded with her not to cry, his brow pressed to hers and she shifted a little closer to him so he could lightly hold her in return. “But you shouldn’t have to bear it alone.” She whispered through her tears, trying to convince them to clear as she stared back at him.

She smiled when he met her eyes, unable to look at him directly and feel complete sadness, something about the way that he brushed things off, joked and eased her was comforting. He reached out and cupped the back of her head, craning downward to feather kisses over her lips and she giggled at first but the more they lingered against each other the more she started to melt into him. Parker deepened the kiss, his tongue gliding along hers and once more she was unconscious of her movements and eagerness to let him have her entirely, her hand slipping lower down his chest as they devoured one another. He flinched at her touch and she pulled back instantly, tearing her hands from his body to avoid further injury.

The brunette flushed red with embarrassment just as well as want for the man before her, “Sorry.” She muttered, her hands balling into fists but he shook his head, both of them breathing heavily to clear their want as best they could. She took to the gauze once more, pulling it up and starting to wrap it around his torso like she had meant to previously. “My Uncle Castiel will come soon I hope and he can treat you… fix you up and reverse the damage I did myself.” She muttered feeling guilty again and he smiled at her telling her to stop thinking about it and let it go, promising again that he was fine. She simply nodded, knowing that wasn’t entirely true but accepting that he wanted her to move forward and perhaps not keep playing the images she caught in her mind.

“We should probably clean it up real good tomorrow if Cas doesn’t show up by then that way it keeps from getting infected.” She murmured, seeing as she had undone most of his cleaning he must have done before bed. Mari lingered a bit longer even though she had taped down the corner of his bandage and could very well leave right now if she felt the desire to but a large part of her wanted to just lie with him. She smiled when he took her hand and laced their fingers together, leaning and kissing her temple thanking her for wrapping him up again. She nodded and squeezed his hand lightly, “I suppose I shouldn’t stay in here in case my dad wakes and does a room check or something. At least on my side.” She sighed and Parker seemed to agree very much so, wanting to avoid getting in trouble the very first night that he was staying here.

The young angel’s free hand slid up to cup his face, drawing him down for a final kiss that lingered longer than they both seemed to have meant it to. He pulled away and laughed saying she really needed to go and she could see in his eyes it almost pained him to ask her to leave. “See you at breakfast, Tarzan.” She grinned, standing up once more and patting Finn’s head quickly before she left. She trotted to the door and gave a little wave telling him to rest up and take his pills if he needed to even though she knew he hated them for one reason or another.

The brunette slipped into her room without any trouble but she didn’t exactly sleep well, thinking about Parker and all that she knew he had been through. Her eyes shot open early in the morning, having only got a couple hours of sleep total but she didn’t mind, sneaking into his room was worth it to see him at all. She reached up out of habit to fiddle with the talisman around her throat, realizing that she left the token in the man’s room last night, quickly she tugged on a sweater and padded out of her room, hearing her father up already making his morning coffee and she had little time to spare to grab the thing.

She knocked on Parker’s door knowing that if he dad saw she wasn’t wearing it he might have a heart attack thinking she was going to fall asleep and accidently zap herself somewhere though she had far more control now days. “Parker.” She whispered, hearing him get up and she knew he was doing as much of his work out that he still could manage despite his injuries. Before he could open the door for her she pushed inside and he arched a brow in question, “You shouldn’t be working out at all or worrying about that when you have stitches.” She chided, walking past him and searching his covers for the trinket. He asked her what she was doing, “Have you seen my necklace? If I don’t go out there wearing it he’s gonna ask me about it.”

Parker got up and helped her hunt, tugging it from where it was buried beneath Finn’s large frame and giving a laugh as he handed it over. She smiled and pet the dog once more, lingering near the man’s body and uncertain of what to say besides thanking him for the discovery. “Coffee’s ready if you want some. I’m gonna help with breakfast so I’ll see you out there.” She smiled, wandering back out the door before she could get caught up in him like she might.

She padded down the hallway and sure enough Dean was popping out of the kitchen, spotting her coming from the ‘wrong’ direction. “Mornin’ Daddy. Was making sure that Parker got up before the coffee ran out. You guzzle it down like it’s nothing.” She defended before he could say much of anything, adjusting the charm around her neck as though it had been there the whole time and giving him a smile as she walked over to kiss his cheek in greeting. “Sleep okay?” She asked innocently, smirking to herself as she went into the kitchen to pour herself a mug of the steaming liquid.

Dean's eyes narrowed as he watched Mari enter the kitchen coming from the hall where Parker's room was, but he had peeked in on her early that morning and found her sleeping fitfully in her bed so he knew she hadn't been in there with him. His daughter claimed she had simply gone to wake their new house guest and give him a chance to get at the coffee before it was all gone.

The elder hunter rolled his eyes as he watched his daughter sip her morning brew, putting down the batch of files he had been looking over when she joined him at the table. "Yeah I slept alright. I don't think you did though. You okay Bug? I could hear you talking in your sleep in my room, didn't sound like sunshine and daisies." Dean responded, his tone cautious. It wouldn't surprise him to hear that his girl was having nightmares after losing her mom so recently, or maybe it had something to do with whatever she and Parker had faced down that gave the guy that nasty cut across his chest.

Mari avoided his gaze, telling him she was fine and he didn't push her for now, finishing up his breakfast and taking his dishes to the sink. Parker came into the kitchen then, with his ridiculously huge mongrel in tow of course. It was obvious the young man hadn't slept very well either, he looked a bit pale but Dean guessed it was due to his injury. The man greeted him and Dean grunted a bit in response, quickly washing his mug and plate leaving them to dry by the sink.

"I've got to get to work, but Cas should be back any minute. He showed up here about five this morning but I didn't wanna make you guys get up that early after your trip. He'll fix you up, then you can start earning your keep by getting every last trace of that mutt outta my car, got it?" Dean told him, a little perturbed by the way Parker didn't seem anything other than amused by his harsh tone with him.

Mari started protesting Dean's instructions but Parker interrupted, a small smile on his face. "No no, it's okay. That's only fair, he's my dog after all. I'll clean the car top to bottom." He responded with a smile, scratching behind Finn's ears affectionately. The young hunter walked further into the kitchen and noted the stack of paperwork on the table, his blue eyes narrowing slightly.

"Been doing your homework I see." He commented idly, picking up the top sheaf of papers and skimming over them. "You know I think I made it pretty clear I've got a full disclosure policy here... Anything you wanna know you can ask." Parker smiled crookedly, appreciating that Dean didn't look at all guilty about digging into who he was. Mari looked confused and stood to crane over the table, getting a look at the papers herself.

"Thought I recognized that spider tattoo, you were one of Ryder Nolan's men, hmm? Sorry, I wanted to do a bit of my own research first, so I'd know what questions to ask. Like if you get that hunting is taking down vamps and ghouls, not people." Dean shot back, an accusatory glare in his eye. Mari snapped at him in a hurt tone of voice, insisting that Parker had been nothing but honest with them about his past even if he didn't offer up the grisly details, her eyes pricking with tears as he adamantly stated that Parker meant it when he had told them he had put his past behind him and wanted nothing more than to make up for it.

Parker winced at the hurt he could hear in Mari's voice, knowing she was recalling the things she had seen and felt from inside his head last night. He reached out and gently gripped the brunette's shoulder, squeezing her arm reassuringly. "Mari, it's all right I promise. He has every right to be suspicious of me." He said in a quiet tone, turning his gaze back to her father who was obviously less than pleased watching Parker touch his daughter so he let his hand drop with a little sigh.

"I'll tell you anything you wanna know, sir. You're right, about Ryder. He took me in after my folks died when I was six. Honestly I owed the man my life, he raised me harsh but at least I felt like I had a place I belonged. I did awful, unforgivable things for him because all I cared about was his approval and paying him back for taking me in. Then I realized what a monster he truly was and I defied him, refused to take any more human life. And he locked me up, tortured me and tried to kill me but Finn here-" He scratched his dog lovingly again, "He helped me escape. And now the man I loved like a father wants me dead in the worst way possible. I could go into more detail but, you've gotta get to work right?" Parker quipped, shrugging in acceptance of what he was and what he did. Dean wasn't the first to regard him with distrust and he couldn't blame the man, all he could do was continue doing what he knew was right and hope that eventually he could prove himself trustworthy to the man. 

Mari wasn't all too surprised to see that her father had taken it upon himself to figure out Parkers tainted history. She had hoped he wouldn't hunt deeper for things to find wrong with the man but with the stacks of papers it was quite clear how he had been spending his whole morning.

"Dad Parker swore he'd tell you whatever you wanted to know. You have to give him a chance he's righting his wrongs every day." She sobbed, unable to keep her voice under control. The brunette felt Parker beside her and he cut her off in part saying it was fine and so she stopped, bit her tongue though she wanted nothing more than to argue as much as she could for him especially after the things she had seen in him last night.

She couldnt keep her tears in check no matter how hard she tried, listening to the younger of the males defend himself to her father. He very easily reminded him that he would happily tell him his dirty secrets if he would man up and ask them. Dean seemed just as unfazed by Parker as Parker was of him.

 

Mari could feel the rising tension in the room as her rescuer reminded Dean he had to work and the man glared at him until she took to her father's side and tugged him down so she could kiss him in farewell. He hugged her in response, "He deserves a chance." She reminded him against his ear and he looked at her, his expression softening slightly but he said nothing, grabbing his keys to one of the spare vehicles and leaving them with a warning of no funny business.

Mari cried as soon as she heard the door shut behind him, facing Parker and shaking her head. "He's twitchy I know but... give him a shot too and he'll come around." She pleaded with him as though she was worried he might just up and leave as well. He smiled and pulled her to him, hugging her gently and reminding her of what he said about not crying for him. "Somebody has to since you aren't." She half laughed, hugging his middle.

She pulled back and wiped her eyes, "I'll help you clean the car if you help me wash Finn." The young angel bargained with a grin, laugh I g when he seemed apprehensive to take that sort of deal. "Come on the impala has to look nice and spotless or he'll be out for blood. Yours in particular since it's your dog." She stated. "Think it over while I make breakfast."

Parker and Mari were eating their breakfast together and talking about nothing in particular when Finn suddenly raised his head up from where he was sprawled on the linoleum at Parker's feet and gave a short, deep bark. Both of them jumped at the sudden outburst but it was quickly clear why the dog had done so, in the next heartbeat a tall, dark haired sober looking man appeared in the kitchen in front of the fridge.

Parker tensed at the man's sudden appearance but realized this man must be the angel Castiel Mari and Dean had spoken of, who the former affectionately referred to as her 'Uncle' despite the fact that he was a being thousands of years older than her. Finn scrambled up off the floor and bounded over to the man who took a half step back, awkwardly trying to fend the animal's enthusiastic greeting off with open palms and a few stilted words to little effect.

"Finn! Relax buddy, c'mere." Parker called to his friend, rescuing the angel from being slobbered to death. Mari shot up from her seat and went to hug her uncle, her happiness at seeing him equal or greater than Finn's. She teared up a bit as she nuzzled into him, Parker assumed she hadn't seen him since her mother's death so it was likely a more emotional reunion than it would normally be. The angel gently hugged her back, telling her in a softer tone that he was relieved she was alive and well.

The angel's piercing blue eyes slid over to Parker over Mari's head, and the young man held his gaze though it was difficult not to look away under the man's intense scrutiny. The young hunter cleared his throat and stood up, nodding slightly in greeting. He wasn't really sure what the etiquette was for meeting a literal angel, so he stuck with his usual approach.

"Good to meet you Castiel, my name's Parker." He said with a grin, extending his hand but lowering it again when it was clear the angel wasn't going to take it. He responded that he knew who he was and that he'd had a hand in keeping Mari safe, according to Dean who he'd spoken with that morning. He asked about his injury, requesting that he sit so he could heal him of it.

"Okay not a foreplay guy huh? Get right to the main event. Got it." Parker snickered, backtracking and sitting on the chair he'd been previously occupying. Mari took her chair as well and and reached across the table for his hand, mentioning that the healing process would probably hurt a bit. "Awesome." Parker quipped, not too concerned but lifting his arm and taking her hand anyway, threading their fingers together.

The angel reached out and placed two fingers on Parker's forehead right between his eyes. He opened his mouth to make a smart remark but all that came out was a startled groan of pain as the angel's energy suddenly permeated him and focused on the gash across his chest. His grip on Mari's hand involuntarily tightened and his jaw clenched, he had to take a couple deep breaths to get his composure back and get back to a more calm state. Finn whined and he glanced down at his friend, giving the creature a sympathetic smile.

"It's okay buddy, it's... All right." Parker hissed through his teeth, reaching out to pat Finn's head and Cas requested in a monotone voice that he remain still. "Sorry." He muttered, looking back at Mari who was watching both of them in turn with rapt attention. Castiel finished his healing and Parker immediately felt better the second the angel's mojo switched off, he looked down at his chest, pulling down the front of his shirt and the bandages to marvel at his now completely unmarred flesh.

He looked back up at the sober figure, smiling brightly at the results. "Damn, that's pretty intense, but I can't argue with the results... Thanks, man." Parker said happily, but the only thing he got in response was a blunt statement that there was much within him still that had yet to be healed, extensive damage caused by his psychic gift and violent memories of his past. Parker glanced worriedly at Mari and back to the angel, not wanting to upset her further considering their little ordeal last night.

"Thanks but I think I can manage. Thanks again for your help Castiel." He interrupted the angel, getting up and tugging the now unnecessary gauze out from under his shirt. "I think I'm up for those chores now, if you are." He said to Mari, fixing a wide grin to his face hoping to keep her from focusing too much on the exchange he and Cas had just had.

Mari couldn’t help but snicker a little when Parker commented on Cas wanting to get straight to work on him. She absently wondered if maybe her uncle had other things to do as he normally did and perhaps that was why he was so set on getting things moving. She smiled slightly and laid her hand out for Parker to take, letting him know it might hurt him a bit but far less than the damage she had caused. She could see in Cas’ eyes that he was sensing she had made the attempt as soon as he laid his fingers on the other man.

She concentrated on what he did as well as Parker’s reactions, letting him squeeze her hand without a word in regards to it though it was killing her to hear him completely pained in order to be better. She shifted in her seat and rested her opposite hand over his larger one, cupping them both around his digits for comfort. “There is still work that needs doing but I fear that if I do it all in one session you will perhaps become comatose in a matter of a few seconds.” The angel informed him casually. “There’s extensive damage in your body and mind that will only continue to further harm your person should it go untouched too long.”

Parker pulled away and started to get to his feet so that they could get to doing chores and likely so that he could cut off the angel from making Mari think about those things once more. The girl stiffened even as he pulled at her fingers, coaxing her to join him outside and she took a moment to even move, her head ducked down and he paused, stepping over to her and saying he was fine, no pain at least not for the moment. She nodded and got to her feet, forcing a smile and thanking her uncle. “Uncle Cas you could stay here if you want to, we’ll be detailing the Impala pretty much and giving Finn here a bath.” She mentioned, waiting for him to respond.

Castiel’s blue gaze flickered down to the dog who ruffed at him as if in question of him joining them. “The beast you tow seems quite content with only the two of you. Anyways Dean doesn’t wish me to touch his ‘Baby’.” He said with air quotes surrounding the last word, his eyes narrowing as Finn walked by him none the less.

Mari laughed and squeezed his hand when she passed him, taking to Parker’s arm which felt all too natural and she guided him to find the car wash stuff. “We don’t exactly have doggie shampoo lying around so I hope Finn doesn’t mind smelling minty from my tea tree shampoo.” She giggled, coming out of the larger bathroom with the bottle in hand while Parker lugged out the stuff for the car. She led them both to the front of the place where the Impala rested, setting down the stuff in her hands and stopping to pull her hair up into a high bun on her head.

She noted with satisfaction the way that the man’s eyes tracked down to her exposed stomach when she tightened the elastic in her hair, making her giggle at him. Her dark brow arched and she strut over to unravel the hose, feeling his eyes still lingering this time focused on the sway of her hips, for a man that told her no time and time again he sure as hell wasn’t hiding the fact that he was interested none the less. “I’m gonna start making you pay for those looks.” She quipped, “A dollar a pop and I’d be rich in a few weeks alone.” She teased, brushing past him to bring the hose around to the other side of the car.

“Put a caps full of the soap in the bucket.” She instructed lightly, grinning at him when he did just as she asked, making him laugh when her eyes tracked down to his rear as he bent slightly to do so. He teased in return that he thought he might be able to make more off of her than she did him. “Shut up.” She rolled her eyes, her cheeks flushing red and he only made it worse by shedding his top layer to be left only in his tight white tank. He snapped his fingers at her and she hadn’t even realized that she was still ogling him as she filled the bucket past the mark full of water making it spill over onto the ground.

Mari cursed and stopped the stream of water, focusing it on the hood of the car to wet it down. “Figure we go from outside to inside?” She shrugged, knowing that with the places she had taken the car and the line of two week old bugs and other odd splatters on the windshield, the car could use a good scrubbing both inside and outside regardless of where Finn had and hadn’t been.

 

Parker agreed with her tactic, dunking the long handled brush he had to work with in the bucket of soapy water and starting on scrubbing down the roof of the Impala working his way down while Mari concentrated on the smaller but more dirty front end of the car vigorously scrubbing at the bug splatters on the grill. Finn romped around the surrounding landscape, chasing after rabbits and birds and his own tail but never roaming too far from where his people were set up.

Parker took the excuse of cleaning the car to get a bit of exercise in, even going one day without getting through his intensive workout made him itch with the need for activity. The man had the whole car washed and rinsed immaculately by the time Mari was halfway done scrubbing off the front of the car of it's various stains and grit, so he grabbed another one of the textured scrubbers and hunched down at the opposite headlight and started helping her with her task.

His strength let him scrub the bugs and grime off more quickly than her, and he quickly advanced towards the middle of the grill making Mari laugh and tease him about cleaning like some kind of wild man. Parker chuckled as he continued to scrub. "Yeah well, I learned from a young age that being relaxed about getting my chores done hurt. Ryder didn't tolerate slacking. Guess old habits die hard." He mused, getting into Mari's space and helping her finish up her half of the grill and bumper. Mari seemed a little subdued by his comment and he nudged her arm a bit with his sponge making her squeak as the cold soapy water ran down her forearm. "Hey I'm not gonna tell you more about me if it makes you go all prune-face every time. It's okay, Tinkerbell really. I'm all right." He assured her, smiling brightly and leaning in to peck her cheek.

They got it all scrubbed down and Parker straightened back out, taking the hose to the whole thing and giving it a final rinse. Mari sighed and wiped her brow, moaning a bit about being too hot and Parker couldn't help himself. He aimed the spray nozzle at her and pulled the trigger, a huge devilish grin stretching across his features. He roared with laughter at her shrill shriek of surprise as the cold water sprayed her back, her whole body bowing and contorting as she reacted to the sudden cold.

Mari whirled around and screeched at him, which only encouraged him to squirt her legs and her answering yelp of outrage made him laugh harder, doubling over a bit from it. She bent and grabbed the half full bucket of water they'd filled up to rinse with, chucking it's contents at him and in his hunched over state from laughing he couldn't move out of the way in time, getting his front soaked nearly from head to toe. He cursed through his laughter at the cold temperature of the water, leaping a few steps back and firing the hose at her again, shooting her legs again but flicking the nozzle so a goodly amount of the frigid water splashed up her front. 

Mari squealed and charged him, trying to wrestle the hose from him making him spray them both a few times in the process. Parker easily controlled their fight, keeping Mari from slipping on the wet grass a few times and letting her at least feel like she was contending with him even though they both knew she stood no real chance against him physically. But this wasn't about actually pitting themselves against each other, Parker was just having fun wrestling with her and making her shriek each time he'd let a bit a of water squirt one or both of them. 

By now they were both utterly soaked, their clothing heavy and plastered to their skin and Parker certainly didn't mind the view of Mari's thin plaid button down sticking to her like a second skin and the outline of the white bra she wore beneath it being clearly visible. Even with the layers of cloth he could see the points of her nipples straining stiffly up from the cold, and strands of her dark hair had escaped her bun and were stuck to her fair skin like ribbons of ink on creamy paper.

She was clinging to his arm that held the hose with both hands, pulling down with all her strength and growling with effort but he didn't budge an inch. Parker laughed as she cursed at him for pulling the trigger and spraying her again, devouring her figure with his eyes and starting to lose track of his priority to keep the hose from her. She laughed in kind and thrashed with all her weight against him again, again to no effect really. But he allowed her to take his arm down this time, casting aside the hose out of both of their reaches and surging forward unable to resist getting more contact with her even though in the back of his mind he knew this was dangerous ground to be treading.

Parker gripped Mari at the waist and neck, pushing her back up against the Impala and aligning his body with hers, shuddering at the sensation. It was nearly like being pressed skin to skin with her with how tight and transparent their clothing had become, and a little groan escaped him just before his mouth came crashing down on hers. The hose landed on the ground several feet away handle-side down, so a stream of water erupted from the nozzle and caused a centralized frigid rainstorm to patter down on them as they kissed each other. 

Mari clung to his chiseled frame, mewling desperately with want and shivering as he plundered her mouth with his. Parker's grip on her tightened and he swept his hand down to catch her thigh, hoisting her up braced against the slick black vehicle. Her legs automatically wrapped around his waist and he ground his growing arousal against her center, moaning deeply himself at how good she felt and tasted. His better sense was railing at him to slow down, but his baser instincts got the better of him seeing her dripping wet and feeling her respond so willingly to his advance.

Mari struggled against Parker time and time again aa he continued to spray her with the hose and drench her with icy cool water. "Parker!" She screamed at him, trying to keep her anger but it wasn't worth it considering she bellowed with laughter.

He shot her again and she slapped at his arm, trying to keep him from getting her more soaked than she already was. She giggled, gripping his arm with both hands and trying to push her weight against him, pleased to be this close and pleased to see he was doing much better than just hours ago. The things she saw and felt all disappeared as they battled each other all the while with Finn barking like mad as though he was involved to.

The brunette squeaked caught off guard by his hands gripping her suddenly and in the blink of an eye he had her back against the impala, pinning her there. Her heart raced and her mind refused to clear itself of all things she wanted him to do to her including making her lose her mind right here in front of the bunker.

His lips crashed with hers instantly, dropping hold of the hose and instead taking to pinning her roughly against his own body. She took the cue of his hand hooking around her thigh, instinctively wrapping her legs high around hus waist. Her mouth broke from his own, feeling his arousal against her center and making her moan harshly at the feeling.

She panted and rolled her hips into his letting their bodies brush together. She hadn't been with anyone before, knew how to get herself off but the extent of her own want was higher than she ever felt, overly sensitive to every brush of skin and contact of thier lips. "God I want you..." she gasped, gripping to him tightly and digging her nails into his back and shoulders. She pressed her lips to hos again and their mouths crashed together, kissing hungrily as she pleaded with him to keep going.

 

Mari's breathless words lit a fire in him, one he knew would soon drive him past the point of no return and he couldn't allow that to happen. "Mari... I've gotta... We've gotta stop baby." Parker growled in his throat and made himself pull away, his chest heaving with his labored breath and it took all his will to set her back down on the ground and untangle himself from her grasp. His hands still lingered on her arms partly because he didn't want to let go and also partly to keep her from pouncing back on him, a little smirk playing at the corners of his lips.

"You..." He breathed, leaning in to place a chaste kiss on her wet brow, "Are too damn hot for your own good Tinkerbell." He finished and stepped away, going to retrieve the hose so it wouldn't keep spraying out into the atmosphere undirected. The young hunter crouched down and snatched the nozzle up, purposefully letting the stream of frigid water shoot up over his lap, his guts clenching from the shock of the freezing water dousing his arousal. 

He walked back over to where the brunette was lingering against the car, pushing off and bending to scratch Finn's scruff when the dog bounded over to her side. Parker could tell she was still reeling from their little impromptu makeout session, and he didn't miss the disappointment in her gaze when she looked up at him again. "Well shall we get the beast cleaned up next since we're already soaked anyways?" He suggested, brandishing the hose and grinning at her brightly trying to quell some of the lingering tension. He could tell she wanted to say something more about what they had just done but gratefully she dropped it for now, agreeing and going to grab her shampoo.

The first few minutes were a little awkward, Mari remained subdued and he knew exactly why but he didn't want to address it, not when they were both still riled up and more prone to saying things they might regret later on the subject. But Finn worked his charms and after the first time they wet him completely down and he shook violently spraying them both, Mari couldn't help but dissolve into a fit of laughter and the mood was much better for the rest of the task.

They finished washing Finn up and Parker slapped the dog's wet flank approvingly. "Fresh as a spring daisy. Why don'tcha go get him dried and brushed so he doesn't turn all our hard work to mud, and I'll get the interior of the Impala vacuumed and cleaned out. Deal?" He offered, nodding agreeably when Mari accepted the way he doled out their tasks.

Apparently even though she seemed relaxed about their encounter on the outside, the brunette was still dwelling on it because before she left to take Finn inside, Mari stood up on her toes and gripped his neck, tugging on him and he bent at her insistence. Mari sealed her mouth to his and traced her tongue along the seam of his lips, demanding access and he complied with a small growl. 

Their kiss deepened and it took all of Parker's willpower not to hold her there and continue where they'd left off. But it was Mari who broke the contact first, smiling at him seductively and letting her nails drag down his arm as she backed away sending little shivers down his spine. She called for Finn and while she couldn't quite disguise the fact that their kiss had affected her as well, she still managed to smirk at him before retreating into the bunker like she'd won some sort of ground over him.

Mari was more than a little disappointed by him pulling away and informing her that they needed to stop. She knew he likely would come to that but that didnt mean it affected her any less. She was far more than a little worked up and it took her a while to recover completely from his touch.

Her breathing came in heavy gasps, watching him douse himself in cold water to rid himself of his arousal. She wiped her face off that had excess water still dripping from it. He came back over to her and she half smiled, trying to hide her upset that they had to stop. What did it matter if she was 17 when they both wanted each other as badly as they did.

Parker bargained with her to go dry off the dog inside and she absently wondered if that was because he needed to take a breather. The idea made her smirk and only want to leave him hungery for more, straightening out and tuggung him down so their lips crashed together and she got another taste of him just like she wanted. He growled into the contact and she let her bails drag over his freshly healed skin, smirking up at him and calling for Finn.

"Come on buddy let's get dried off huh? Wanna help me pick clean clothes?" She offered with a laugh when the dog barked at her as if in response. Mari pushed past Parker and headed inside to take to her task of drying the dogs fur as best she could. It was mid afternoon by the time Parker came in and she was dressed in dry jean shorts that had been cut from an old pair of pants, snug and comfy in a fresh flannel shirt she purposefully left the top few buttons undone allowing the man a generous view as he padded in to find her.

"Snacks on the counter if you want some." She hummed, pretending not to notice him eyeing her. The brunette stood and Finn followed but she stopped at Parkers front, "Need me to warm you up first?" She teased and he arched a brow, shaking his head as it processed and helping her by gently taking the front of her shirt. Her breathing caught and he yanked her forward to where she fell into his still damp frame and he chided her for making things difficult.

Maris eyes went dark and instead of him touching and tasting her like she was hoping he might; the young hunter started fastening her top buttons so she was no longer exposed. She rolled her eyes and pulled away from him out of irritation but he snatched her wrist before she could leave telling her to ease up that he was trying to be the good guy here. "Yea I know." She muttered, ducking her head.

 

Parker smiled gently at her, sighing and stepping back out of her space knowing she was still disappointed but he wasn't going to back down on this. It was up to Mari if she felt like it was worth the wait or not. It certainly was to him. He'd been drawn to her since the moment they met, hell well before that it seemed if her and her family's habit of showing up in his visions was any indication. Parker left to go get changed into fresh clothes leaving Mari to fix them some food.

Dean arrived shortly after they finished their individual tasks, suspicion written over every inch of his face as he strode in and found them in the kitchen eating lunch. Mari made up a sandwich for her father, asking him sweetly if he approved of the job they'd done on his 'Baby.' Parker grinned when the elder hunter admitted that they had done a satisfactory job around a bite of his food, if nothing else at least the man approved of his automotive detailing skills.

The elder Winchester eyed him, asking if Cas had come back and if he had fixed him up. Parker nodded, hooking his finger into his t-shirt collar and tugging the garment down enough to reveal where his wound used to be and proved there to be no lingering trace of it on his inked up skin. Dean nodded, mentioning that the angel had patched him up more than once.

The trio finished their lunch, the atmosphere a little awkward since any time Parker tried to strike up a conversation with Dean or Mari, the elder Winchester would try to steer any topic he chose into an interrogation about him and his past. It didn't really phase the young man, he calmly answered all of Dean's questions no matter how inflammatory they were, but it was apparent that it was getting to Mari and finally she bolted up out of her chair, proclaiming that she didn't want to listen to her dad give the man who saved her life the third degree any more today. Parker and Dean winced, both of them had gotten so wrapped up in their little back and forth that they had forgotten the subject matter might upset the girl who was so important to them.

The young brunette shot a glare at her father, demanding to know what he thought her mother Aleah would do if she met Parker, if she would treat the person who protected her daughter so harshly and not even give him a chance to prove himself. Parker opened his mouth to protest her laying into her dad and she turned her venom on him in the heat of the moment, demanding to know why he was seemingly unwilling to stand up for himself.

Parker's blue eyes went wide and he put his hands up in a placating gesture. "I don't have anything to defend, Mari!" He said with a little more force than he had spoken to her with in the past. "My past is a part of me I'll never be able to shake. I won't sit here and pretend to be something I'm not, the things I did are unforgivable and I know it. But maybe... Maybe your dad might just understand trying to make up for unforgivable deeds better than anyone. I don't mind him asking me these things. Really." Parker insisted, his insides twisting a bit knowing that he was hurting her, just by being who he was and having to live with that fact. Dean and the younger hunter exchanged a weighted look, and Parker sensed a small but still noteworthy change in the man's demeanor towards him. He only hoped this small amount of progress was a sign for more to come.

Mari's hands balled into fists at her sides, and she responded despite her being on the verge of breaking down in tears. She told them she could accept what he said, but that still didn't mean they had to act like jerks, and make it hard for anyone else to be around them while they interacted, namely herself. Parker felt a pang of guilt, knowing she had a point and when he looked back at Dean he could see that Dean felt the same way. The young brunette told them she was going to go to her room and get some space, demanding that they get some of their shit sorted out so she didn't have to choke on the bad air between them so much the next time they were all together.

She stormed out of the kitchen and Finn immediately picked up and trotted after her, sensing her distress if not understanding it and wanting to comfort her in his own simple way. Parker and Dean watched her go, both of them wincing a bit when they heard Mari's bedroom door slam shut and then looked across the table at one another.

Silence reigned for several minutes, till finally a wry grin painted Parker's face. "So, you gotta head back to work or what? We should probably do what she says, she was pretty pissed." He posed, shifting in his chair to get more comfortable for a long discussion.

A similarly sardonic smile graced the older hunter's features as well. "Nope. Took a half day to come see what you two were getting into." He replied, taking a swig of his beer and cocking his head at Parker. "I tend to agree with you there." He added, shaking his head.

“You need to ease up on him… Do you think that Mom would treat him how you have been?!” Mari spat at her father, her fists clenching at her sides as she stood and tried to keep her tears in check. She could no longer stand it, listening to either of them argue or rather her father make jabs at Parker and Parker use his casual remarks and stupid smirk seeming all too satisfied with himself. She refused to sit there with either of them. “And you, Parker…” She started, jabbing a finger in his direction.

“And you pretending like it doesn’t affect you, letting him just interrogate you like it’s nothing.” She shot at him, shaking her head at the man. She took a deep breath and stared at him, her tears starting to slip when he raised his voice at her. Like her mother she was sensitive to those things, not to such a high extent but it was far different having him yell at her over her father right now. She tore off down the hall leaving her mess for them to clean up on their own.

The brunette heard Finn following her but hardly addressed him at first, holding her door open long enough for him to slip inside and he waited to see if she was getting on the bed. She slammed the door closed wanting them to know how fed up she was with the both of them. Finn barked at the sudden loud noise, “It’s okay buddy.” She cooed, her voice easing when she turned to him. She walked to her bed and he waited until she pat the top of it this time for him to invite him up.

By then she let her tears fall, slipping up onto the bed with Finn and cuddling up against the dog. He licked at her cheek seeming to understand that she was upset even if he didn’t know why exactly. “What do you think, Finn? You’ll talk to me right and not in the way those dumb boys do.” She murmured, curling up with him and scratching at his head, patting his freshly cleaned fur. Finn sighed heavily and let his head drop on her pillow with her, seeming content with just lying with her like he was. “You’re lucky you’re a dog y’know. You don’t have drama.”

Mari watched Finn start to fall asleep as she pet him, waiting until he was snoring and then nuzzling up against him to close her eyes herself. It was still afternoon but between the emotional aspects as well as the chores they had done and the weeks she had had lately… she just needed a moment or two to relax and forget. She must have dozed, hearing the sound of the boys outside her door and talking… both of them.

Her eyes fluttered open and she rolled to look at the door, they sounded like they were arguing about what to say or who should knock or if they should even give it a shot. “No you shouldn’t because you’re both jackasses and Finn’s sleeping. He doesn’t want to see anyone.” She called, pouting slightly and feeling the dog stir but he didn’t exactly wake. Parker chuckled seeming a little amused by her comments and she rolled her eyes, smacking her pillow to get more comfortable and it wasn’t long before one of them tried the handle. “I swear to god if you come in here and you boys haven’t talked it out and friggin’ hugged or something I will zap you both to the middle of nowhere.” She warned, hearing the click of her door and Dean was the first to step in, Parker still wore that stupid grin and she rolled her eyes, turning to face Finn, whispering for him to ‘get them’ and the dog roused, barking instantly until he noticed it was his owner standing there and he over powered Mari still.

Finn laid himself across her hip almost out of protection and she rolled over completely to look at them, starting to sit up even with the added weight of the dog. Her eyes watered again because she feared them both snapping at her and now that the barrier of the door was gone it was harder for her to look up again. “What?” She questioned and soon enough her Dad was bent to tug her face up to look at him, telling her that they did talk. “And? Talking and feeling are two different things. Are you going to ease up on him? And are you going to stop putting up that stupid barrier that you’re okay and that it’s so easy to talk about? You’re allowed to keep some things secret you know Parker.” She snipped at them both, crossing her arms over her chest and while they both seemed a little bit better around the other they didn’t exactly seem happy in the same space quite so much.

 

Dean sighed heavily at her snippy line of questioning, looking back at Parker and shrugging one shoulder. "We're... Working on it." He said honestly. The two men had had a fairly decent discussion but that didn't mean the air was clear between them. It was still important to him to know exactly what this stranger was about, especially since it was more than obvious to his experienced eyes that the pair had something going on between them.

Parker nodded at Dean's words, agreeing with his simple statement and smiling down at Mari, liking the look of her cuddled up with Finn for comfort. "You're dad's right, we've still got ground to cover, but I think we can manage to be a bit more civil for you." He proposed, hoping that their response was enough for her for now, since it was all they could offer her and remain honest about how things were between them.

Parker breathed a small sigh of relief when Mari begrudgingly accepted their answer, demanding a final tribute of a meal out for dinner from her dad to smooth things over completely, and also to officially celebrate them being together again since she felt like that hadn't really been covered. Dean sighed again, Parker got the sense the man did that a lot around his daughter, but agreed that they could go out for dinner, her pick. Mari brightened considerably and instructed them to leave so she could get ready, making both men exchange a sideways glance. It was obvious they were both confused as to why she couldn't just go out as she was right now.

Dean took the keys to his beloved Impala back, flicking the key back and forth in his fingers as they waited for his daughter. About twenty minutes later Mari emerged and Dean had to work to keep from getting angry all over again as he got a good look at her. The plain truth was, she looked gorgeous. Her outfit wasn't fancy but it flattered her curvaceous figure, it struck him hard being forced to really look at his little girl and acknowledge that she was becoming a woman right before his eyes. It seemed like such a short time ago that she was a tiny girl stumbling after him in her disney princess pjs. 

Not only was it a blow seeing her in nice clothes, with her hair and makeup all done because he had to accept that his girl was growing up, but it also hit him where he lived seeing just how much like Aleah she looked all made up like this. Her smile was shaped a bit more like his, but other than that the girl really was nearly a perfect, lovely copy of his departed wife and his heart clenched imagining how proud Aleah would be of the way Mari was growing up.

He glanced from Mari to Parker and his ire rose another notch or two, the young man was more subtle than some but still Dean knew how guys thought and he didn't miss Parker's quick up and down glance over his only baby girl. Mari asked the pair of men how they thought she looked and Parker eyed him before responding, that damn cocky grin gracing his features as he complimented Mari on how beautiful she was. The kid was not nearly as afraid of him as Dean would've liked. Still, he had to admit he respected the young hunter a bit more after their long talk this afternoon, even if he still didn't like him much.

"You look... You look great Bug. Just like your mom." Dean responded finally, swallowing his anger for the moment out of respect for his wife's memory. Mari's features softened a bit at the mention of the half-angel, and she smiled sweetly back at her father, thanking him. Her gaze wandered back to Parker and her cheeks flushed, which only made the younger man grin wider and Dean couldn't hold back any longer.

"All right, all right! That's enough let's get goin'." Dean huffed, wrapping his arm around his daughter and ushering her out ahead of Parker keeping him from reaching for the girl himself like he obviously wanted to do.

Mari insisted on the boys letting her get fixed up a bit before they went to dinner. They seemed confused but allowed her to change for the second time that day, picking out a skirt that flattered her hips; one that her mother had picked for her long ago and while it wasn’t fancy or overly dressy it was enough to make her feel good. She slipped into a clean shirt that clung to her frame and showed off just enough of her. She fixed her loose waves back over her shoulder, pinning the sides into a twist before she stepped out to meet the others.

She wore make up but not every day having been told by her father since she was small that she didn’t need all that ‘gunk’ because in the words of her father, lucky for her she had her mother’s genes. She walked out to meet the boys in the other room and it took little more than the click of her kitten heels on the cemented floor for them to look up at her. She smiled brightly, her blue orbs flickering from her father to Parker when she caught him staring just as well. She was distracted from the look in her father’s eyes, instead taking in the younger of the two’s expression.

“Well? How do I look?” The brunette pondered, lifting her hands in question and giving a little twirl from side to side for them to see. She giggled and fidgeted with the tips of her long dark hair when Parker responded quicker than Dean, saying she looked beautiful, making her flush bright red in the cheeks as she thanked him quietly. She faced her father in anticipation of what he had to say about her attire and her smile broadened at his mention that she looked like her mother. “Thank you Daddy.”

She took a few steps forward and her eyes automatically flickered over to Parker who was still admiring her just as well, making her cheeks burn and he didn’t hide the fact that he was looking at her even from her father. Dean cut off their glances with a harsh tone, telling them that was enough and before Mari could do anything he put his arm around her and guided her out of the front room and to the door. She giggled a little at the shrug Parker gave, seeming unfazed by her father’s actions and she appreciated that he was rather keen on sharing her this way considering she was after all rather close to her dad even if they did butt heads more often nowadays.

She happily let him guide her out though not without a longing look back at the other who stuffed his hands in his pockets after bidding Finn farewell and promising to be back shortly with a snack or two for him. They started towards the car and Mari took to the back seat until both Dean and Parker asked her what she was doing, “I’m… getting in the car?” She offered with a note of confusion and Parker managed to beat her father to the punch, popping open the front door for her and tugging her lightly by the hand to take the front seat instead. Her brow knitted together and she stumbled over her words, “It’s okay I mean you’re like two feet taller than me, Parker you need the leg room more than… okay.” She started but he kept nudging her away, hoping in the back himself.

Mari laughed a little awkwardly, finding the treatment he was giving her completely new territory. She smiled to herself and climbed in the front seat beside her dad, seeing him catch onto her grin as he started up the car. He asked her where they were going for dinner and she hummed in thought, “Well I kind of want Italian food so maybe Oregano’s but… I also want pie for dessert.” She smiled sweetly at him and he chuckled, shaking his head but agreeing that pie needed to happen. He suggested they do both, dinner and then stop off at the diner around the corner to grab dessert and bring it home with them. “Mmm… But we both know reheated pie isn’t the same. Plus we don’t have any more ice cream.”

Dean rolled his eyes but agreed once more and she could hear Parker laughed, utterly amused with her talking him into giving her what she wanted. They drove down the road a little ways out of the way to get to the Italian food place that Mari suggested but neither seemed to mind. She climbed out of the car and immediately felt Parker’s eyes on her again, taking a moment to glance up at him and let him admire her before Dean called for her and stepped around to the other side of the car to take her hand. “Dad.” She whined, knowing full well what he was doing and that was keeping her from the younger man but she had another idea in mind, extending her arm quickly and snatching Parker’s hand, barely managing to catch the tips of his fingers but it was just enough for her to tug him along with them.

She smiled at him adoringly, appreciating his tolerance but she was determined to make the attention fair and if anything was going to happen… if they were going to work, if he wanted that that is, she knew her father was going to have to adjust as well. Parker let their fingers hook lightly and she kept her hand partially out of view so her father wasn’t quite so panic stricken that they were walking hand in hand but she craved the contact. They walked up to the restaurant and were given a table immediately and she sat between both men, refusing to let go of Parker’s fingers under the table for whatever reason. She knew her father wasn’t stupid and based on the look on his face he had an idea that things were starting up between them.

Neither Dean nor Mari looked at the menu and when the waitress came by their table he ordered both their plates, knowing without asking just what his daughter would want, chicken parmesan and a side of extra cheesy garlic bread along with a glass of crème soda. Parker ordered his own food and Mari sipped her soda when it came, watching the boys drink their beers and not a single word was said at first. She fidgeted and took the chance to break the ice, “So Dad I was thinking that maybe instead of Parker paying his way he can help with maintenance around the bunker. Now that the basement’s cleared it still has a lot of cleaning up that needs doing and you’re not really hunting much anymore and you’re working a lot. Plus then someone’s always around besides just me.” She smiled around her straw.

The trio hashed out an arrangement, there was a lot of work to be done around the bunker for sure, so Dean agreed to hand over most of those tasks he'd been meaning to get to for so long, with the understanding that Parker was still going back to hunting after he'd laid low for awhile. Mari didn't really want to focus on talk of when Parker might be leaving so most of the discussion focused on what sort of work Parker was qualified to do. The young man revealed that he had at least basic proficiency in many skills like plumbing, carpet laying, carpentry and the like so the list he got to work on was quite extensive. Dean mentioned that while he was an expert on fixing cars it had always been more of his younger brother's area to fix things up around the house, so he was pleased to be able to pass on much of the work to the young hunter.

They got home late, all three of them more than stuffed after their big dinner and additional trip for pie and ice cream like Mari wanted. Dean steadfastly refused to pick up on any of his daughter's cues that she wanted a moment alone with Parker, hanging around the pair for the rest of the evening till Mari finally gave up and said goodnight to Parker in full view of her father out in the library.

The weekend continued with much the same level of scrutiny on Dean's part, hovering around the pair at all times and showing Parker all the work he had cut out for him which was a considerable amount. This place was old and while it's magical wards and protection spells were airtight, the same pristine conditions could not be applied to the plumbing and electrical systems.

On Sunday evening Mari finally managed to convince her dad to give them at least a small respite, going with Parker to take Finn for his nightly walk. Dean didn't seem too happy about it but he figured if they had the dog out with them and were just going for a short walk through the fields surrounding the bunker they couldn't get into too much trouble. Still he insisted that they return before it got dark and Parker assured him with a laugh that he'd make sure to bring his daughter back in before she turned back into a pumpkin at sundown.

 

The pair walked out into the grassy field, getting a fair distance from the bunker before Parker reached for her and tugged her by the hand to walk with their arms wrapped around each other, wanting that closeness with the young woman. Finn bounded and barked around them, chasing birds and rodents and generally having the time of his life.

"So I know what I've got on my plate for tomorrow, now that you're back and settled in, are you gonna like... Go back to school?" Parker asked, looking down at the young brunette. His features crinkled a bit in confusion at her sudden look of discomfort, and she admitted that she hadn't really been planning on returning to school, not seeing the point if she was going to be a hunter. She wasn't sure if she could take going back when she kept thinking about how excited her mom had been about her going to school, like she loved that Mari could do "normal" things like attend classes when she had to stay put in the bunker.

Parker shook his head, hugging her shoulders and sighing. "What? Of course there's a point to it. I mean don't get me wrong I think once you get some more experience under your belt you'll be a great hunter, but you've at least gotta finish up high school Tink. If nothing else because it's something you started and should see through to the end. If there's one goodthing I learned from Ryder, it's that giving up isn't an option. You mentioned your mom... Don't you wanna make her proud? I'm sure she'd want you to graduate." Parker insisted, smiling at her encouragingly when she flushed at his mention of her mother being proud of her.

They talked a bit more about her going back, and by the time the sun was starting to dip down past the horizon Mari had decided to push herself and get her diploma. But she made him promise her something in return, that he'd stick around at least long enough to see her graduate at the beginning of summer, which he happily agreed to.

The pair made their way back to the bunker and Parker couldn't help but chuckle at the way Dean had posted himself in clear line of sight of the front door in the library, waiting for them to return while trying to appear like he wasn't doing so. He asked if they had a good walk and Mari brightly told him yes, practically skipping over to her father and hugging him tight. Parker grinned hugely as she told him with some excitement that she was going to go back to school in the morning, promising to make up for all the time she'd missed. The elder hunter looked more than pleased if a little surprised, but he kissed her brow and told her he was proud of her for making the choice. 

She looked back at Parker and he smiled again when she mentioned that it was his idea, to which he held up his hands and shook his head. "Hey, it was your decision to make Mari. Not mine. I'm glad you're gonna do it though." He responded happily.

Mari was pleased when her father actually agreed to letting her join Parker on his nightly walk with Finn, rolling her eyes when he made sure to add they needed to be back before the sun went down. The pair left with the dog in tow and kept their hands to themselves until they got to a safe enough distance and Parker put his arm around her, tugging her close against his larger frame and she fell into him instantly. Her own arm slipped around his back and she cuddled into his side as they walked rather slowly together to simply enjoy the rare moment of alone time even if it would only last a maximum of another thirty minutes.

They walked for a while like that, holding onto one another and watching Finn who seemed quite content to chase after whatever it was he could without getting too far away from them. Parker started on about the work he knew needed doing and she sighed, liking that it meant he would be here at least a little while longer but then he questioned what exactly she would be spending that time doing. Her expression fell and he mentioned school which she hadn’t entirely thought about or at least not to a deep extent. She had every intention of being a hunter and well quite frankly you couldn’t learn jack squat about that sort of thing in a classroom like that.

“Well I hadn’t planned on it just ‘cuz… it’s not really needed when it comes to being a hunter, y’know? Anyways I don’t know if I can take getting back into it… it just makes me think about my mom and how excited yet sort of sad she was. She never got to do normal things after she developed her angelic abilities and I imagine it sucked which… made it suck thinking I had all these chances that she didn’t when she wanted it so much more than me.” Mark confessed, giving a little shrug as she looked up to Parker’s gaze.

He pointed out that her mother of all people would be proud of her to finish up simply because she couldn’t do those things. She had wanted it all for Mari and she knew that, biting her lip as she thought about the look in her eyes if she had gotten to see her graduate and… perhaps she still could from where she was. She hoped she still could anyways, she had never been certain on the ‘rules’ of Heaven all she knew was that she felt a void in her life the past three weeks or so since her mother passed. “She would cry like a baby watching me walk the line this summer… Gush all over me and promise me all the rocky road ice cream I could possibly keep down for working so hard on something. She’d probably bug me about college though… She always talked about college but I think she knew I wasn’t too keen on four more years of that kind of routine.” Mari muttered to the other, sighing lightly and her eyes watered but talking things out with Parker like this felt really good. She had never really had a third party, another voice help her figure things out in her life.

They talked up until the sun was starting to vanish and he had finally fully convinced her that getting back to school was a good idea. She had to agree though the idea of having to make up almost a month’s work wasn’t so appealing. They walked back to the bunker and sure enough her dad was standing almost in the doorway waiting for their arrival, clearly not trusting Parker’s word, counting down the minutes and searching for reason to get irate with the other man. Mari didn’t let it get to her, not one bit at least for now, rushing to him and hugging him tight, “I’m going to school tomorrow.” She informed him.

Dean pulled back to look at her, seeming like he wasn’t so sure if she was kidding or not and she smiled at him completely, nodding as if in encouragement for him to accept that she would be honestly going. She clutched to his hands and bounced a little where she stood, “Then I can graduate this year. I have a lot of work to make up for but part of it is for good reason and I can talk to my teachers about all of it if I really have to but I think I can do it. I at least want to try.” She muttered, turning around to smile at the dark haired man patting his dog behind her. He grinned in return and she gladly told her father that it was all his idea for her to return.

Her dad seemed a little confused but pleased none the less probably finding it funny considering he had always been on her about finishing up high school no matter what it took, even before she missed as much time as she did. He had seemed less worried now or perhaps was biting his tongue to keep her from running away again like she had. He smiled at her and nodded back to Parker in appreciation and she threw her arms around the man once more, hugging him close and kissing his cheek before she nuzzled into him. “I want Mom to be proud of me.” She whispered to him.

The next morning Mari went to school just as she promised, leaving around the same time that her dad did for work and she was more than a little nervous, that was until Parker offered her a smile and a little wink, seeming like he believed in her just the same. She drove herself to campus, waving to her father when they turned opposite directions at the stop sign and parted ways, much to the same old manner they used to and he looked incredibly happy that morning perhaps because of the change in her mindset. Maybe this would prove that her… friend was truly a good man after all with only good intentions for her and everyone else around him no matter his dark past.

She came home around 3:30 that afternoon, tired and frustrated already with her day. Mari threw her bag on the kitchen table hearing the heavy thunk as it was filled with added booklets and worksheets for her to get completed before the semester ended so she could graduate later in the year. The heavy sound must have been enough for Parker to hear because he came bounding around the corner only to have Finn almost knock his legs out from under him trying to get to Mari before he could. The brunette knelt onto the floor, falling over in an over exaggerated fashion and letting Finn lick her face and hands all he wanted.

She bat at the dog’s head lightly so she could see Parker hovering over her and laughing at the sight of her sprawled on the long rectangular rug towards the edge of the room. He asked her how her day went and she simply grunted at him, letting him take her hand but she fought against standing once more. “No just leave me on the floor to mope. No amount of heroism can save me today.” She whined, only making him laugh further as he teased her for being dramatic. She sat up suddenly and Finn took that as a cue to bark and lick at her cheeks again but that didn’t keep her from speaking, rather adjusted to the dog already. “Parker I took chemistry this year. I have six labs to make up on my own time which means I’ll have to go in early to school for the next week or so while the teacher is there to do the work with. I missed my weekly exams in English so I have to go do those but wait… first I have to read Hamlet and… crap the one with the bird or whatever—“ She complained, rolling her eyes when Parker gave her the title ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird.’

“Whatever.” The young woman snipped, “I’m good at biology so I did most of the work I missed in class while the teacher was lecturing so at least that’s almost done. I have four chapters in Pre-Calc to do. Four friggin’ chapters, Parker.” Mari huffed, getting up to her feet once more when he practically forced her to. She felt like she was going to break and the work had hardly even began, her eyes watering as she started on about what she had left in her History class to manage but the words were muffled by the man’s chest when he yanked her to him and pinned her against his larger frame, telling her to stop talking in a gentle tone though he still sounded utterly amused.

“It’s not funny. I suck at school. Well I suck at most of it anyways… I can’t focus. I won’t be able to do it. Did I mention I have a presentation to do in my ASL class? Stupid hand signals.” She cursed under her breath, sighing and starting to melt into his arms the longer that he held her. Mari finally raised her own and wrapped them around his middle, breathing in his unique scent that oddly put her at ease and the tears that had built subsided in little under a few moments. Parker told her to calm down, take it one assignment at a time and she would make it just fine. She made a noise in protest and he pulled away, bending to kiss her considering he could without her father home quite yet. She mewled, caught off guard by the contact but stealing another then another until she had her hands raveled into his shirt and he pinned her flush against him, ravishing her mouth and she was pretty sure this wasn’t helping her focus at all.

“Baby… We gotta stop.” She muttered, though she could hardly keep her hands to herself. “I have to get a jump start on my homework so I can take a break for dinner with you guys.” Mari said, stealing a final peck along his lips and slipping her arms back around him completely for another moment of quiet reassurance. Parker agreed and they eventually broke apart so she could get to work like she said, taking to the large desk in the library so she could focus completely in a room meant for quiet, her textbooks and papers sprawled all over the place while Finn rested at her feet, letting her use him as a low foot stool. 

Mari definitely had her work cut out for her and Parker sympathized with her feelings of being overwhelmed. His foster father had pushed him into completing his high school education as well as a minor college degree focused on accounting so he could manage the group's books in addition to being his primary asset. Having to study into the wee hours of the morning, maintain perfect scores on every assignment and go out and work hunting jobs was a lot for one young man to handle, but the punishment was far steeper than the work itself so he made himself endure.

Parker kept up his end of the bargain, working on repairing and updating much of the bunker's outdated inner workings during the day. Every day when Mari came home from school he would finish up and sit with her while she studied, doing some reading and study himself considering the immense amount of supernatural knowledge stored in the place he wanted to take full advantage of that wealth. It was one of the few activities they could do together that Dean had nothing bad to say about, in fact the elder hunter seemed more than pleased to come home from the shop and find Parker and his daughter seated at one of the long tables with their noses buried in their respective books.

About two weeks in Mari came home and seemed especially frazzled from her day, which prompted Parker to catch her up in his arms and hold her close, running his hands up and down her back. "Hey Tink, what's wrong?" He asked, pulling back to hold her at arm's length so he could see her face. Mari told him she got her scores back and had basically tanked the big pre-calculus test she had yesterday. She was still trying to play catch up in all her classes but it seemed like she was advancing a little slower in her math class than in the others, but Parker didn't realize things were that bad since she always insisted she was doing fine when he asked her.

Mari teared up and Parker gently cupped her face, holding her attention trying to keep her from fully breaking down. "Hey, no tears... It's just one test, you can more than make up for that, easy. I offered to help you when you first started, I'm pretty good at math if I do say so myself.... Offer still stands." He prompted, smiling softly and leaning in to peck her lips. "Why don't we take Finn for a quick walk and get our heads cleared, then we'll get started on your work, okay?" He suggested, knowing she just needed a little time to not have to think about all the works she still had to do.

The brunette sniffled and finally agreed, smiling with his promise to help her however he could. They took Finn out and Mari threw his tennis ball for him while Parker watched, laughing and cheering his four-legged friend on every time he retrieved the ball and brought it back. Being out in the fresh air and playing with Finn seemed to lift the girl's spirits. After awhile Parker nudged her, getting her attention and calling out to Finn to come back to them from out in the field. "Ready to hit it Tinkerbell?" He asked with a wide grin.

Mari was happy to take the chance for a break, especially with Parker and Finn as distractions, letting her clear her head a bit so she could go in full force with a relaxed mind and hopefully get some solid studying done for the next couple hours. She was working really hard every day to get caught up and while most all her classes were back on track, pre-calculus seemed to be the one that she continued to struggle with no matter how much time and effort she put into it.

She didn’t want to ask for Parker’s help or her dad’s when they both had other things to do and a large part of her wanted to simply just understand it without having to be talked through each assignment. Parker nudged her and asked if she was ready to go and she simply groaned at the thought but he took her hand anyways and tugged her back with him to the bunker so she could bury herself in books once more.

They bounded back to their homestead and he pulled her all the way into the library so they could get started, pulling a chair up closer to her side and straddling it backwards. He waited for her to pull out her textbooks and homework assignments and they got started with her working through the steps on her own first and him simply watching so he could know where she was struggling. They were maybe ten minutes or so in and she felt like she was going to cry again, slapping her pencil down on the desk and shaking her head. “Can we do it later? Like you said it’s just one test right maybe I’ll just get lucky and ace the next one.” She muttered, her eyes welling up until Parker put his arm around the back of her chair and told her she couldn’t put it off.

Mari felt him scoot over closer to her and he tugged the book between them so he could see it too, asking her what pages she had to do. “Well our last test was on chapters nine and ten and my teacher said if I don’t know those I won’t ever comprehend anything following.” She answered, watching him flip through the couple dozen pages, skimming the work quickly as he went. He pulled her paper she had been using for homework questions down and looked over the first problem, pointing to it and starting to explain what needed doing first, going back and forth between the book and the worksheet.

“I don’t understand how I write something with letters in a math class… What does the U looking thing mean between the coordinates?” She questioned and Parker gently explained it was the possible functions of the equation and not coordinates at all. “It looks like coordinates. They should fix that.” She whined, feeling his hand on her shoulder as he continued speaking and explaining each question she had to ask him about inequalities and the quadratic formula. He worked through the first problem with her and then the second when she still wasn’t quite grasping it, his hand squeezing her shoulder every so often to keep her focused and comforted when he knew she was breaking again.

Parker wrote out a practice problem for her to try, telling her to do this one on her own and take all the time she needed to. “So we may as well just order pizza then and eat in here, camp out with a couple of sleeping bags…” She muttered, earning a look from him that told her to stop and have more confidence in herself. “Sorry.” She whispered, ducking her head a little and his hand worked over her back to the back of her neck, gently massaging her tensed up muscles and handing over the pencil he was using so she could get to work.

Mari sighed and took the object from him, tapping it on the desk franticly and wiggling her leg as she stared at the sheet of lined paper in front of her. He turned his attention from her and started quietly reading through his own book to give her a chance to work without completely hovering over her. She worked on the problem and within another twenty minutes she had torn through the sheet of paper from having erased time and time again to redo her work. Finally she wrote out the answer she had previously been second guessing, setting down her pencil and getting the man’s attention. He asked if she was done and she shrugged, “No idea. If it’s infinite I just write that it’s infinite right? I think that on the negative side it’s infinite…” She muttered, watching him as he very quickly graded the problem he had given her.

"I don't think it's right... Maybe I need a different question." She suggested, trying to snatch the sheet back from him partly out of self consciousness. Mari hadn't realized how easy this kind of thing came to Parker and she feared if he saw how hard it was for her he might end up changing his mind entirely. He shifted to easily keep it from her so he could finish grading it and to her surprise he had a smile on his face. "You're laughing at me aren't you?" She inquired sadly.

"I am laughing at you, because you're stressing out for no reason silly girl." Parker chuckled, turning the page back so she could see it again and tapping her answer with his fingertip. "You got it right! See, you've totally got this Tink you just have to break it down and work through each step and you'll be acing this stuff. Well done!" He praised, smiling brightly and leaning forward to tug Mari in for a short hug. 

The brunette giggled happily in surprise, taking the sheet from him and looking at what she wrote again as if she couldn't quite believe she'd gotten it right herself. "I'll write up some more problems for you and after you get some more practice I'm sure you'll be breezing through these chapters." He assured her, squeezing her shoulder and flipping through a few pages of her book to make up more questions that were as relevant as possible to the content she was supposed to be learning.

The pair kept at it all evening, stopping for dinner with Dean who seemed pleased to see how Parker was helping Mari progress in her studies. At the end of the night the young brunette didn't have all the material down solid but she had her list of tools to solve problems down and was feeling a lot better. It showed on her pretty face and in her eyes, the liveliness that had been absent from her blue orbs when she first came home was back.

They ran through a few more sample questions until both of them were worn out, Dean not so subtly lingered on the couch at the end of the room playing on his laptop while they worked, it was important to the hunter to make sure they said their good nights in his view.

Parker wished Mari good night, squeezing her hand under the table and giving her a little wink as he praised her once more for her hard work. Mari flushed and thanked him for his help, leaning in closer to him despite Dean being in the same room. Their faces drew closer together but before they could kiss Dean loudly cleared his throat, making Mari jump and Parker chuckle at the man's behavior. "Good night Mari. See you in the morning." He wished her good night a final time, getting up from the table and nodding at Dean before wandering back to his room, Finn trotting after him. The dog alternated sleeping in Parker's or Mari's room now, and it seemed he was in the mood for turning in with his owner this time.

Parker was more than pleased with how the evening had gone, he was happy to offer his help to Mari and it was great that she was picking up on what he was tutoring her on.

The young hunter fell asleep fairly quickly, sprawled half out of his sheets in a pair of athletic shorts and a black tank top. Finn was flopped against him snoring loudly, but was soon disturbed by his owner groaning and flinching beside him. It happened so often that the dog wasn't distressed by it, simply accepting his owner's restless sleep as a matter of course and jumping off the bed to sack out on the floor once more.

Parker had been forced by his foster father as he grew up to try every conceivable method to induce his psychic visions when he was awake. Meditation, hypnosis, spells, drugs... But no matter what he only seemed to receive them when he slept and had no way of controlling or navigating them. He had nightmares almost every night but when a vision set in on top of them, that was when he showed more noticeable outward signs of distress.

Parker was caught up in a dream, reliving a dark evening he had spent with Ryder where he had gutted a man like a fish and they disposed of the man's body in a harbor. But when he was driving their boat back to the docks, he was suddenly swept into a full on vision, out on the water and watching as a crowd of people materialized and more and more details filled in setting the stage for whatever it was his mind was trying to show him.

A beautiful young woman was walking on the deck, sipping some tropical drink and laughing like she had no cares in the world. His mind's eye perched on her shoulder and followed her through her evening on his small skip that had now transformed into a cruise ship. Time always flew by at an unnaturally fast pace in his visions, and in seconds it was dark and the young woman was staring out over the starlit ocean. 

That was when everything went wrong. She gripped the deck railing, leaning over and watching the waves, not seeing the tall shadowed man approaching her. Parker screamed at her to look, to run, knowing something terrible was about to happen but he was powerless to stop it. The man grabbed her from behind, roughly pinning her and shoving a cloth napkin from the dining hall down her throat to muffle her screams, ripping away her gauzy summer dress and brutally violating her.

Parker screamed with rage and sorrow, feeling every bit of the woman's pain and fear, growing more horrified as he got a good look at the man's leering grin, getting off on her terror. The vile man roughly impaled himself in her body until he was spent, clenching her throat in his hands and nearly choking the life out of her, laughing under his breath. Parker felt like he couldn't breathe himself, watching helplessly and wanting nothing more than to put this monster down but as always he was merely a spectator in his own mind and he knew what was coming next. The man pitched the girl overboard, leaning over to watch her plummet down to the waves below. 

Parker felt his stomach bottom out as he fell with the girl in his mind, feeling her terror, her pain, her realization that she was going to die, screaming brokenly as her body hit the water.

Mari was lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep until she finally fell into a full on unconscious state. She was suddenly roused by fear and pain, jolting as she came to and she didn’t understand why right away. Her necklace lie on the nightstand in her jewelry box where it often ended up most nights while she slept. Without she was made more aware, closing her eyes and focusing on the things she felt around her, her heart racing as she honed in to her abilities. She could feel Parker thrashing on the bed as if he were lying right beside her, hear him screaming and begging for things to stop but she couldn’t figure out why.

She panted heavily as she pulled back, the connection she so clearly had with this man ran deeper than she thought, while she had always been able to read people normally this was different. He was in complete distress and she felt every part of that all at once, the worry of not saving someone, the agitation over whatever he was thinking about. She opened her eyes again and shot up from bed, not bothering to cover up despite the cooling air surrounding in the bunker.

The brunette peeked out her door to check for signs of life but her main concern was the man who saved her. “Parker?” She whispered, unsure if he was awake or asleep at the moment but when she got no answer and simply heard Finn sniffing under the door she decided to enter on her own. He was lying in bed, tangled up in his sheets and his chest was heaving as he struggled to control his breathing seeming in a nearly panicked state. Her brow knitted together with worry as she silently slipped over to him, feeling his forehead was warm perhaps from the movements she felt him making previously. He must have been having a nightmare or a vision she assumed, having never seen him react to either.

Finn’s tail slapped against the side of the bed as he tried to compete for Mari’s attention but she shushed him and the dog obeyed, sitting down on the floor and waiting for his turn when it would come. “Parker.” She whispered once more, gasping as she was hit with everything that had crossed his mind the past few hours since he left the library. She supposed the large part of her that was curious and wanted to know what was occurring in his mind had forced her to read him without really meaning to. He didn’t rouse at first so she simply lifted the edge of the covers and slipped into bed with him.

Her hand reached out for his on the edge of the pillow, lacing their fingers and she closed her eyes, remembering her last session with Castiel, take away the immediate hurt, focus on the top layer and work your way inward. She did just so, pulling from his nightmare and soothing him through touch and while she might not be as practiced as Cas was she did enough to make him stop breathing as heavily as he had been. She reached up with her free hand and fixed his sweat dampened hair without saying another word to him. Another moment or two passed before the man reacted, waking from his restless state and catching her wrist just as he had the first time she woke him.

“It’s okay…” She murmured in a gentle tone as his eyes shot open wide and he noticed it was only her. Parker asked what she was doing but he seemed to know or at least have an idea, “You were talking and screaming in your sleep. It felt like you were hurt…” The brunette explained quietly, her gaze filled with sympathy as he let go of her limb and instead she let it rest against his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat starting to slow to a more normal pace. She slowly eased forward and curled up into his broad frame, not letting him have the chance to tell her she needed to leave.

Parker came awake abruptly, strangely due to a decrease in his anxiety level rather than an increase. It felt like something was trying to pull him out of his vision and the alien sensation was enough to jar him into alertness. He was completely disoriented, it always threw him for a loop when he awoke from a vision before it had ended. He blinked rapidly in the darkness, his intensely honed instincts reacting to the unfamiliar presence beside him and he snatched the arm of the person touching him, his conscious mind taking a second to catch up and realize it was just Mari and he was in no danger.

She spoke to him in a soothing tone and he released his grip, muttering sleepily but she was quick to explain her presence in is bed and her reasoning made his insides clench with worry. He took several deep breaths, making his body relax since like usual after one of his visions every muscle was tensed and every nerve was ablaze, his pupils dilated and his skin heated from stress. He started to calm down and Mari tucked herself in against him, her warm slight weight was soothing in and of itself.

Parker sighed and drew his arm up around her, knowing it was less than wise for her to be in his bed but right now he wasn't willing to give up the comfort of her next to him. He could feel her heartbeat fluttering against him and the catch in her breathing told him she was trying not to cry. His heart twisted and he recalled when she had tried to heal him weeks ago, scratching the surface of his dark history and the way it had hurt her.

"Did you... See anything?" He asked softly, brushing his thumb over her shoulder and hoping the answer was no but almost sure the opposite was true. She nodded against his chest and he felt her tears on his skin where her cheek was pressed against him and he sighed, hating that he had frightened and upset her once again even if he hadn't exactly asked her to come trying and interfere in his nightmare.

"I'm sorry... Mari I'm so sorry I exposed you to any of that, it's the last thing I want." He apologized, meeting her watery blue gaze when she shifted up to brace on her elbow and looked at his face. He reached up and brushed her sleep tousled espresso locks back away from her face, pursing his lips trying to think of something to say that might comfort her.

She timidly asked him if he thought the girl on the boat was already gone, and he shook his head slightly, sighing with remorse and frustration. "Honestly I don't know. I don't usually get any sense of context with my visions. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen in ten years. It might not even happen the way I saw it, or at all. But... Every vision I've actually been able to see play out in the real world has happened exactly the way I saw it, down to the last detail if I did nothing to prevent it." He explained in a sober tone, recalling the handful of occurrences where he'd had the chance to alter one of his visions and often not succeeding.

Mari was on the verge of tears and as Parker’s mind seemed to ease at least a little bit with her sudden presence she could tell he was just as worried for her as she had been for him. She nuzzled into him and when he spoke she couldn’t keep her composure, crying silently against his chest and hating that he saw these things, that they couldn’t do much about fixing or stopping them. She felt that girls pain though perhaps not to the same extent that Parker seemed to.

She nodded when he questioned her seeing any of it, it wasn’t that she was trying to or maybe she told herself she wasn’t trying to but part of her was glad she had caught glimpse of what he went through all the time. He didn’t normally wake her up like he had this evening but in a way she was glad for it as well. He nudged her and she pulled back to look up at him in the darkness, listening to his quiet apology for her having seen all that he had.

“Do you think that girl’s gone then?” She asked him, not acknowledging his sorrow towards herself for the moment. He responded that he wasn’t so sure, he could never be sure nor could he guess when they were going to happen or where exactly unless he had enough clues to go off of. And yet somehow he saved her, though he had mentioned seeing her more than once she supposed and maybe they had a different connection, maybe she was simply meant to be saved by him like that.

She shifted, leaning into his hand that brushed over her cheek until she rested her head down against his pillow, lying close enough that they could share each other’s warmth but a decent enough distance so she could still look at him. Her own fingers traced along his side absently until she reached his shoulder and followed the black and grey marks in his flesh. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to tattoo that peeked out from the strap of his tank top he wore to bed, acknowledging his history and expressing her acceptance with few words. “Maybe this one won’t come true.” She said though there was little hope in her voice considering he might know better than she did.

Parker nodded, letting her tuck her head into him once more as his arm snaked around her frame. They simply lie together for a few moments before he mentioned she shouldn’t linger in here in case her dad got up before them. “I know but…” She started with a little catch in her voice, her eyes watering again, “I don’t want to leave you. I’ll just stay until you fall asleep okay?” She suggested softly, clinging to him as if fearing he might push her away or make her get out of his bed.

She let her legs entwine with his own, her feet barely reaching his calves as she warmed her toes against him. He smiled at her and she at him, “Guess that makes me a special case then huh? If it means anything… I’m glad you managed to find me, Tarzan.” She murmured.

 

"You are... Very special." Parker commented with a small smile, holding her close and relishing the feeling of peace slowly replacing his stress from his vision as they lay entwined. He thought often about his connection with Mari, speculating on why it was that he seemed to have a much stronger link with her than anyone he'd ever known. 

From the first time they met in person he'd felt a natural bond with her that was so automatic he hadn't even questioned it, hadn't considered that it wasn't typical to become so invested in another person so quickly. He had to keep reminding himself that they hadn't known each other for a lifetime, had to keep himself in check and not take advantage of her eagerness to get closer to him when she didn't really know what she was getting herself into.

Parker put aside his better judgement for now, closing his eyes and sighing deeply, allowing himself just a small bit of what he wanted without worrying about the consequences. "I'm glad too." He murmured, focusing on how good it felt to be wrapped up with Mari in his bed and nothing else, going through his long practiced mental exercises to push down the vivid images still lingering in his mind.

He drifted off to sleep, something he hadn't expected he'd be able to do but the next thing he knew his watch was chirping at him to wake up the next morning. Parker became immediately aware of the additional presence in his bed, mentally cursing himself for not just insisting that Mari go back to her own bed before falling asleep himself. The young brunette groaned groggily at the sound of his alarm and Parker silenced it, turning onto his side facing her and shaking her shoulder.

"Mari. Mari, you need to get up." He urged, pushing back the selfish enjoyment he got out of waking up with her beside him trying to spur her to full alertness. If Dean caught her, it wouldn't matter how much they insisted that all they'd done was sleep, he'd be livid and Parker would likely be out on his ass, and that was the best case scenario.

The brunette stretched and yawned, it took her another moment or so to wake up enough for reality to sink in. Her blue eyes suddenly went wide with alarm and she asked him what time it was. "It's quarter after six, you gotta get movin' beautiful." He replied, smiling crookedly at her despite knowing that this was really a pretty sticky situation. Dean usually got up right around this time himself, and he still hadn't given up his routine of positioning himself oh so conveniently in view of the hall that led to Parker's room just in case.

Mari sat up and clambered off the bed, smoothing her sleep ruffled hair and going to crack Parker's door opened. Finn came to stand beside her, nosing at the back of her knee clearly confused as to why she wasn't letting him out immediately. She chided the dog and batted him away, putting her ear to the crack she had the door open. She mentioned that she couldn't hear if her father was up and about yet or not, worrying her lower lip with her teeth.

"Look let me go out first, since I'm the one he expects to see come out of here. I'll let you know if the coast is clear, all right?" He proposed, getting up himself and stretching the sleep from his body. Mari's eyes fell to his frame as he stretched and flexed, not answering him and he waved his hand in her line of sight. "Hey, eyes up here Tink." He chided in a playful tone, chuckling at her slight flush realizing that she hadn't missed the way his athletic shorts were doing a poor job of hiding the fact that he was a healthy young male who had just woken up.

"Hang tight, I'll be back." Parker told her, pulling on a t-shirt and scooting her out of the path of his door. In a stroke of luck, Dean wasn't out of his room yet. He quickly jogged back to his room and waved Mari out of his room. The brunette pressed herself up against him, telling him she'd liked getting to sleep with him.

"Yeah, you say that now 'cuz we didn't get caught." He replied with a wry grin, but bent his head to kiss her lips anyway. "I liked it too. But we gotta be more careful, okay?" He added, shooing her off so she could get back to her own room before Dean came out.

Mari bit her lower lip as she waited for Parker to make the few steps back, breathing a sigh of relief when he stated that her father hadn’t quite come out of his own space. She poked her head out and noted that his door was still closed so perhaps he was showering or had slept in for one reason or another. She took the free chance to slip up into Parker’s hold again, resting her hands on his chest and smiling despite their situation that had nearly gone wrong. “I like sleeping next to you.” She hummed, making him grin and give a little chuckle.

So maybe that was also because they hadn’t gotten caught this time but it wasn’t the only reason. She nodded at him suggesting that they be more careful which to her meant there would be a next time. She stood on her toes and pressed their lips together a final time before he pushed at her hip to nudge her down the hall and away from his room and back to her own. She giggled regardless of the circumstances, practically skipping towards her door and pushing it opened to get inside.

The brunette got ready for the day, headed off to school later in the morning and managed to play it cool around her father, stealing glances at the other man when he wasn’t looking. Parker smiled at her, giving her a wink as she hugged her father good bye, telling them both to have good days before patting the dog on the head and taking her keys to head to school. She found it a little thrilling to sneak around like that and while she didn’t want to keep things from her father she knew that the man wouldn’t believe they were only cuddling each other all night.

She didn’t sneak into his room again for a while, taking some time to recover from their previous near heart attack after having thought they were caught in bed together. Mari raced down the steps into the bunker and called for Parker, hearing him yell back to her that he was in the library. She ran to where he told her to, seeing him standing on a ladder to reach and replace the bulbs that had died. He asked where she had been considering it was nearing five o’clock now and she smiled, “Well I finished up my last lab I needed to make up and I stayed to talk to my pre-calc teacher about my grades.” She answered, staring up at him.

The man grinned and waited for her to continue as she dropped her backpack on the floor, wriggling the paper in her hand at him. “Look. Not even two weeks of tutoring. Look what you made me do.” She said in a mock scolding tone of voice, unable to fight her grin. “Come down here.” She instructed, practically bouncing herself with excitement to show him. He chuckled and stepped back down the ladder to join her on the floor and her hand shot out immediately to give him her test.

She shifted from one foot to the other waiting for him to look it over and his smile broadened when he saw her score. “B minus. Not bad for a Winchester.” She giggled, letting him tug her in for a hug. “Wait there’s more. So with that… it brought up my average to 72. I’m passing the class now.” She squealed, drawing her hand up to his neck and yanking him down for a congratulatory kiss. She slid her tongue along his bottom lip demanding entrance and he groaned as he gave her access. She ravished his mouth with hers to show her appreciation, her excitement getting the better of her as she pinned him down to her level, kissing him eagerly.

Parker growled and tugged free from her despite seeming like he didn’t much want to. He chided her gently but she didn’t let it faze her, smiling as she stood on her toes to feather kisses across his lips and jaw, wrapping her arms around his solid frame. He sighed and squished her to him completely, telling her he knew she could do it if she set her mind to it and broke things down bit by bit to find the answer to each problem, telling her he was proud of her and those words took on an entirely different meaning when they came from him. “Thank you Parker.” She cooed against his ear.

 

"You're welcome." Parker breathed, holding her close and trying to maintain his composure after Mari's heated kiss. The young brunette giggled, walking her index and middle fingertips up his chest to his shoulder, and she asked in a playful tone how she could pay her tutor for his exceptional services.

Parker chuckled, craning his head down and pressing his brow to hers, his hands gliding up and down her frame as he swayed their bodies slightly back and forth. "I can probably think of a few things..." He mused, suddenly gripping her firmly and spinning on his heel, easily lifting her up and placing her feet on the bottom rung of the ladder and smirking at her little squeal from being moved so abruptly.

Her position on the ladder brought their faces to a nearly even level with her head just slightly above his. She gripped onto his shoulders to keep her balance, leaning most of her weight down onto his frame. "I think the most rewarding payment for any tutor though is to see his student continue to improve and excel." He teased, knowing full well that wasn't the sort of payment Mari was hinting at in the least.

Mari mockingly thumped his chest and he took a sudden step backwards making her pitch forward, catching her quickly and laughing at her little shriek from losing her balance. He moved forward again, holding her steady and tangling his fingers in her dark hair, his eyes darkening with want as his focus shifted from her gaze to her petal-soft pout.

"I'll take a little gratuity for myself though." He murmured, capturing her lips with his and kissing her deeply. He hungrily demanded access to her mouth which she gladly granted, mewling and gripping him tighter as he slid his tongue against hers. Parker lost track of the fact that they were in plain view should Dean come home from work, which he was due to any moment.

It wasn't until the small click of the latch on the door opening that Parker suddenly regained his sense, breaking contact with Mari and laughing raggedly as she quickly hopped off the ladder and he made himself look busy folding the apparatus up after using it. Mari greeted her dad, immediately jumping into telling him her good news about her math class to stave off any potential question he might have about why they were in such close proximity when he arrived.

Mari squeaked when she nearly tumbled to the ground off the ladder, only to have the man before her catch her up in his arms and draw her against him. She couldnt help but giggle at him for taking a lottle praise for himself, kissing her deeply and holding her frame firmly against his own. Her breathing caught and she moaned into his mouth, enjoying their contact but at the same time she craved more. 

They both grew lost in their contact with one another, entangled together and kissing hungrily until they caught the click of the door and he tore himself away from her in the same moment she hopped down from the ladder. Her cheeks burned hot and she cleared her throat trying to keep her actions in check as the door popped open.

"Hey daddy." Mari greeted happily, walking to him as if nothing had occurred, snatching her test scores up and taking them over for him to see as well. She smiled and Carried it over, hugging him and passing off the paper, "I'm passing my math class now. Thanks to Parker." She started, wanting him to ignore the fact that she had only been mere inches from the other man just seconds ago.

Dean seemed suspicious of them though, his brow furrowing and perhaps he caught the scent on Parkers cologne on her clothes but as she stuffed the test into his hands he couldnt focus on that. He smiled brightly and hugged her tight in congratulation. She giggled happy that her father seemed just as proud of her, her eyes darting back to the other as her father started talking to her and walking her out to discuss making something special for dinner. "You should make bacon burgers. Yours are the best." She praised and she knew he was simply trying to keep her from Parker right now.

After their dinner Mari went to work on her studying, but she grew steadily more distracted by the kiss Parker had planted on her just hours ago. She normally only snuck to his room nights he was having dreams she could sense and wanted to soothe but tonight she had other intentions, slipping out of her room with Finn in tow and she entered his space without knocking. Her eyes lit up and he wasn't sleeping, she knew the difference. He was lying on the bed with his hands behind his head, resting his eyes.

Mari strode over quietly and climbed over him, sitting on his hard abdomen and smiling when his eyes opened immediately to acknowledge her. He asked what she was doing out of bed and she giggled, offering a shrug, "Well I dont think you got nearly enough thanks for all the hard work you did, Mr. Black." She purred. 

 

"Oh is that what you think, hmm?" He responded in a playful, husky tone. Parker reached over and flipped his bedside lamp on so he could see the brunette straddling his abdomen better. She definitely painted an alluring picture, her long dark locks hanging loose down her back and spilling over her shoulders, her lovely features softly lit in the dim light. She wore only a tiny black cotton tank top and short red plaid pajama shorts, and without the concealment of a bra it was plain for him to see the peaks of her full, tempting breasts were tightened into points from her excitement.

The helpful voice inside his head piped up immediately, telling him this wasn't smart and to send her back to her own bed immediately before it got too difficult for him to do so. But he also couldn't stop thinking about their kiss earlier, their encounter while washing the Impala awhile back, and the various other quick touches and kisses they had stolen since he first came here. 

Parker let his hands slide up her bare legs and rest low on her waist, his thumbs moving back and forth over her hipbones. "You know you shouldn't be in here." He breathed, already getting hard just from devouring her with his eyes and picturing all the things he wanted to do to her lovely body. A mischievous smile curved Mari's lips and she answered that she knew it, bending over him and lightly pressing her lips to his.

The young hunter growled softly at the contact, wrapping his painted arms around her body and holding her flush against him, his pulse racing as she arched harder into him and moaned into his mouth. He deepened the kiss, keeping his pace slow and languid despite her attempts to spur him into quicker motions. She slid down his torso, canting her hips to his and he felt her shiver as her center brushed over his erection through their clothing. 

A louder moan escaped her as she rubbed herself against him in an almost experimental way, trying to find a good angle. His hands dragged down her curves and gripped her hips, guiding her motions so his hardness would stroke her clit and the brunette broke their kiss abruptly, gasping and locking her gaze with his as he controlled her movements to intensify her pleasure. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and when it seemed like she had the motion down he let his hands wander, gliding up her sides to fondle and squeeze her full breasts.

Mari hummed at the added sensation and he started thrusting up against her, losing his composure and panting at how good it felt to be with her like this despite the layers of clothing still between them. He pinched and tweaked her stiff nipples through the thin fabric of her top, sliding his length more rapidly against her as her desire soaked through her clothing into his and he wanted nothing more than to rip her garments off and drive himself in her tight wet heat.

Mari was moaning on every exhale, grinding down on him and he was feeling his own release building in the pit of his stomach threatening to burn away any last shred of sense he possessed. He knew he had let things go way to far, and he forced himself to stop moving and put his hands back on her hips, slowing her own rhythm and taking a deep ragged breath trying to gather himself somewhat.

"Baby... Baby we gotta stop. Or I'm not gonna be able to." He whispered hoarsely, smiling up at her disappointed pout. She pleaded with him not to stop, gripping onto him and bringing their faces an inch apart, insisting that it made no difference to her if she was eighteen yet or not she just wanted to be with him.

Every fiber of Parker's body was screaming at him to yank her beneath him and make her cry his name, but he fought down his instinct and made himself calm down as much as he could anyway with her still astride him. "But it does make a difference Mari. I want you... God I want you so bad, but... What I want even more is to make sure I do right by you. I want to be the kind of man you deserve to be with, and if that means some delayed gratification, so be it. I've screwed up too much of my life already, I want you to be the thing in my life I get right. Because you mean more to me than anything else in my life ever has." He was a little surprised at the words that rushed out of him, but once he said them he didn't regret a single one. 

Mari's face flushed and it was obvious she hadn't been expecting such meaningful words from him either, because she sat up and actually stopped trying to goad him into continuing, all her concentration taken up in absorbing his words. He waited, hardly daring to breathe and then sighing with relief when a smile of pure bliss crossed her face, and though they were both still breathing hard from their unresolved pleasure she swung her leg off him and let him gather her against his body in a less erotic yet more intimate pose.

"Well say something, I'm dyin' here." He chuckled, hoping he hadn't overwhelmed her too much with his impromptu declaration.


	5. Chapter 5

Mari had every intention of being with the man beneath her since the moment she decided to step into his room, hell she decided before then that she wanted him to be that guy to take her innocence but no matter what she did to get him going he would try to stop her. Tonight seemed different, lining her hips up with his even though he mentioned she shouldn’t even be in his room at all partly because of his slowly slipping resolve she thought as well as her father could very well walk in at any moment or check and see she wasn’t in her room.

She canted her hips against his, grinding against his arousal and moaning as he helped her find the right rhythm. She gasped as his hands let up, letting her have control once more of the pace as his hands slip up to her chest, cupping her full breasts and tweaking her nipples, heightening the sensation she felt in the pit of her stomach. He thrust up against her and seeming to lose control, just like she wanted him to. She wanted nothing more than for him to cave and have his way with her. 

She was nearing her brink of pleasure, muttering his name over and over again on the edge of each breath and then he growled, gripping her hips again and forcing her to stop, telling her he needed to or he wouldn’t be able to end it then. “I don’t care… Parker I don’t care that I’m not eighteen. It doesn’t matter… I just want to be with you. Please.” She begged, bending over him and holding his face up to hers. “There’s no difference.” She insisted.

Parker sat up and started on about how bad he wanted her which only frustrated her further knowing that. He mentioned that he wanted to do this right, wanted at least her, his one good thing to go right because so many things in his life hadn’t before. She stared down at him, her cheeks turning pink and her breathing refused to ease, still feeling his arousal beneath her until she shifted off of him. Her hands braced on his chest and he tugged her down to lie with him.

She cuddled into him, looking up to meet his blue gaze, her hand tracing up his chest in a more affectionate manner. He requested that she say something to him in regards to his confession and she blinked, almost forgetting that she hadn’t spoke, she lost the ability because she hadn’t expected anything like that in terms of his reason for not wanting to proceed. She shook her head to bring herself back, “Parker… You’re amazing.” She said simply, giving him a smile and he chuckled seeming a little nervous that she hadn’t said much in return.

“You’re doing good so far, there’s nothing that’s made me think otherwise.” The brunette whispered softly, kissing his chest lightly and giving him a smile as her chin dropped to rest on his peck, his hands tracing up and down her back. “I hate that you’re making me wait because I have never wanted someone like I want you… but so long as you don’t make me wait forever. You’re the kind of man I want, Parker Black. Exactly the man that I want.” She swore, curling up against him.

They lay together for a while longer before she opted for breaking the silence. “So are we really waiting until I’m eighteen? Cuz I better get a damn good present.” She laughed.

Parker laughed a little harder at her last comment, continuing the task of forcing himself to calm down as they lay side by side. "Your present will be worth the wait, I promise." He assured her, reaching out to softly flick her protruding bottom lip with his fingertip when she pouted at him.

"It will, I swear." He added with more emphasis, smiling with amusement at her. The young brunette sighed with exaggerated chagrin, sitting up and stretching languidly. She mentioned that she probably ought to head back to her own room then and he nodded, laughing again when she added that he could still ask her to stay if he wanted and he made a face at her.

"Go on Tinkerbell, before I have a stroke or something." He insisted, catching her wrist and kissing the back of her hand before she stepped away but releasing his grip just as quickly. "Good night." He told her in an affectionate tone, keeping his gaze locked on hers until she had made it through his door and shut it behind her.

\---  
Parker and Dean stood in the large auditorium of Mari's high school, both dressed in dark suits and looking slightly bored. They had been waiting for over an hour for the commencement ceremony to begin, and neither one of them were overly fond of wasting time especially when they were both looking forward to see the girl who was so important to them, albeit for different reasons.

Mari, with Parker's help and Dean's support had managed to come back from her absence and then some, getting the highest grades she ever had and now the day had finally arrived where she was graduating with honors, just like any normal kid who hadn't known a fraction of the trials and sorrows she had. The two men heard the music starting and exchanged a look that said "finally," taking their seats and waiting for the new graduates to file in along with all the other members of the crowd. 

The pair had a more easy time with each other now, Parker felt Dean's gradual approval of him was due in no small part to the way he'd helped Mari with her studies and kept her motivated to do her best at school. Now the fact that most of his motivation was physical attention... Dean didn't need to know that part. Dean caught sight of his daughter first, pointing her out to Parker and they tried to wave but there were simply too many people for her to pick them out in the crowd at the moment.

They sat through the ceremony, cheering loudly when Mari's name was called and she strode up onto the stage in her dark blue robes and accepted her diploma. She found their faces in the sea of people then, and waved happily.

"You should be proud of her." Parker commented to the elder hunter.

"I am." Dean responded, a smile transforming his features as he watched his daughter descend from the stage, thinking how proud Aleah would be of her in this moment. He hoped that wherever she and Sammy were, they could see this happy moment in Mari's life.

Mari was pleased her work was completed and just in time for graduation, happily walking the line with the other students and while she might not really have made many friends in the process she was pleased just to have come as far as she had with the extra push from Parker. She spotted them in the crowd when she walked back to her seat, waving them down and seeing them smile at her just as proudly, both men seeming relieved the event was finally coming to a close.

She opted to skip out on anything that followed, the sober grad night at the school and the trip she heard about to some amusement park the next day. None of that mattered to her at the moment as they were announced as a graduating class together. The kids were free to find their families and Mari did just so, rushing out of the auditorium and standing in her gown still, her hair curled perfectly as she fidgeted and waited for them both to come out to find her.

She squealed with her paper in hand, jumping up and down in her heels and darting towards the others. Dean was already prepped with his arms opened wide, catching her up and swinging her around as her feet left the ground, making her giggle and almost lose her cap in the process. Parker reached out and caught it just in time, plopping it back on her head and she smiled, kissing her father’s cheek and seeing him tear up. “Daddy why are you crying it’s not like I’m going anywhere.” She teased, her own eyes welling because she knew he was still struggling with her having to grow up at all.

Parker nudged them from their little moment and prompted he get his own hug so she moved from her dad to the younger hunter, wrapping her arms around him tightly. He squished her frame against his own and she pulled back just enough to look up at him, thanking him for all he had done to help her. She kissed his cheek and instantly her father cleared his throat to keep it from going any place else. Mari rolled her eyes and laced her fingers with Parker’s anyways, knowing it didn’t comfort her dad in the least bit but she opted for the contact anyways.

The younger man arched a brow at her but accepted and they went back to the car, going out to dinner since they were dressed for it and much to her surprise Castiel was there just the same, hanging just long enough to awkwardly watch them eat and congratulate her and then depart once more. Dean took them all home and said his good nights for the first time, leaving them be on their own but it was no surprise when he inquired what they would be up to. She shrugged, “Well to be honest I was gonna take a bath and go to bed… I don’t know maybe watch an episode of something or other.”

Mari’s eyes casted over to Parker who was not so subtly eyeing her in the tight red dress she wore under her gown. She started off towards the other room to put her gown down and free her arms, seeing the apprehension in Dean’s eyes but she wasn’t too worried, he couldn’t keep her from him forever. She smiled and kissed his cheek like she always did when she came back, telling him good night and promising they wouldn’t break anything or steal the Impala and he didn’t find that bit all too funny considering what she had done before. Soon enough the young hunters were on their own once more, standing in the middle of the living room. “Sooo… Movie or…” She purred, pulling him to her as soon as she heard her father’s door close. "Cuz I was kinda thinking... that you owed me a kiss for tonight."

Parker chuckled at Mari's obvious advance. Her eighteenth birthday was finally getting close, only a day under two weeks left to go. They had been good recently, only a few heated kissing marathons here and there, nothing as intense as the night when they had finally put into words that they meant something more to each other. But he would be lying if he said he didn't think about going further with her all the time.

Parker gripped Mari's narrow waist, eyeing her up and down in the tight little red dress that advertised her every curve and hollow. He bent to kiss her lips lightly, pulling back before she even had a chance to respond to the contact. "There you go. One kiss, paid in full." He teased, taking her hand and leading her back to the couch so it was at least a little bit out of the direct view from the hallway leading to both Dean and Mari's rooms.

He shrugged off his suit coat and sat down, chuckling when instead of sitting beside him Mari opted for climbing into his lap. She gripped his dark purple tie and tugged him forward, igniting his want for her anew and telling him she wanted a better kiss than what he'd given. "So demanding." He smirked, putting his hands on her hips and tugging her forward, meeting her lips in a deep, hungry kiss.

They sat wrapped up in each other for several moments, tasting and biting and touching, driving deeper into dangerous territory without looking back. Parker tensed as Mari started grinding down on his growing arousal, his grip on her tightening as he resisted the urge to touch her like he wanted.

The young brunette broke away from his kiss and smiled playfully, reaching behind her neck to unzip her dress all the way down to the small of her back, and as foolhardy as he knew it was Parker couldn't resist the urge to splay his hands over her smooth, warm skin. He ran his palms up and down her back but didn't yank the dress off her front like he wanted to, kissing and nipping at her neck when she leaned into him again.

Mari was making it quite obvious that she wanted Parker, she was pretty sure since day one she had made that rather clear but every so often he completely refused her advances towards him. That didn’t stop her from trying; even after they agreed to wait she couldn’t resist at least letting him know what he was missing out on for weeks now. They hadn’t known each other that long, their status as a couple was more or less unwritten and unspoken they simply both just knew there was a connection between them that left them wanting.

When he gave only a single kiss, it wasn’t nearly enough and she had intentions to at least try to break him again tonight. He tugged her by the hand and she smirked, taking to his lap and gripping his tie tightly. She pulled him forward, her blue eyes nearly black with want for him already, “I want a lot better kiss than that. That was weak.” She teased, grinning when he caved instantly and pulled her forward to kiss her deeply and hungrily.

They kissed until she had something else in mind, pulling back just slightly to unzip her tight red dress as she ground down against his growing hardness. She hummed at the feeling of his hands tracing over her back and along her bare skin, something so simple that they hadn’t allowed before. Most contact between the two remained through clothing despite some of her efforts. Parker kissed and bit at her creamy flesh, his lips traveling lower towards her cleavage and she knew for certain he was struggling to keep himself under control.

She shifted in his lap, drawing her arms out of her dress and pinning the fabric to her naked front in a teasing fashion. He groaned lightly, seeming to know that with the padding in her dress she hadn’t worn a bra beneath the garment. The brunette let her arm slide, the dress falling just enough to expose her to him, his breathing catching as she took his hands and drew them up to her full chest. Parker resisted at first until she leaned forward and pleaded against his ear for him to touch her like she wanted, worrying the shell of his ear with her teeth and kissing down his neck as she tugged at him until his palm pressed over her breast.

The man cupped and fondled her just like before only without the barrier of her tank top to keep them from being skin to skin. She ground down against him as he played with her chest, finding a good rhythm and working herself up more and more as she watched his blue eyes darken just as well. He growled and tore his hands from her chest, taking hold of her waist and forcing her to stop her motions in the same second he quit thrusting up against her in tandem. “Really?” Mari hissed, knowing exactly what he was doing.

The brunette leaned forward, her hands on his neck and shoulder, keeping his gaze as he shook his head. Her chest pressed against him but he forced himself to ignore all of it, gripping her hands when she started fidgeting with the buttons of his white shirt. “Please. It won’t even count. I’ll play virgin on my birthday just… Parker please I want you so fucking bad.” She whined. He took one of her hands to keep it away from him, the other remaining on her hip to keep her from grinding down onto him again and his expression softened.

Parker mentioned it was less than two weeks until her birthday and while he seemed to very much appreciate her eagerness to be with him, he still wanted to make her wait. It broke her despite that she knew he wanted her very much so, it was killing her to wait as much as he was making her do so. “That’s exactly my point it’s only like a week away really. Today doesn’t count and my birthday doesn’t count. We’ve got like… nine days. It’s not like if I have you now, I’m gonna want you less on my Birthday Parker.” She informed him but he refused still. She pouted at him as he started to help her pull her dress back up to keep herself covered and help him focus.

Parker helped Mari get her dress zipped back up, sighing as the now all too familiar discomfort of leaving his desire unresolved set in and he took a deep breath so he could speak evenly. "Trust me, I'm not worried about you not wanting me after you've had me..." He said with a sly wink, running his hands up and down her thighs on either side of his lap and grinning when she stuck her pink tongue out at him.

"It does matter, Mari. I know it's hard to wait but it'll be worth it, and it's not much longer now. And besides," He encouraged, glancing around the room as if for good measure, "The first time we do this I think it might be better not to do so out in the living room while your dad is home... I don't wanna get strung up and shot." He laughed, hooking his finger into his tie and loosening it a bit. "I'm game for that movie if you want though." He suggested. 

The young couple sat cuddled together on the sofa till late into the night, they ended up watching three movies because neither one of them wanted to get up and be separated for the night. Towards the end of the third film Parker felt Mari's head slump against his chest and he looked down to see her sleeping soundly with her lips slightly parted.

Parker smiled fondly at the young woman, sitting through the rest of the movie simply so he could hold her longer and listen to her deep contented breathing. Once it was over the young hunter gingerly shifted beneath her, picking her up and carrying her back to her bedroom. He got her door open, managing to only slightly jar her slightly with the movement. He hushed her when she moaned a bit in her sleep, gently setting her down on her bed and tugging her comforter up over her figure. He lightly kissed her brow and straightened, smiling down at her for a moment before switching her lamp off and turning to leave.

Parker's blue eyes flew open and his whole body tensed as he saw Dean leaning in Mari's doorway, leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed over his chest. The younger hunter didn't want to risk waking Mari so he quickly side-stepped around Dean out of her room, starting to whisper out some kind of excuse for being where he had been explicitly told he shouldn't be.

"Hey, listen Dean, I was just-" He whispered, holding up his hands in a placating gesture and looking back into Mari's room with a worried look. The elder hunter shook his head, raising a hand to silence Parker's quiet outburst.

"I know what you were doing. She fell asleep, you put her in bed. No harm done." Dean said in a low voice, looking back at Mari sleeping peacefully in her bed. "Look Parker... I know I've been hard on you from day one. But I have good reason. Mari, she... She's all I got. She is the only thing that makes my life worth living, and I'll die before I'll see her hurt in any way." He continued, stepping out and gently closing her door, facing Parker fully again.

"I know that you two... Care for one another. You make her happier than I've seen her in a long time." Dean said in a more normal volume, though it was clear he felt awkward talking about something like this. "And so far, you've done nothing but proven yourself to me, and to her. I appreciate that. I just don't want to see her heart broken. I need to know if you're planning on sticking around, 'cuz if you're not... If you're just leading my baby girl on... Ryder hunting you down is gonna be the least of your worries boy." Dean said in a deadly serious tone.

Parker absorbed Dean's words, taking his warning seriously even if he wasn't intimidated by it. He nodded soberly, "Honestly, I thought I'd just move on once the heat was off, but now... If you're saying you'll let me stay, there's nothing I want more than to continue to make your daughter happy. She means everything to me." He responded simply, smiling when Dean gave him a short little nod. The two men shook hands and Parker wandered back to his own bed, feeling partly like he'd just dodged a bullet and partly pleased that he had Dean's approval to stay and keep seeing his daughter. 

 

Mari might have been disappointed by the fact that she couldn’t yet get Parker to cave but she enjoyed his company just as well regardless of what it was they were doing or… not doing. She wasn’t sure when she fell asleep but she was quite content being in his arms all night until she woke the next morning and realized she was still in her dressed and was back in her own bedroom, sitting up to look around for certain. Parker must have carried her to bed and the thought made her smile.

She yawned, getting up and showering quickly so she could have breakfast with her father before he left for work. Now that she was done with school she wasn’t sure what she was going to do or where she was going in her life. She wanted to be a hunter, to start training if she could… or rather if her dad allowed her to even give it a try. She needed to know how to protect herself completely if she was going to be out and about, that required a little different training than what Castiel had been giving her.

“Morning, Daddy.” The brunette greeted with another long yawn, feeling more rested than she had been in a long time and she’d have been quite content on sleeping all day. Dean smiled and returned the statement, asking her if she slept okay considering she spent her whole night with Parker. Her heart raced, thinking maybe he saw them or was displeased that she hadn’t gone to bed like she said she had intentions to. “We didn’t do anything… I mean we kissed but… I just fell asleep on him while we were watching a movie and I know I should have just gone to bed—“ She rattled on, stepping towards him and her eyes watered fearing he might kick Parker out if he thought otherwise.

But much to her surprise Dean cut her off and smiled, telling her that he knew. He mentioned he saw Parker carry her to bed and they had chat a little bit while she slept. Her brows rose in wonder of what they could possibly have to discuss but she didn’t ask, simply nodding and letting him pull her over to kiss her forehead. She hugged his middle for a moment or two while they simply stood in the center of the kitchen. “Well I’m glad I caught you before you left because I wanted to talk to you about where I want to go now that I’m not in school anymore.” She muttered, waiting for his reaction.

Dean pulled back so they could look at one another but she avoided his gaze at first. He asked what she meant and she fidgeted nervously, tucking her hair behind her ear, “I just thought that… You know I could… learn to hunt because that’s what I want to do. Parker thinks that I’d be good at it if I get some training in, maybe get a little more in shape for fighting if it’s needed.” She told him, forcing herself to stand up straighter when she anticipated his rebuttal.

“You taught Mom to hunt and you had every intention of bringing her into the game until she found out that she was traceable almost always. Well I have the talisman that Uncle Sammy made me and I know he did it for good reason, not just so I could go to school and to the mall and those kinds of things, I know he wanted me to put it to good use. Wouldn’t you agree?” Mari continued, not letting him have the chance to argue, “And I already worked a case on my own, it was really basic but it’s a start and I promise I’d do more research and Parker said before he would help me build up my endurance and do some weapons training and if you wanted to you could show me stuff too I mean you’ve been at it for years, who better to ask than Dean Winchester. I really want this Daddy and if you don’t agree I’m sorry but I’m gonna end up going and doing it anyways.” She rambled, her breathing heavy as she felt like she might run out of air trying to fight her side, worried about what he might say.

Dean stared at her and for a moment or two it was silent but then his lips curled up at the corners and she hadn’t any idea what that meant. She opened her mouth to say something again about how careful she would be but he raised his hand and hushed her before she could say anything else. He started on about how he knew she would want this, that the day would come when she asked for some real lessons in the life that he led for so many years. He bargained with her, making her agree to only hunting with either him or Parker or even Castiel should the situation call for him. She swore not to use her angelic abilities outside the bunker unless it was last resort and the only out and even so then she needed to zap right back home to get out of the line of fire. She waited, nodding vigorously in agreement, “I swear, Daddy. Pinky swear.” She squealed, sticking out her smallest finger for him to lock his pinky with. He did just so with a little laugh and she bounced on her heels with excitement.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She chirped, rushing forward to hug and kiss him. He chuckled again and when she pulled back he must have noted that she wanted to go spread the word, her body already backing away and her eyes darting over to the door. He shook his head and nudged her telling her to go talk to Parker about getting started, quickly telling her that he had to go but he barely got the words out as she darted away down the hall. “Love you!” She yelled back to him practically sprinting down the hall to find the other man.

Parker woke up earlier than normal feeling restless. He usually went and ate breakfast with Dean and Mari before getting into his daily workout, but he was filled with the need to move, to work off some energy so he just went straight into the space set aside in the basement for exercise. It was a space that had been originally organized by Mari's uncle Sam, and he had taken it to a new level adding his own equipment and making good use of it.

The young man ran himself extra hard, working himself into a heavy sweat in no time. He stripped off his t-shirt that was now drenched. He was always very careful about keeping at least a layer of clothing on when he was around Mari, his own form of policing in a way, but he was in the habit of working out shirtless since normally he was alone in the bunker during the day.

He was in the middle of a set of rapid sit ups, pedaling his legs in the air in tandem with the motions of his upper body as he curved it up off the floor. Mari came bounding into the gym area and greeted him brightly, he called a quick hello and powered through the rest of his set before sitting up and looking at her expectantly since she was clearly wanting to tell him something.

She looked him up and down, her voice trailing off and it seemed that whatever good news she had started to share was taking second place to ogling his sweaty torso. Parker chuckled and stood, "So? What's the news? Earth to Mari? Hello?" He teased, waving at her and chuckling at the way she continued admiring his form while she spoke.

She told him how Dean had miraculously agreed to let her start training seriously to be a hunter, with the contingency that she would only work jobs with Dean, Parker or perhaps Cas if the need arose and that she'd put in a lot of training first before taking on cases. Parker nodded, surprised and impressed that Dean was finally allowing his daughter to take some initiative, grow up some even if it meant letting her out of his sight again.

"That's great Mari, I'm really glad! I told you before though, if you want me to give you combat training I'm not gonna hold back." He warned with a crooked grin, walking over to grab the small towel he'd brought down with him and swiping off his face and chest to clear at least a little sweat off. "We can get started today if you like, but if you ate a big breakfast we should probably wait, don't want you puking all over the place." He teased as he turned away to grab his still soaked t-shirt off the floor with a mind to put it back on since Mari was here.

He turned to look over his shoulder at her when he realized the brunette wasn't shooting back at him with a smart alec response like she normally would, or at least laughing at what he'd said. She had gone white as a sheet and her blue eyes were wide, his brow furrowed with concern at her shocked expression. "Hey, I won't really work you so hard that you throw up, I was just teasing..." He murmured, surprised that she might actually get upset by his comment since they gave each other crap all the time.

Mari excitedly started in on telling Parker what was happening until she caught glimpse of his bare sweaty upper half. She bit her lower lip and the words stopped all together almost without her even realizing it until he waved his hand in front of her face. She smiled and continued without taking her eyes off his hard frame, figuring he didn’t mind all that much anyhow. “My dad said I could start up with training. I wanted to talk to him about it sooner but I figured it’d be best to wait until I graduated then he’d have no reason not to agree to it when I don’t have anything else to worry about.”

“He said as long as I’m with one of you boys then he didn’t mind much… I know he’s still gonna worry at least until I prove to him that I can manage and you and I worked pretty good anyhow.” She grinned widely, following him forward when he straightened and headed over to retrieve his shirt. “I’ll put in my all for training for a while before I even consider taking another case and I suppose my tolerance for blood will build too…” She mused, recalling the incident with Parker and how her body naturally reacted, though that could have been chalked up also to the fact that her adrenaline was pumping and she had been fairly stressed about whatever it was they were up against even if she never confessed to it then.

The man responded with equal excitement for her, promising that he would help her out as he wiped down his sweaty skin. He suggested starting today if she was up for it and hadn’t eaten too much for breakfast, turning on his heel to go and pick up his clothing to redress himself. She stared at his inked up back and she was pretty certain it was the first time she really saw him shirtless like this. Well when she took care of his wounds she bandaged his front but never caught a good glimpse at all his artwork along his skin.

Her face fell and she blinked at one particular image that stood out the most to her and when she didn’t react at all to Parker’s comment, he spun back around, starting to pull on his shirt once more. She reached out and kept him from doing so, grabbing the garment and then taking to his arm, feeling like she might be sick from what she caught sight of. “What’s that?” She questioned and for a second he fought against her pulling him to turn back around for her to get a good look at his back. He arched a brow, chuckling lightly as though he was planning on playing it off, telling her they were tattoos. “I know Parker. Please turn around.” She instructed, her eyes watering.

He hesitated but slowly gave in and did as she requested, her hand trembled as she reached up and traced the pattern along the lower part of the left side of his back. The image of an angel, on her knees with her long dark waves hanging in her face and her wings spread wide. The markings were black and white but she knew immediately who it had to resemble. “Is that—“ Mari started, trailing off as her voice caught in her throat. “Mom. She’s my mom isn’t she?” She asked him, his head craning over his shoulder, turning enough that he could see her.

His expression was sorrowful especially considering he hadn’t told her, months of knowing this man and she never once saw his back bare. She hadn’t thought anything of it before but with the way he had been hiding it that only confirmed that he was trying to keep her from finding out what she just had. “You saw her didn’t you? Saw her die…” She whispered, tears slipping past her lashes and rolling down her cheeks and she didn’t know what exactly to feel right now. Part of her wanted to blurt something out about him not saving her, about him saving the younger of the two instead. But he had told her that he never knew enough details not usually to know how to get to someone and when. “Was it me or her that you saw when you were younger? You knew that was my mom… All this time I wanted you to meet her and her to meet you but you kinda already have, haven’t you?” She muttered, her tone a mix of sadness and frustration but she couldn’t pinpoint what she was feeling the most right now.

Parker's heart twisted in his chest at Mari's words. The tattoo he bore of Mari's mother had been a source of concern for him since they met, he had known for awhile now with their relationship progressing that she'd see it eventually eventually, but he had wanted to tell her on his own terms instead of her just randomly seeing it on him with no warning. He had messed up and it wasn't something he could easily explain away.

"In a... Manner of speaking, yeah." He responded, turning to face her again fully and taking her hands in his larger ones. "Up until I saw your mom's driver's license I thought it was you I'd been seeing dying in that car wreck since I was small. Then I realized it was your mom and with how recently she had passed on I didn't exactly want to add that to your plate." He began, craning his head down trying to catch her downcast gaze but she still avoided his eyes.

"I saw her the first time when I was ten. I remember thinking she was beautiful, and it hit me extra hard seeing her die like that when I lost my own parents in a similar way. But... I had no idea who she was, where she was, when it was gonna happen... So I tried to forget about it, but I couldn't. My vision of your mom's death was the first one I saw again, played out exactly the same as the first time and after it happened a few more nights in the same year I started to think this one was somehow more important than the others. I tried every technique Ryder had tried to coerce my brain into giving me more details, but nothing worked. You mom.... She was the second tattoo I ever got, after the one I was required to get when I was sixteen. She was the first one I chose to get, because I never wanted to let myself forget, become complacent with my life and what I'd done or let happen. When I first saw you in that bar, I thought it was you and I was amazed that after all this time, the universe was actually gonna give me a chance to prevent the tragedy I'd seen played out so many times. But then I saw her picture and put it together, and I dunno... I guess I thought maybe it was a sign that I was meant to watch over you. If I couldn't save your mom, I could at least protect you. Maybe then I could make up for not changing her fate in some way at least. In a way that would've been meaningful to her." Parker explained, his own voice getting tight with emotion. He hooked his finger under her chin and tipped her head up, making her meet his gaze and searching her watery gaze.

She asked him why he hadn't told her all this sooner, and he shook his head, feeling weighed down by guilt and anger with himself. "I dunno, Mari... At first it was just a matter of keeping things simple, under control. I thought if I stuck by you long enough to get you home safe, I could leave you with your dad and never make you go through the pain of knowing that a stranger was witness to one of the most painful events in your life. Then things started to change, I started to care about you, more than I knew I should and the closer we got the more I dreaded coming clean with this because I knew it would hurt you. I'm sorry, it was wrong of me to keep it from you. I guess I just... I put it off because I knew this would happen. I hate seeing you cry." He said more quietly, reaching up to brush away the tears staining her flushed cheeks.

Mari reached up and gripped his wrist just below where his hand cupped her face, and he could feel her trembling as she processed everything. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret not being able to save your mom, not to mention dozens of others. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't dread knowing that for the rest of my life, new faces are gonna be added to that roster, and I'm not gonna forget a single one of them. I can't let myself forget, I owe them that much at least, if I can't do anything else. But I still think what I did when I first realized that was your mother and not you, that it's my job to protect you with everything I've got." He murmured, taking a ragged breath and dropping his hands back to his sides, waiting for her to respond.

Mari cried silently as Parker cupped her face in his large hands, wiping away her tears as he spoke. She hated crying as much as he probably hated seeing her do so. She took a shaky breath and listened to his reasoning for not telling her that he had seen her sooner but now she understood why he had the look in his eyes that he did when he saw the ID that belonged to her mother before. She trembled with emotions, uncertain of what to say to him in that moment; she had gone from pure excitement to get to learn to hunt and now she felt broken down, tired and confused by all of it.

“I’m… I’m gonna go.” She told him lightly, wiping her eyes to clear them completely though tears kept coming. She crossed her arms tight over her chest, closing herself off from him at least for now. He nodded, accepting that she wanted a moment or two to process everything. The brunette slipped away and left him standing there to finish up his work out or whatever he needed to do. She headed back to her room, trying to wrap her head around everything that she had just heard about her lover and her mother.

It took her a while to gather herself completely, enough to come back and express to him that she understood. Or at least she hoped that she did. Mari slipped back into the gym and Parker was beating up one of the heavy bags hanging from the ceiling, now wearing his shirt once more, the fabric clinging to him like a second skin from being drenched in sweat. “Hey.” She started, uncertain of what to say to him right now but he paused his motions, his eyes casting up to look at her, reaching and stopping the bag from swaying. “Umm… I’m ready to train if you want to start today.”

The young woman took the few steps forward and Parker looked at her, seeming a little confused by the fact that she began with that. He asked her if she was okay and she simply nodded at him, both of them taking a moment and saying nothing to the other. He started to unwrap his hands and moved around the bag, sitting down on one of the benches and she joined him, sitting stiffly as she tried to work herself up to saying something to him.

She supposed she understood why he didn’t tell her right away but what she didn’t get was why he took so long after all they had been through to fess up to the markings and the fact that he was witness to her mother’s death. “I know that not every detail is laid out for you in your dreams and your visions… that you don’t see the whole story and you’re not given a time stamp or a location… Parker I know that.” She murmured in response, her voice catching. Part of her felt bad that she all but accused him for letting her mom die the way she had when she knew full well he often couldn’t do a single thing to prevent these tragedies.

He told her again that he felt it was his job to protect, seeming to think that might be the reasoning he even saw her, like he owed the woman in some way. The brunette stared at him, sniffling and trying to keep her emotions in check. “So I should thank her then? Or thank your abilities because if you never saw her and never knew who I was then we wouldn’t be where we are now.” She muttered, forcing herself to think positively about this and recognize that it wasn’t the man’s fault. “It wasn’t up to you. There’s a reason for everything and I know that.”

Mari’s eyes flickered down to the floor again as she resisted the urge to cry once more, inching over closer to him on the long bench so she could slip her arms around his waist. He didn’t move, simply let her get comfortable with her cheek against his chest, “I need you more than anyone, Tarzan and the most important thing is that I know now rather than not at all.” She stated, nuzzling into him when his arms wrapped around her in return. “It was just… surprising and overwhelming is all but I don’t wanna lose you, not ever.” She confessed, he was most important in her life now whether she acknowledged it before or not, holding tight to him until she stopped crying again and he kissed the top of her head, bringing up that maybe they should hold off on learning fight skills right now until she was a little more… emotionally stable.

She lifted her head and smiled at him, giving a nod of agreement, “You need to eat breakfast still anyhow. Maybe we can grab something.” She suggested, getting up and taking his hand to tug him with her, “After you shower… preferably.” Mari teased with a wrinkle of her nose and he laughed.

Parker sighed with relief as the air cleared between them, he still carried that sense responsibility towards her in her mother's name and he always would, but at least now she understood somewhat why he struggled with telling people anything about himself or his past life. Because almost none of it was good, and he wanted to focus on looking forward, on the good things he had now like Mari and a safe place to hang his hat.

He laughed at her demand that was thinly veiled as a request that he get cleaned up before they go anywhere, but he was the first person to admit he could work up quite the aroma when he was putting his all into a workout or a fight. "Yeah that sounds like a good plan." He responded, standing up and going to grab the water bottle he'd left on the other side of the room. They left the gym area together and he left Mari to get ready as she pleased while he retreated to the shower.

Parker quickly got himself scrubbed clean and shaved off the layer of stubble he'd accumulated over the past few days, huffing in the steamy heat of the small bathroom. He tugged his jeans on but elected to leave the shirt he'd brought in with him off, giving his body a chance to vent some heat as he left the bathroom and crossed the hall to his bedroom.

Mari was waiting for him inside, sitting cross-legged on the bed with Finn practically in her lap, and he shook his head as her eyes immediately were glued to his bare torso. "Lying in wait were ya?" He teased, lifting his t-shirt up to pull it over his head but Mari asked him to stop, reaching out and hooking her fingers into his shirt to keep him from tugging it down further and he was about to offer another smart remark when her gentle request to see the tattoo of her mother again silenced him. He nodded and slowly turned away from her, letting his shirt stay bunched up under his arms so she could look at the mark again.

He couldn't see her expression but his sharp hearing picked up the change in her breathing, he could tell she was holding back her emotions again and he sighed softly, wishing she didn't have to carry the pain of a loss like this. He knew all too well how difficult it was to bear. Her fingertips trailed over his skin, tracing the outline of the angel on his back and the light contact made his skin break out in goosebumps. Parker gave her a moment more to look then turned back to face her, pulling his shirt down to lay properly and gave her a soft grin.

Mari's eyes were bright with unshed tears but she wore a smile as well, she told him how beautiful she thought the image was and he nodded in agreement offering her his hand to take so he could tug her up from under Finn's bulk to stand. Parker hugged her tight and she clung to his frame for a moment, not quite slipping back into sobs but when she pulled back there were tear stains on his shirt.

Parker leaned down and kissed her softly. "You ready to go? I'll get you a sundae at Krueger's after breakfast." He offered, referencing her favorite place to get ice cream in the farther town they went to now since it was still a risk for Mari to go to the town closest to the bunker. The young brunette happily accepted his offer and they left, bringing Finn along for the ride since Dean was slightly less annoyed by the dog riding in the other cars as long as it wasn't his 'Baby.'

Mari smiled when Parker hunched to kiss her lightly, nodding at his suggestion of going to get ice cream after breakfast. “Well to be quite honest I’d skip breakfast for dessert if it were up to me.” She laughed, wiping beneath her eyes and trying to get things back on track with the both of them. He chuckled in response and shook his head saying they should have some real food first but he swore she would get her ice cream right after, reminding her of the breakfast joint’s thick cut crispy bacon and making her hum. “Mmm good point I do want me some of that.”

He shook his head once more and wrapped his arm around her, taking her out to one of the cars so that way they could get to the place, taking Finn with them so he could eat just as well. She smiled when they pulled up to the place and Mari requested a table outside so they could sit with Finn or rather keep watch on him while he explored the quiet surrounding area of the patio. She ordered her usual and so did Parker, plus an extra side of bacon considering the last time she tried to steal some of his own.

The woman finished off her chocolate chip pancakes and he laughed when her fork ended up on his plate, wanting to taste his waffles even though they were virtually the same thing she had just devoured. “But you had yours with syrup… totally different than mine with whipped cream.” She pointed out, smiling sweetly and he pushed his plate over to her so she could cut herself off a chunk. She stuffed the bit into her mouth and chewed it up before giggling when he moved his chair over to steal a kiss saying she owed it to him. “Oh do I?” She teased, pulling back so he couldn’t press his lips to hers again.

Parker gripped her and pinned her forward, hearing Finn barking at the way they were acting and Mari squealed trying to tug away from him. He laughed and feathered kisses all over her cheeks and lips, “Hey!” She hollered when she caught him nabbing her left over toast. “Some date you are, stealing food from the hungry.” She chided playfully, wiping her face in mock disgust. “My cheeks are all sticky now, thanks a lot.”

He shrugged and tore into the piece of sourdough he took away from her, making her roll her eyes and playfully bat at his chest. “Get away from me.” She joked, kicking at his chair to no effect to get him to move. When the check came Mari tugged out her wallet from her pocket, hunting for the credit card her dad gave her to use, expecting to happily pay for their meal but the man across from her laughed, snatching it from her before she could hand it off to the waitress, saying on dates the guy paid.

Her brow rose, having never been on a date before while she had seen things in movies and knew to a certain extent how it worked she didn’t anticipate that Parker and her would call for the same sort of things. He slipped cash to the waitress and thanked her, getting up and feeding Finn the last piece of bacon he had on his plate. Mari stared at him as he took her hand and tugged at her, asking if she still wanted ice cream. She nodded, “So was that like… A real date… a date date?” She asked him absently, her cheeks flushing when she felt silly for not really acknowledging the meaning. “’Cuz I’ve never… been on a date before. Hardly seems fair when I’m not dressed for the occasion and we had breakfast, not dinner and we sort of already live together.” She pointed out with a nervous laugh, finding her own statements silly and figuring he thought the same thing.

Parker laughed at the girl's fluster, he hadn't been expecting that much of a reaction from her but now that he knew how much it affected her it sparked a little idea in his head. He gripped her hand more firmly to lead her off of the diner's patio to walk the couple blocks to the ice cream place, Finn's leash in his opposite hand. The dog was more than trustworthy off a lead but it tended to make people who didn't know the massive newfoundland more at ease seeing him on a leash.

"Well breakfast is just as much a date as dinner, but you make a valid point. For your first date, it should be more special than a run-of-the-mill trip for bacon and pancakes." He mused, a sly little grin stretching across his face as he looked down at her. "So just consider this part one of your first date. After ice cream, Finn and I will wait outside the mall while you pick out a new outfit for dinner tonight, deal?" He proposed, laughing at her excited response. They walked hand in hand the rest of the way to the old-fashioned ice cream parlor and split a double hot fudge sundae, though really Parker just had a couple bites and let Mari finish the rest since he'd already satisfied his lesser sweet tooth with his waffles.

After their treat they drove to the mall and Parker waited with Finn in the car while Mari shopped, pointing out that by keeping her new clothes hidden from him even though they lived together it'd be like the anticipation of meeting for the first time. He told her to get something a little on the fancy side but other than that he left it up to her. Parker looked up places in town on his phone while he waited, making a reservation for dinner at eight at the fancy French bistro in town that was the closest thing besides the upscale Italian place to fine dining, and he wanted to take Mari somewhere she wasn't as familiar with to make it more exciting. He also did some more digging on what they could do in town for fun, there wasn't much but he got a couple good ideas.

Mari emerged a couple hours later with two shopping bags and a shoe box in her arms, smiling brightly and waving as she approached. She stowed the bags in the trunk to keep Finn from getting into them and hopped back in the vehicle, announcing that she was all set and ready to head back.

Parker shook his head. "Oh no, we're not going home yet. We still have another place to go before we go back and get ready for dinner." He informed her, grinning at her quizzical look and throwing the car into drive. He adamantly refused to give her any hints about where they were going, driving across town to the other place he'd looked up that he thought she might enjoy. They pulled up to the old roller rink that had been part of the town's history for decades, newly restored by the current owners who were trying to bank on retro activities being a trend now.

Mari stared up at the building, an excited grin coloring her features as she asked him if this was the place. Parker nodded reaching back and patting Finn's head. "Sorry pal, you'll have to sit this one out but I'll park in the shade for ya." He told his furry companion, knowing the dog would be fine with napping in the backseat while they went inside.

Parker pulled into his parking spot and put his hand on Mari's leg when she tried to get up, "Hold it, wait right there." He instructed, hopping out of the car and jogging around to her door to open it up for her. "M'lady." He said with a little grin, holding out his hand for her to take and tugging her up out of the car. They walked towards the doors and Parker patted Mari's hand that was gripping his bicep as they walked. "Ever been skating before? Classic date activity." He asked with a wink.

Mari stared up at Parker when he opened her door for her, making her cheeks flush a shade darker once more at his actions. She was accustomed to attention but not in this manner and while she knew he was hamming it up just a tad she loved him for it. He pulled her out of her seat by the hand and she smiled, taking to his bicep as they started towards the building. He asked if she had been skating before and she shook her head in response, “No. Never really had occasion to actually but we’ll see what I can manage.” She said with a light laugh.

He led her into the rink, heading over to the rental nook at the front of the building, asking her shoe size and paying for them both. She wasn’t sure what to think of it, how to respond to him or even how to keep her fluster down with how he was suddenly acting, seeming determined to make her first date… their first date a memorable one. She let him take her by the hand to one of the cushioned benches, looking all around the space and admiring its heavy retro décor. It was different, sort of a more modernized and updated version of the past.

Parker sat her down and she took off her shoes as per his instructions, seeing him quickly lace up his own skates like he had done this before. He stood before her and gave a little backwards circle, winking at her before he knelt down to help her tie her own. “I can do it… I mean you don’t have to do it for me.” She muttered shyly, watching him bend and bat her hands aside so he could tie up her skates and make sure they were comfy enough for her to move around in. She grinned down at him when he finished up, shaking her head a little at his behavior.

He offered his hand again to help her stand, “What about our shoes?” She inquired, starting to get up and nearly tumbling in the same second. She cursed under her breath as she lost her balance but he caught her by the arm and kept her steady, laughing lightly and telling her they had cubbies to keep them in. He asked if she was going to be able to stay upright and she shrugged, “Yea I just have to learn… At least they’re not roller blades so I have less chance of falling on my butt.”

Parker grabbed both their shoes and asked her to stay put so he could put them aside, rolling away on the carpet to do so in the boxes along the wall. Mari experimented while he was away, starting to push off the edge of the bench to move forward and again she lost her footing, her legs a little wobbly from nerves as well as the new activity. She wasn’t used to relying on her balance, jolting when he snuck back up behind her and grabbed her waist, “Parker!” She yelped at him, rotating her body to reach and smack him but he backed away too fast, telling her if she was going to hit him she had to keep up.

“I won’t hit you.” She admitted, rolling her eyes and waiting for him to come back, “You have to teach me anyways or I’ll just sit here all night.” She stated, smiling when he made his way back, taking her hand and tugging her slowly with him to the edge of the rink where the lights were going and music was playing. He encouraged her onto the floor, rolling backwards and trying to coax her out. “You better not make me fall over. I can’t go fast like you apparently can.” She laughed, following him out and jolting forward when she immediately started moving along the hard floors, her skates rolling easier than on the carpet and her heart raced, clinging to Parker's hand as well as the edge of the rink to keep herself up.

Parker kept his laughter in check for the most part as he slowly took Mari around the edge of the track, letting her get used to the feeling of being on skates. The brunette made an off-handed comment about his proficiency on skates and he shrugged, "What can I say, I'm light on my feet. Being a scrawny, awkward kid bounced from foster home to group home and back, you learn pretty quick that a good pair of roller blades will help you outrun bullies that wanna kick your ribs in." He said with a good-natured grin. 

Parker dropped her hand and rotated on the slick surface, skating backwards for a second before turning and shooting off like a rocket. It had been a very long time since the last time he skated but as he happily discovered it was just like riding a bike, you never forget. His balance was better than most people's anyway with all the physical training he did, so what little wobble he had at the start was gone in seconds. He zipped around the whole rink in about the time it took Mari to travel ten feet slowing down to an easy glide again when he came back around to her location.

Mari teased him for being a showoff, looking him up and down and mentioning that she had a hard time believing he was ever scrawny. Parker laughed and took her arm, pulling her away from the wall despite her protests. "Yeup. I was always pretty tall for my age but yeah I was a scarecrow of a kid. And I had kid of a nervous bladder so when I'd get put in a new place a lot of times the first couple nights I'd wet the bed, especially if I had a vision while I was sleeping... I was grade-A bully material." He told her with a laugh at her shocked expression. She couldn't help but laugh as well and tried to apologize for doing so but he cut her off. "No no, go ahead laugh. It's funny now that I'm past it." He assured her, wrapping his arm around her delicate shoulders and gripping her tight.

"Ready for a bit more speed?" He asked, increasing their pace before she had a chance to answer him, holding her secure as she squealed with a mix of excitement and fear. "Just keep your legs bent and stationary and I'll take care of the rest. Don't worry, I got you." He assured her, holding her steady at just the right distance to keep his skates out of the way of hers, picking up speed till they were going fast enough that Mari's long hair was fluttering out behind her.

She was laughing with elation and a tinge of discomfort, the same excited, apprehensive expression on her face that he'd seen when they first met and he'd dragged her out of the bar with his pursuers on their heels. The girl might not have had much chance to go out and experience a lot of the world for herself, but he could see that tendency towards thrill-seeking in her personality that just hadn't had the chance to full awaken yet. A life of being a hunter would certainly afford her that opportunity, but for now he was just glad to show her a smaller, safer bit of excitement.

He took the around the rink several times, warning her to hold on and move with him when he suddenly would whirl them both around to go backwards. Parker never let her falter once, taking her around as many times as she wanted at faster and slower speeds depending on the music and what she asked for. After awhile Mari finally requested a break from her man-powered roller ride, and he took them back to the gate and helped her step back up onto the carpet and sit on one of the benches. "Wait here." He prompted, going over to the little snack counter and buying both he and Mari a soda and a cherry laffy taffy stick since it caught his eye, remembering it was her favorite.

He came back over and offered her the drink and candy, plopping down on the padded bench beside her to catch his breath after taking her around and being both his own and her balance for so long. 

Mari was panting lightly from the added exercise, loving every bit of it and appreciating that Parker was so willing to hold onto her like he had been, showing her the way even once she got her own balance. It became somewhat of an excuse to get closer to the other and she didn’t mind one bit, letting him tow her at whatever speed seemed fit, enjoying the cooling feeling when he sped up to head down the rink and spin them around just before they would collide into the wall or another couple. He certainly proved he could provide something memorable like he had promised to give her.

Parker offered his hand once more and she held onto it tightly despite not quite needing to anymore, letting him lead her back to the carpeted floor and help ease her down to one of the benches. He sped off rather easily especially for the change in flooring, making her laugh at the sight of a muscular man moving so fluidly, more fluidly than anyone here half his size. He was light on his feet that was for certain and she bit her lip as she absently wondered about experimenting with that fluidity on the dance floor another day. Perhaps he was just as good at that as well.

He came back not long after, giving her a cream soda like she liked as well as her favorite candy, cherry laffy taffy’s. Mari giggled at him as she accepted and he spun around to drop down onto the bench with her, hardly missing a beat and barely breathing heavy like she had been from the efforts and focus. “Thanks.” She smiled, sipping at her drink and gladly offering him some as well and he accepted, drinking from the straw without taking the cup from her.

“So do I get to know where you’re taking me for dinner tonight or is that a surprise as well?” She questioned and he smirked, telling her to wait, promising she would like it just as well. He snatched her candy away and tore it open for her, stealing a bite before handing it back but before she took a piece for herself she leaned towards him and pressed their lips together, recalling the first time they had done something similar. She hummed as he deepened it a little, pecking her a few more times before pulling back to look at her, his hand lingering on her leg. She flushed at the look in his eyes, feeling the depth in his bright blue gaze and it made her heart flutter once more, almost forgetting how to speak or how to breathe.

She took to her candy, clearing her throat and shifting so he could slip his arm around her while she ate. “You don’t have to spoil me like this y’know?” The young brunette insisted and he scoffed, saying that he did because he wanted her first first date to be her best and only first date. She smiled at the sentiment, drinking down her soda with her frame leaning up against his own as they relaxed on the bench a while longer before he suggested that they head back so they could both get ready to go.

Mari nodded and he sped away to grab their shoes, taking them back to her and offering them over so she could slip on her own. He dropped down and did the same, taking both of their skates and returning them at the counter while she waited for him, shivering slightly at the cool air when he pushed the door opened to get outside. “Finn’s lucky he’s got a thick coat sitting in the car. Better crank the heat up on the drive.” She requested, wrapping her arms around Parker’s middle when he pulled her over so they could walk entangled together, their pace slow until they got to the car and again he opened the door for her to climb in.

He took to the driver’s side and she greeting Finn happily with a pat on his head, scratching his ears and laughing when he excitedly tried to climb into the front seat with her. “No you can sit on me at home, buddy.” She promised in a soft tone, cooing at him and earning herself a lick or two. “You just think I still have candy huh?” She said as Parker pulled away from the rink and took them back home.

When they got there Parker said for her to go get ready in her room, helping carry her bags but starting to close the door on her. “Where are you going?” She yelled before he could shut it, her brow furrowing when he said he was going to pick her up later, “I know but… Parker your room is down the hall… We’re going to dinner in like an hour.” She reminded him, confused as to why he said he had something to do quick. “Okay… I’ll be here I guess.” She laughed, shaking her head at him and unpacking the items she bought so she could clean up and get ready for them to drive out to the restaurant.

Parker had a quick errand to run before he and Mari went for dinner. He left her in her room, somewhat confused but he was glad, he wanted to keep her on her toes and feeling that anticipation like she would if this was a typical first date with someone she hadn't been living with for the past few months already.

The young hunter ran out to the town closer to the bunker, Mari and Dean avoided it like the plague but he had no such restriction when he went alone. He was working on the fly so he had to make due with what he could find in the small community, he wanted to make this as memorable as possible for Mari. 

He got back with just enough time to shower and get dressed. He donned his charcoal gray slacks and his crisp white dress shirt, cinching up his navy blue tie and slipping into his black dress shoes. Parker examined himself in the mirror in the bathroom, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and shrugging, hoping Mari would like what she saw. He grabbed the bouquet of multi-colored daisies he picked up at the grocery store in town and jogged over to Mari's door. He passed Dean in the hallway and nodded at him, he had told the elder hunter a bit about his plans and the man actually seemed to approve of him taking Mari out on a proper date.

Parker cleared his throat and adjusted his tie, holding the flowers behind his back and knocking on the girl's door. "Mari? You ready to go?" He called through the door, taking a step back and waiting for her to answer. He heard her call back that she was ready and he smiled as the door opened and he got a look at his date for the evening.

Mari took another shower to rid herself of the not so fresh smell that lingered from the roller rink. She wasn’t sure how long Parker would be but they had supposed reservations at some place in the town over. She took all the time he allotted her to get herself prettied up for the man, hoping that he liked what she had picked out to wear that evening.

She adjusted her push-up bra, opting for a little more lift and cleavage to offer in sight, wanting to fill out her dress as much as possible and ensure she kept his eye. Her own blue orbs darted over her partly bare self in the mirror of her vanity, finding her figure rather nice if she did say so herself, biting her lip as she absently thought about when her birthday came and Parker was ‘allowed’ his hands on her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, dropping down to the tiny stool and leaning over the vanity to use its mirror and finish up on her smoky eye look, going for a more copper and chocolate palette that suited her complexion as well as her bringing out the color in her eyes.

She blew out her hair into long loose waves that hung around her face and over her delicate shoulders, coating them lightly with hair spray to keep them in place. The brunette popped her lips after rubbing them together, puckering them with a little giggle as she admired the red toned lip stick she had chosen for the occasion. Once done with her face and hair she stood, padding over to the edge of her bed where she had a deep blue gown laid out. She picked it up, unzipping the side careful not to catch the chiffon fabric along the edge, stepping into it and easing it up her slender frame.

Mari was just getting the side zipped up along her side, tousling her long waves when she heard Parker at the door. “Ready!” She called out to him, quickly grabbing her final accessory, the angel wing hair pin that her father had given her mother years ago that she decided to take custody of. She pushed her lengthy bangs back on one side, keeping them out of her eyes as she answered the door, standing in view of the man… her man. She smiled widely as he caught glimpse of her knee length gown, straps that hung off her shoulders and a sweet heart neckline. The girl spun for him to get a proper look from all angles, her silver embellished heels making her almost tall enough to meet his nose, the back of her dress hung inches lower than the front, giving a decent view of her skin.

“Well?” She hummed, giggling when Parker simply blinked, seeming a little at a loss for words. She reached up and hooked her finger under his chin, pushing his jaw up so he would close his mouth promptly much to the same manner he did when they first made contact. “It’s rude to stare, Tarzan.” She chided, hearing him stammer a little for the first time as he opted for giving her flowers, telling her how gorgeous she looked this evening and she thanked him.

“You got me flowers too? Parker you didn’t have to do that.” She flushed red, taking them from him with a pleased smile, cooing as she saw his choice in flowers for her. Her finger brushed the delicate petals, “Daisies are one of my favorites. Thank you.” She said softly, looking up at him and he started to take her arm but she paused so she could eye him just the same, her breathing catching a little as she saw him yet again all cleaned up. “Well you look rather… tempting in a tie.” She winked up at him, gently taking him by the silk fabric around his neck and inspecting it before she jabbed at his chest with her finger.

“Don’t tell me… you saw that I was going to get a blue dress didn’t you? Or is that coincidence?” Mari smiled, taking his arm and nodding when he told her that her ride was waiting for her outside, apologizing that the limos were all booked up though she knew he was teasing. “Completely acceptable to whisk me away in the pinto with the back seat lined with dog fur. Some pay good money for fur y’know… maybe not Finn’s fur but…” She shrugged, letting him lead the way while she cradled her bouquet in hand. “Going to tell me where we’re going that’s so fancy?”

Parker laughed at her accusation, shaking his head as they exited her room. "I think you're the one snooping, this is my only tie so maybe you chose the dress color based on my tie, hmm?" He counter-accused in a playful tone.

They got out to the car and he teased about not being able to get a limo, but Mari seemed just as happy to take the car. He laughed at her remarks about it as he went around to open the car door for her, ushering her inside and going back to get in himself. "Oh I don't think so Tinkerbell. You're just gonna have to wait and see." He responded, smiling slyly and enjoying making her wonder. They drove into town and Parker took Mari's hand while they drove, pulling up to the bistro and again he hurried around the car to get her car door for her.

Mari seemed excited to be going to the new restaurant, commenting that she'd always wanted a reason to come here since it was the fanciest place in town. She took his arm and they went in, and Parker was pleased to see that Mari was tickled by the fact that he'd gone to the trouble of getting reservations. The dinner was excellent, and while the young pair were probably a bit too loud with their conversation and laughing for such a formal place, neither of them cared and simply enjoyed being out together.

Parker led Mari out and they walked down the town's main street for awhile that was now lit by only the moon and the rows of streetlamps. They talked about nothing in particular, strolling with their hands entwined until the brunette started to feel a little chilly. They headed back to the car and started the drive home, blasting Mari's rock music and singing along and generally acting ridiculous.

They got back to the bunker much later than Dean would normally be okay with Mari being out, but when they got in for once the elder hunter wasn't waiting with a grim expression in the library for them. Parker walked with Mari back to her room, holding her hands and looking down at her fondly.

"Well, this is where I drop you off little lady." Parker said with a bright grin. "You have a good time?" He asked, letting his hands wander up and down her bare arms. Mari nodded, telling him how much she'd loved the whole day and how she never expected such 'royal treatment.' Parker chuckled, leaning down so their lips were only a whisper apart. "Well I dunno about that, but I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. You deserve all the special treatment in the world. And just so you know, now that we've been on an official date, I'm gonna start thinking of you as my girlfriend." He responded in a husky voice.

Mari leaned up into him and pressed her lips to his, asking him in a coy whisper if he wanted to come in. Parker would've liked nothing more considering how incredibly hot she looked in that dress, but he just chuckled and shook his head. "Nice guys don't take more than a kiss on a first date." He replied, cupping her face and kissing her again, long and deep with all the want he had for her behind it. They broke apart to gasp for breath and Parker reached behind her to open her door.

"Good night Tinkerbell." He murmured, ushering her inside her room and waving to her as she reluctantly shut the door between them. Parker went back to his own room, the unresolved sexual tension he felt outshone by his happiness at being able to treat Mari to a really nice time that she loved.

Mari smiled as Parker walked her to her door just like in the movies she had seen and come to know so well, never once expecting she might even have something close to this. She flushed pink when he mentioned he would start to think of her as his girlfriend. She leaned in and sealed their lips in a soft sweet kiss, lingering against his larger build, “Well boyfriend… did you wanna come inside and see my place?” She purred, making him smile but still he refused, denying her once more.

She should have guessed that, too happy to really be pouty or upset about it when he had done all that he just had for her, winning her heart so immediately. He commented that nice guys didn’t do that sort of thing and she groaned as he tugged her up to kiss him deeply, ravishing her mouth with his own and leaving her wanting. “Hardly a fair fight, Tarzan.” She teased as he pulled off and opened the door for her, gently nudging her inside the opened doorway. “Good night.” She returned, heading straight for her bed when he pulled the door shut. She giggled to herself as she thought about their evening, their entire day, the way that he looked at her and treated her like she was the only person on this planet, like he worshipped her.

\---

The next week or so passed albeit a bit torturously considering how long both of them had wanted each other and even more so since they became official, becoming a little more opened about their relationship even in front of Dean. She hated Parker for making her wait but at the same time the buildup was so intense, so heated in and of itself that it made her all the more excited for when the day came that he would give in to her when she came of age.

The evening came and Mari’s heart was racing, unable to keep her eyes off the man sitting beside her eyeing the screen, having no idea what she had in store for him. Some might think it odd considering it was her birthday tomorrow and not his but she had only one thing for him and she knew it would come in handy for herself in the end. He chuckled and squeezed her shoulder, asking what her problem was tonight and she simply smirked, “No problem… none at all.” She hummed, leaning up and kissing at his neck to his ear, making him turn into her and shudder at the feeling. She kissed and bit at him until the clearing of her father’s throat from the doorway of the kitchen drew her back and made her stop suddenly.

She jolted and pulled away, giving him an innocent smile and he handed off a beer to Parker, the pair seeming to get along a lot better more recently. They watched a movie together, one that Mari requested but the boys didn’t seem to mind, taking to nursing their drinks and occasionally mocking the film in nearly the same fashion only causing her to roll her eyes and tell them both to be quiet. It wasn’t quite her birthday but her father seemed to decide the last couple days surrounding needed to be special since she had progressed in her training and was no longer going to be considered a kid anymore.

It grew later in the evening, nearing eleven when Dean mentioned he was going to hit the hay considering his old age. She laughed and kissed him good night, moving off of Parker and telling him she was tired as well but that was far from true, she needed a little time to prep. His brow knitted together and he stared at her a little confused but accepted, turning off the television and getting up to follow her back to the quarters. He walked her to her room first, kissing her good night like he always did but for the first time she did nothing to try and convince him to follow her inside, heading in alone and leaving him hanging.

Mari dressed herself or rather undressed herself, shedding her clothes and freshening up a bit to ensure she looked just as good for him as always. She picked out her only suitable outfit from her top drawer, lace red boy short panties with a red bra to match, the bra’s edging lined with black lace, as sexy as it got when it came to her garments. It was one she remembered begging her mother to let her get, wanting something ‘pretty’ and Aleah hardly objected considering her dozens of bra and panty numbers she loved so well.

Once changed she donned a familiar blue flannel shirt, the same she wore the day Parker nearly took her against the hood of the Impala. She hoped the reminder might come to him when she entered. She tugged on a pair of cotton shorts simply for her father’s sake should she run into him but the past week or so the man had grown a little more lenient and far less obsessive about checking up on them. She trotted down the hall to Parker’s room as it neared midnight, hearing him gently talking to Finn like he often did and she smiled to herself, opening the door and he didn’t seem surprised at all to see her considering her sneaking in to sleep beside him had become a regular thing.

She did just as she had the first time she came to him in his room, climbed on the bed and when he reached for her she refused, taking to sitting atop him as he leaned back against the headboard of his bed. She said nothing, tracing her hands along his chest, up to his shoulders and listening to his breathing grow ragged just through touch and having her in his lap once more. “Almost my birthday y’know.” She pointed out, starting to kiss along his neck as he stated that it wasn’t quite that time yet. “Midnight… I’ll be 18 then. Thought I’d do you a favor, keep you from having to walk ten feet to come have me.”

Parker chuckled and thanked her quietly, starting to push her to stop kissing him and she smiled, unfastening her buttons along her shirt so he could catch glimpse of her bra as well as take an eye full of her creamy chest. He shook his head at her advance, asking her what she wanted from him, pretending to be clueless and making her roll her eyes. “Well in about six minutes… I was kinda thinking that you’d fuck me… again and again like I’ve been begging you to and I’ll beg again if it’s what you want.”

Parker had sort of been anticipating this all day. He had been eager for the day to finally arrive that he could allow them what they both so desperately wanted, but his level of impatience was nothing compared to Mari's and so he had actually been pretty surprised when she simply left him at her door after a goodnight kiss. But when he walked back to his room, he was at least 99% sure he'd be getting a late night visitor at some point. And just as he'd suspected, here was his little pixie, sitting atop him in his bed and unbuttoning her top to reveal a lace-trimmed red bra that most definitely had been carefully chosen for just this night.

"So what exactly can I help you with? Isn't it past your bedtime?" He teased, feigning ignorance. His dark brows rose at her blunt response but really he shouldn't be shocked, she wasn't exaggerating all those times she had pleaded with him to forget about his decision to wait for her until she was of age. Parker smiled, slipping his hands up her sides to tuck his fingers into the open edges of her flannel shirt and pushing it off her shoulders. His eyes devoured her creamy cleavage and he licked his lips unconsciously, anticipating finally getting to do all the things he'd been wanting with her. 

His gaze focused on the runed silver pendant resting between her breasts that were heaving with her heavy breath and he smiled, trailing the fingertips of one hand over the swell of her breast to touch the charm. "I won't require you to beg me for anything, but you might end up doing it anyway." He mentioned, his blue gaze flickering up to her eyes and the heat of his stare let her know he was in no way joking about that part. Mari bit her lower lip and swept her own hands up and down his chest, hooking her fingers into the bottom of the white tank top he wore and tugging it up but he stilled her actions.

"Hold on, there's still four minutes left. No opening your gifts early." Parker teased, glancing over at his bedside clock. Mari made an impatient sound at him and he laughed, running his hands up and down her bare thighs. The young brunette tossed her fallen shirt aside and looked down to start tracing a pattern up his arm with her fingernail, following the ebb and flow of his markings from his wrist to the point of his shoulder. Parker watched her get absorbed in her inspection of his ink, his free hand slowly running up and down her lower back.

Mari looked at the clock again and back at him, but still he shook his head. Parker sat up and braced himself with one hand while the other trailed up higher to cup the back of her neck, tipping her head back and her throat up to his hungry mouth. "Two minutes." He murmured against her skin, kissing a trail up her neck to nip at the pulse point just below her ear. Mari mewled and pressed herself against him, her hand scratching over his shoulders and he shivered at the contact. 

Parker nibbled at the shell of Mari's ear, breathing in the sweet minty smell of her hair and grinning as the scent suddenly reminded him of their fun washing the Impala and he realized she'd worn the same shirt from that day in here tonight. She really was pulling out all the stops trying to get him to give in. He smiled and kissed along her jawline till their lips were about to meet.

"One minute." He whispered, kissing her softly at first but quickly deepening the contact, plundering her mouth until she was utterly breathless. They broke apart to gasp for air and he was now fully hard for her, his arousal pressing up against her center and she started rocking against him in time with her labored breaths. 

They looked at the clock and it displayed the time, one minute past midnight exactly. Mari asked him if now he would finally take her, and as much as he was burning for her he couldn't quite suppress one final chance to tease his girlfriend about her impatience. "Well, I dunno... I mean is it technically your birthday yet? What time were you born today exactly?" He asked, trying for a serious tone but he was smiling and couldn't quite keep all his laughter back when Mari groaned his name in a exasperated manner. She gripped his face and forced her mouth against his, demanding against his lips that he make good on his promise of a birthday gift worth waiting for.

Parker's snicker grew less playful and more husky, and he gripped her tightly as he responded to her kiss tenfold. His tongue swept into her mouth and slid against hers, stealing her breath and as he moved to kiss a trail back down her throat his hands slipped down to her hips, encouraging her to bear down on him harder. She moaned as she ground against his erection, the contact making his blood boil with all the pent up frustration he'd been feeling for months now. 

Parker's hands swept back up to fondle her breasts and his mouth marked a trail down over her collar bone to her cleavage as his fingers drew back to unclasp her bra. He tugged the lacy garment away and latched onto one of her rosy peaks, teasing her nipple to a stiff point with his tongue and teeth while his fingers tweaked and rolled it's twin. Mari panted his name desperately, leaning into the contact and he responded by being rougher, making her flinch and mewl as he drove her desire up to the next notch.

She was tugging on his shirt again and he broke away from her just long enough to let her yank the garment off, capturing her lips with his again and pulling her down beneath him on his bed. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears and it took all his control to keep an even pace, reminding himself that no matter how eager Mari was this was still her first time and he wanted it to be memorable for all the right reasons. 

Parker returned his attention to her full chest, she was every bit as soft and sweet as he'd imagined and a little growl escaped him as he sucked and nipped at her. He rubbed his straining bulge against her clit, wanting to build her up nice and slow so she'd be so desperate for her release that by the time it came the force of it would unravel her completely.

"God you're so beautiful..." He murmured, raising his head back up level with hers and continuing to rock his hips down into hers as he met her darkened blue gaze. He drew one hand down her front, tickling at her sides and skimming the edge of her cotton sleep shorts. Mari leaned up to kiss him desperately and he hummed against her lips, bracing up off her just enough to give him space to slip his hand under her bottoms.

Mari tensed and mewled into his mouth as he used two fingers to stroke her entrance through her panties, his own body throbbed in anticipation as he felt how wet she was for him even through the fabric. He pushed the thin soaked material aside and rubbed slow circles over her, drawing her slickness up to swirl around her clit. She bucked against his hand and he tried a few motions, rapid flicking motions, quick light circles and when he settled on a particular pressure Mari's eyes opened wide and a loud breathy moan escaped her lips.

"Like that? That feel good baby?" Parker murmured, working her fast and Mari whimpered out an answer, making him twitch with want as she begged him not to stop. Her body started to shake beneath him and her nails dug into his back, it was all he could do not to lose it right then watching her face contort with pleasure as she found her peak. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she cried out loudly, he sealed his mouth to hers to muffle the sound somewhat, continuing his motions and maintaining her high until she shuddered and went slack against him.

"Shhh... We've gotta be quieter Mari. I'll stop making you come if you can't keep it down." He murmured, a devilish smile painting his features as he dipped two fingers inside her center, making her gasp and moan again but this time she managed to keep it at a more reasonable volume. "Tell me what feels good beautiful..." He whispered hoarsely, determined to make her come at least once more before having his own fun.

Mari thought for a moment that Parker might actually force her into leaving him again until he kissed her with such heat that she was certain neither of them could or would even try to back away from. He teased her moment to moment about the time, not quite giving in just yet but she could feel his arousal beneath her despite his attempts to slow her. He questions if it was really her birthday yet and she groaned his name in response, her voice breathy and filled with want until he gave in completely, fondling her chest and then the new found sensation of his mouth on her breasts each in turn, working her up further until she was soaked through with her need for him.

Her hands trembled partly out of nervousness and partly out of her high she was growing so near to, reaching out and insistently tugging at his own shirt. He pulled back and let her undress him, rotating their bodies as soon as she tossed the garment aside and he took over her position, grinding down against her and muttering sweet things to her. Her nails raked over his sides to his back, watching him with darkened eyes, her breathing heavy when he started to fidget with the hem of her shorts.

She lay very still as if a sudden movement would cause him to halt his advances but it didn’t, his hand found her center, caressing her through her panties and making her moan into his mouth. He pushed the fabric aside and swirled his fingers over her clit, experimenting to find the right motion that she liked best needing no guidance from her and she was more than pleased. Her eyes shot open and her mouth parted in a desperate cry from the sensations he was causing in her body, far more intense than she imagined and far more pleasing than going alone. “God yes…” She responded to his questioning, her body arching up off the bed as his motion increased and she found her first peak, locking her gaze with his, her voice cracking as she climaxed.

He kept pace until she fell down against the mattress again, Mari’s hands snaking up his arms to his neck, fingers lacing into his short hair and watching him intently because she wanted nothing more than to remember every part of their first time together. He scolded her for having gotten loud like she did, threatening to stop if she didn’t keep quiet while they fooled around but before she could agree or say much of anything his fingers dipped deeper into her tight heat, stroking her walls and making her gasp. She shook her head at his prompting to tell her what made her feel good and in the moment she forgot everything she experimented before on her own, focused only on his fingers inside her body.

Parker grinned in the fashion he always did, thrusting his fingers deep inside her and hitting that sweet spot, one she couldn’t reach and she yelped. His digits hooked in a come hither motion, finding that same spot once more and making her vision blur around the edges. Her walls flexed and fluttered around him, drawing them in deeper and her hips rolled into his hand desperate for release but he pinned her hips down telling her to let him do the work for her. She whimpered but nodded, his hand working her over and he quickened his pace as per her instructions, his palm pressed firmly to her clit for added stimulation, “P-Parker… Ahh…” She cried again, coming around his fingers hard, feeling her own pleasure soaking his hand and her thighs.

He didn’t pull off until she was shaking and couldn’t stand it anymore, sighing at the loss of sensation as he withdrew from her heat, shoving down her shorts in nearly the same smooth motion. Her eyes went dark as he bent to kiss her, his shorts making it very apparent that he was holding back in terms of his own desires. His digits were sticky and soaked but he smirked at them devilishly, drawing his palm to his face and licking up her desire from himself. He growled to himself at the taste, claiming he had been anticipating eating her out, tasting every part of her for himself and she gulped at the hunger in his eyes.

Mari scoot up towards the top of his mattress, biting her lower lip teasingly and drawing her hand along her slender frame, feeling his hands on her thighs, pinning her opened for him. “All yours.” She informed him, his still dampened fingers tracing with his opposite hand along either of her legs, seeming to contemplate what he wanted to do to her right now. The drunken look in his blue eyes told her that he was distracted by the thought of tasting her once more, that was until she sat up, gripping his face with one hand and forcing him to look at her instead of her center. She hadn’t any problems with being bare before him, trusting her lover completely and hoping that she pleased him.

She traced her fingers along his chiseled jawline and he looked at her with a mix of love and lust, letting her kiss him. The brunette’s nails bit into the back of his neck, humming as she tasted her own desire on his sweet full lips, kissing him languidly while her free hand traveled down to his own excited front. She rubbed his bulge through his bottoms, hearing him growl at her soft touch. He asked her what she wanted and she responded with another kiss along his lips, “I want you inside of me Parker. Don’t make me forget my eighteenth birthday.” She requested with a little smile, stroking him still until her hand slid further up to tug at the hem of his bottoms and pull them down for her.

He shifted off her just enough to get out of his clothes completely, as equally bare as her now, giving her a moment to admire his physique with a bite of her lip before he climbed back over her. Their lips met again much softer this time but still full of need and want for the other, slowing down a bit until he suddenly broke it and reached over in his top drawer for a condom, tearing the packaging with his bright white teeth and pausing to stare down at her. “What?” She panted, her chest still heaving and he gently took her hand, lacing their fingers for a second on the side of the bed and asking her if she was sure she wanted it to be him.

Mari swallowed at his questioning, nodding up at him almost instantly, “Parker I do… I want it to be you and only you. Please. I swear to God you make me wait again and I’ll strangle you.” She laughed, making him chuckle and tease her about killing the mood. “Mhmm you’re telling me you don’t want it anymore.” She hummed, tugging at him to settle back over her, “Take me, Tarzan. I’m yours.” She whispered, pleading a little more softly this time.

Parker chuckled at Mari's threat, leaning down to kiss at her neck. "Easy there, you'l wreck the mood." He teased, settling back down between her legs when she tugged on his frame. He grinned at her use of the nickname she had appointed him with, nipping at her skin and making her hum with want.

Parker ground his bare sex down against hers, getting slick from her pleasure and groaning low in his throat. He stimulated her still sensitive clit with his length, making her pant and shake beneath him driving himself crazy in turn holding off on plunging inside her. Her nails dug into his shoulders and he slowly pushed his tip between her wet folds and his jaw clenched as he resisted the near overwhelming urge to bury himself to the hilt all at once.

He took a deep breath and slowly pushed inside her, holding still so she could adjust to the invading presence in her body. Mari's eyes went wide and she arched against him, her nails pressing little half-moons into his skin. "Are you okay baby?" Parker huffed, making himself stay still and searching her face. Mari nodded, drawing her leg up to hook on his hip and pleaded with him to move, tipping her hips up to his and he groaned as her walls slid and flexed around his throbbing length.

The young hunter began slowly rocking his hips, drawing nearly out of her body and plunging back into her heat, panting roughly as he set up a slow, primal rhythm. "Are you... Okay?" He huffed, his muscles rolling and bunching as he moved. Mari mewled his name and nodded, pressing her heels into his toned rear and he took it as his cue to spur his pace.

He increased his speed and drove into her deeper, sliding easily inside her with how wet she was. It took all his self-control not to let loose, carefully watching face and cues from her body trying to find the best angles and pressure to make her lose her mind. Mari's lips parted and she started moaning on every exhalation, her hips bucking up against his and falling naturally into sync with his motions.

"Does this feel good? Tell me what you need baby..." He panted, changing the angle of his hips and apparently he hit a good spot because she cried out desperately in response. Parker braced up on his knees and wrapped his arms around her beneath her back, holding her close and driving into her rapidly now that he'd found a good spot. The brunette clung to him, whimpering his name and mumbling almost incoherently that she was close and it was all Parker could do to hold on as her walls clenched and fluttered around him.

He carried her through her orgasm before finally succumbing himself, growling low in his throat and nuzzling into her neck as he exploded inside her. Parker sighed raggedly, slumping against her from the effort of making himself stay in control for her first experience, not wanting to hurt or overwhelm her. Mari slackened beneath him, struggling to catch her breath and he searched her face, smiling at her fondly. "I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but... You okay?" He asked with a little chuckle as he slipped out of her body.

Mari clenched up, bracing herself and anticipating feeling him plunge into her tight heat. She let her nails bite into his warm flesh as he slowly pushed into her body, letting her adjust to his invading presence. Her body bowed beneath him, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist as she drew him down to meet her gaze. She bit her lip to keep from crying out harshly like she had before, never having expected something or rather someone feel so damn good. He questioned her well-being and she simply nodded, digging her heels into his ass to get him to keep moving.

“Don’t stop… Parker move… please…” She panted, her walls fluttering around him, her desire soaking his length and allowing him to move far more easily within her. He asked her again if she was okay but she ignored him in part, too far gone in the feeling of him buried deep in her core, finally giving into what they both had been craving. She rolled her hips experimentally, starting to follow his motions and he hit her in all the right places, making her vision blur around the edges as she neared her peak.

Her arms slipped around his body when she responded to his request without a real word escaping her parted lips, clinging to him and nuzzling her face into his muscular neck and shoulder, “God you feel good, Parker… I-I’m gonna come, baby.” She hummed on the edge of her heavy breathing, muttering his name again and again as she teetered on the edge before finally succumbing to her pleasure, clenching around him erratically with her most feminine muscles and drawing him in as she came once more. 

Mari heard him growl near her ear and she held him as he let her ride out her pleasure, falling into his own before slumping against her body. She found she liked the added weight of him atop her, keeping her limbs wrapped around him and her eyes closed lightly as she tried to regain control of her ragged breathing while they simply held each other and he lingered inside her body a moment or two longer. She sighed, her body easing and falling fully back against the mattress beneath her once more and Parker shifted to rise up off of her frame just enough to look at her face.

She traced her hands along his bare sides, quite pleased with the sight of him like this, with the look in his eyes and closeness of their bodies it was all she could have asked for and far more than she expected. The young male hunter questioned if she was okay for the third time and now as he slipped from her body and she could focus a little easier she was capable of forming words to honestly answer. She nodded, her espresso bangs falling back with the motion of her head, “I’m okay. I promise.” She giggled, sticking her pinky up for him to take in the fashion she always did when making a vow to someone. He laughed and hooked his larger digit around hers and for a moment as they both came down from their highs she simply stared at their laced pinkies and admired the similarities and differences. A pinky was a pinky but his was nearly the thickness and length of her ring finger, perhaps she had small hands but in his they were perfect… fit neatly against his own and felt protected much to the same manner that her entire being did when entangled with this man no matter where they were or whether she was in danger or not.

“So does that make me super adult now?” The brunette teased, watching him shift and roll onto the other side of the bed, seeming a little worn out himself and she figured it was because there had been so much heat between them before that it was almost like a relief to finally get it all out and enjoy one another in this way. He took to lacing his fingers with hers rather than just her pinky as he joked about making her a woman, making her laugh lightly.

For a moment or two they simply lay there in quiet, touching and staring at the other in all manners until she rolled onto her side and shifted to snuggle up against him. “Hey Parker.” She prompted, waiting for him to hum his acknowledgement. “What I said before… that I was yours… I mean that.” Mari informed him, catching his attention completely and he claimed that he knew so she smiled, tugging him close for a simple kiss. His lips trailed down to her neck, seemingly distracted when he told her ‘happy Birthday’ while he worked his way to her cleavage again and she giggled but the sound quickly morphed into a mewl as he pulled her to line her body with his, feeling his returning arousal pressing against her front.

"Happy Birthday." Parker muttered, smiling against Mari's flesh as he aligned himself with her once more, paying attention to her cleavage and making moan with want once more. His own arousal was returning quickly and he ground himself against her thigh, his breathing growing ragged again as she responded to his touch.

"I wanna make you come all night baby..." He growled, dragging his teeth up over her collar bone and rolling up off of her. Mari mewled at the loss of his presence and he chuckled, patting her flat abdomen and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Hold your horses Tinkerbell." He chided, sloughing off his used condom and wiping himself up a bit before settling beside her again. 

Mari giggled at him and gripped his head, tugging her back over top of him and kissing at his neck. Parker hummed at her touch and ground his hardness against her center, increasing his pressure when she responded immediately. The young brunette bit her lower lip and rocked up against him, his name falling from her lips.

The hunter dragged his hand down between them to tease at her clit with his calloused fingertips, driving her back up to her brink and then withdrew, making her mewl desperately and pleaded with him to keep touching her. "Hang on." He smiled at her, starting climb down her body. "I wanna taste you..." He murmured, kissing down her throat and chest as he descended down her figure. 

Mari trembled as he slipped southward, placing errant kisses and nips over her body as he went and when he settled between her legs she was watching him with rapt attention, her chest heaving from her haggard breath. Parker grinned devilishly from his vantage point at the apex of her thighs. He turned his head and nuzzled at her inner thigh, humming as he breathed in her sweet scent.

He trailed his lips up the inside of her leg, inching closer to her center and relishing the way she whined desperately for him. Parker finally delved into her center, lapping up her nectar and dipping his tongue inside her. He devoured her greedily, his blue eyes tracking up to her face watching her features contort with pleasure and trying to pick up on her cues as to what felt best.

He drew his tongue up and swirled it around her clit, suckling the little bud and growling at her loud sound of pleasure. He rose up off her and hushed her, making her whimper at the loss of contact. "Hush baby... You don't want me to stop do you?" He warned, dipping his head back down and resuming his ministrations, making her back bow off the mattress with pleasure but she managed to stifle her sounds somewhat, not wanting to risk him following through with his threat.

Mari mewled at the feeling of him resting between her legs, anticipating his next move as her hands balled into fists at her sides on top of the mattress. Most all of this was new territory to her and the fact that he wanted so badly to put his mouth on her, to make her come against his tongue and lips only riled her further. She never felt wanted to this extent by anyone and she loved every part of it. His face nuzzled her thigh and she couldn’t help her hand shooting down south, having to resist the urge to simply touch herself and gain some of that release she needed once again.

His mouth traveled as if in response to her movement, making her whimper for him to taste her. Parker finally gave in, lapping at her center and delving his tongue deep into her body making her gasp at the new feeling. His tongue’s motions were softer, more deliberate and just as satisfying as his hands had been though she was pretty damn sure that any part of her man could get her going like this. She cried out for him, her hips bucking towards his face instantly and her hand reached for his head, entangling in his short hair at the back of his neck.

He pulled off to chastise her for having been loud once more and she very quickly bit her lip so he would continue. The man did just so, sucking her clit and flickering his tongue over her again and again until she bowed off the bed, arching into him and pursing her lips tight to keep herself from making too much sound like he requested, fearful that he might end his attentions like he warned her previously. He kept up his motions until she lost it once more, coming against his mouth and tongue and he greedily lapped at her juices, cleaning her up on his own and growling hungrily at her taste.

The brunette panted heavily, slumping back against his bed and running her hand through her hair, the talisman around her neck, rising and falling with the motion of her chest. “Jeezus friggin’ Christ, Parker…” She cursed with an airy laugh, hearing him chucking as he licked his lips to rid himself of what remained along his face. He climbed back up her body, scooping her up and kissing at her neck as he forced their bodies to rotate, making her squeak slightly at the change in scenery. “Hmm… weren’t kidding about a memorable gift were yah? Gonna slowly go down the list of positions are we baby?” She purred, tracking her nails down his chest and making him groan at the sensation.

She was all too pleased to be atop him like this again, the change making her eyes go dark as her pupils dilated with hunger. She bore down against him hard, letting her lingering slickness soak his exposed length and his fingers curled into her waist to keep her from taking him. Mari knew why, they needed to be safe and smart about this if they were going to continue still, she may be young but she wasn’t stupid and she had something else in mind anyways. She arched over his body, rising off him so he earned no friction from their sex grinding together partly to tease and partly because she was so sensitive now that every touch nearly sent her over the edge again. “I have one demand for my eighteenth then you can get right back to whatever you had in store.” She hummed down at him, their lips close together and she let them meet only for a moment or two.

Her lips pressed down to his neck, trailing to his first tattoo and then another at random along his chest, deciding to give him a taste as well and see what she could learn all in one evening. She roughly bit at his sculpted abdomen making him growl roughly and she smirked, shaking her head when he gripped her and told her she didn’t have to do what he guessed she was about to. “I wanna learn what you like too, Tarzan. It’s not just all about me.” She responded, kissing his wrist of the hand that had gripping her face to keep her from traveling further downward. She might be a little gutsier for her first time but she trusted Parker more than anyone, knew in part what she was doing based on things she had… seen and she was eager to know that she could get him off. “You can talk me through it… Tell me if I’m doing something wrong.” She suggested.

The young Nephilim’s necklace tickled at his bare skin, seeing goose bumps form everywhere she touched him. She braced her hands on his thighs and lowered her head down after tugging her hair out of the way over her shoulder, watching his face as she took hold of his shaft, experimentally licking a stripe up the base. He was long and thick and she knew it would take some time to build up her tolerance on what she could accommodate of his body. She smiled seductively, swirling her tongue around his tip and lapping up the precum that had seeped from his slit. It took her a moment to work herself up to find the courage to simply take him but when she saw him open his mouth to insist she let it go with a promise that she didn’t have to do that for him she immediately responded by taking him into her mouth eagerly, forming an ‘O’ with her lips and dropping her head down and back up, slowly starting to bob along his length.

Parker's resolve was obliterated by Mari taking him in her mouth, her lips soft but tight around his shaft and her warm wet tongue laving along his veined skin as she took as much of him as she could. His hands clenched at his sides and his mouth gaped as she slid back up his length, a strangled groan escaping him as her tongue swirled around his tip.

She glanced up at him as she bobbed back down and he reached down to gesture with his fingers. "Give me your hand." He prompted breathlessly, taking her hand when she gave it and wrapping her fingers and thumb in a ring around his base, trying to keep his breathing even enough to speak intelligently with her mouth on him. "Use your... Hand... With your mouth baby." He instructed, guiding her fingers up his length as she rose up off him again and back down, showing her the motions to make up for what she couldn't accommodate with her mouth with her hand.

She quickly found a smooth rhythm and Parker's head lolled back against the pillow, his body straining and twitching with the effort of making himself lie still and not thrust up into her. She worked him faster then slower, seemingly trying to experiment a bit herself and he growled when she sucked him harder. Mari picked up on his cues quickly, increasing her pressure and speed and Parker knew he wasn't going to last much longer.

He reached down and gently petted her hair, his chest heaving with his labored breath. "Baby... Stop baby I'm gonna come..." He warned, his eyes cinching closed and his teeth gritting as he held off his release. But instead of pulling off of him Mari simply worked him harder, and he cursed under his breath as he exploded against the back of her throat. His whole body shuddered with his pleasure but on the tail end of his climax his blue eyes flew open with concern, hearing Mari coughing and sputtering between his legs.

"Mari? You all right?" He huffed, still reeling a bit from his orgasm but he collected himself as quickly as possible. "Sweetheart, God I'm sorry..." He apologized, seeing her struggling to regain her composure after biting off more than she could chew in a manner of speaking.

He smiled hesitantly, sitting up when she did and gently patting her shoulder as she continued trying to muffle her coughs. "You need me to go get you a glass of water?" Parker asked, feeling guilty that his pleasure had caused her discomfort.

Mari followed Parker’s gentle guidance, taking over from his coaxing and doing everything on her own and perhaps she got a little too over zealous thinking she could manage just fine without issue. She bobbed up and down his length, using her fingers like he showed her to make up for what she couldn’t take into her mouth, sucking him off hard and feeling him throb against her tongue and the inside of her cheeks. He touched her gently and informed her of his release but she didn’t have intentions of letting up like he obviously wanted her to, she wanted to surprise him, to go in full force and ensure he enjoyed her fully.

She experimented a little but soon picked her pace back up and worked him harder until he groaned and cursed as he came in her mouth. Her eyes went wide and she hadn’t anticipated nor prepped for the feeling of him coming against the back of her throat so harshly and making her cough. She pulled off him instantly, gagging slightly and coughing as she swallowed down his seed before she coughed it up like she felt she might. He hadn’t missed the sound, questioning her well-being as he had before and ensuring that she was okay.

She nodded, unable to speak for the moment as she delicately cleared her throat only to cause another hack or two but she covered her mouth as she sat up. Parker’s hand gripped her shoulder, patting her lightly as she gathered herself after another moment or two. Mari felt stupid now for having gone in full force like that on their first time, having no idea what she was in for and it wasn’t like he even asked her to do what she had. “Would you? I’m sorry I—“ She started, fidgeting a little embarassingly when he looked at her but her worries were silenced by him kissing her temple and telling her to stop, promising he would be right back.

She nodded once more and watched him take a bit to gather himself from the high she had caused him, slipping his bottoms back on and walking out to the other room to get her a cup of water like he said he would. When he returned she had taken to curling up under his covers, surrounded by his lingering scent in his sheets and pillow. He walked back over in the low light of the lamp on his night table, carrying a glass for her and handing it over as he sat down on the edge of the mattress, waiting for her to sit up so she could take it and drink it and she did just that. She took a few slow sips, feeling his hand lingering on her leg that lie under the blankets, caressing her calve and then her thigh, questioning if she was alright once more.

“Yea. By now you should know that I get a little too…. Pardon my choice in wording but, cocky.” She said with a coy grin and immediately started laughing it off, making him bellow just as well and he said he knew. She had cleaned herself up a bit while he was away, steadily feeling the dull delicious ache between her thighs and in all honesty she hoped the sensation never disappaited. He took the cup from her when she was done and she reached out to gently tug him to her where she sat, kissing him slow and deep as she slid up onto her knees to be more level with him. The fabric slid from her front but neither of them seemed to mind, giggling as he hauled her over to him completely and easily. She smiled into their kiss, nipping as his lip as he managed to move their frames until they were both at the head of the bed, curled up with her atop him only this time it was more about simply being skin to skin not having their way with one another.

“So you know… next year when I turn nineteen… You’re gonna have a hard time topping this.” She teased, pulling back from their kiss to simply look him over, her forearms braced on his broad chest and her blue eyes flickered back and forth to both of his own. “Despite my little incident afterwards… You were worth waiting for, I hope the same goes for me. Sadly though it’s likely I won’t let you wait long for another go… Cuz I’m pretty sure I’ll be making the trip over here a lot more.” She smiled, reaching up to brush her thumb along his jaw and lightly touch his full bottom lip.

Parker smiled fondly up at Mari, kissing her thumb softly when she brushed his lip. "I'm glad you think so, I sure do. As for sneaking over here more often, I could get used to that." He chuckled, running his hands up and down her smooth back beneath the covers. Mari sighed happily and nuzzled into him, humming as he gave her a tight hug.

After a few quiet moments Parker reached out to his bed table and grabbed his watch, fidgeting with the settings and Mari looked up at him quizzically asking him what he was doing. "I'm setting my alarm for an hour before your dad usually gets up. That way you can stay here but avoid the hazard of a run in tomorrow morning." He responded, his chest rumbling against her with amusement when she cringed a bit at the memory of the few close calls they'd had over the past couple months.

She relaxed back into his grasp once he set his alarm and Parker kissed the top of her head. "I do think he's starting to wrap his head around us being together a little better now though. Don't wanna spoil the progress we've made." He snickered, squeezing her a little tighter. They lay entwined for a long while, idly touching and simply enjoying relaxing together sharing one another's warmth.

Parker could feel Mari's breathing evening out and her grip on him going slack, and he gingerly shifted her to lay more on her side but still sprawled mostly against him. Mari groaned a bit and he hushed her, brushing his fingers through her espresso locks. "Sleep, beautiful... Shh..." He murmured, touching her gently and keeping up his soft words till she drifted back to full sleep. He kissed her brow and closed his eyes, quickly following her into slumber.

Very early the next morning Parker's alarm chirped and he reached out to turn it off, sighing with satisfaction as the memories of the previous night rose back up to the surface of his mind. He hadn't had a single dream or even a glimpse of a vision, and he felt that was at least partly due to how satisfied he had been with finally getting to have his girlfriend like he'd been wanting for so long.

Mari stirred beside him when he moved but it was much earlier than she was used to waking and so she was maybe half awake at best when he turned and greeted her with a quiet good morning. She hummed a bit in response but her eyes didn't open and she snuggled her head back into his pillow, oblivious to the world in her cocoon of blankets. Parker grinned crookedly at his lover, reaching up to cup her face and run his thumb over her cheek.

"Time to get up birthday girl... Do you need a wake up call?" He mused out loud more to himself than anything. Parker ran his hand from her face down her throat and over her shoulder, dragging the blankets down till they were bunched across her thighs. He devoured her naked figure with his eyes, leaning down to nuzzle into her neck and lightly kiss and lick at her skin. She sighed at the contact but still didn't rouse, her skin shivering involuntarily as his hand glided down over her breasts to cup and fondle them before continuing south between her legs.

Parker's mouth wandered down to sample her breasts, moaning low in his throat as he got hard sucking and nipping at her sweet flesh. His fingers brushed over her soft neatly trimmed curls and down to stroke her entrance, rubbing her clit with the heel of his hand and stirring her body to alertness even if her brain hadn't quite caught up.

Mari moaned and shifted, her legs opening for him on pure instinct and he dipped two fingers inside her, stroking her walls and drawing her slickness up to swirl over her clit rapidly. He pulled off her breast with a small popping sound and watched her face as he pushed his fingers deeper within her now dripping core. The brunette's brow furrowed and her breathing grew ragged, squirming a bit in her mostly asleep state as he built up her pleasure with the same come hither motion he'd used last night that'd gotten her shattering for him in no time.

Mari barely heard the chirping of Parker’s alarm, too tired from their night before to really stir her much. She faintly reacted to his voice telling her to wake but it sounded like a dream, felt like a dream and maybe it all had been considering she had them about the man before, quite vividly actually but not nearly to this extent. She shivered slightly at the sudden cold, rotating her body with one hand neatly tucked beneath the pillow and the other tossed over her stomach.

Her breathing grew more ragged as she felt his mouth on her chest again, her finger tips twitching in response but still she didn’t come to completely. She moaned lightly at the pressure on her clit, her eye lids fluttering and her right leg that was bent up at the knee, dropped, lying spread wide for him once more only she didn’t realize it was fact. He drove her up until her body squirmed and she muttered incoherently at the feeling, clenching around his digits and gripping onto the pillow beneath her head. Her breathing caught and she found her peak, hearing him praise her lightly.

The brunette’s eyes flickered open suddenly, recognizing now that Parker was in fact touching her, hovering over her body and not a single part of this was a dream. He smirked when she seemed to process what had happened in her restful state and she flushed, having sort of admitted without words that she thought of him even in her dreams. His fingers withdrew from her body and her chest was still heaving, staring down at him with dark eyes.

The hunter ground down against her when he settled between her legs and she hummed at the feeling of his arousal against her center. “Mmm…” She hummed as he hunched over to kiss her deeply, telling her good morning again considering her body was certainly more alert now as was his. “Yea… Definitely good when I get woken like that.” She muttered, pushing at his shorts insistently to have him bare and he chuckled, asking her if she was even capable considering how tired she seemed. “Baby I could be comatose and I’d never mind you taking me. Trust me I’m doing just fine. Be even better if you took those off.” She stated, indicating to his shorts she was fidgeting with.

 

Parker snickered at her less than subtle hint about his shorts and he sat back, shrugging them off and freeing his arousal. He twitched with want when Mari's blue orbs flickered down to his exposed length and she bit her bottom lip like she couldn't wait for him to take her. He leaned over and rummaged in his nightstand drawer for a condom, ripping the packet open and settling back to put it on. Mari sat up and batted at his hands, flushing slightly when she murmured that she would put it on for him.

Parker grinned and nodded, his breathing speeding at her touch on his length as she rolled the protection on and then let her nails skid over his muscled thighs. He leaned in and captured her lips, plundering her mouth and taking her breath away. Mari started to lean back but he had other plans, hooking his hands beneath her arms and easily lifting the petite brunette up into his lap.

Mari squeaked a bit at being suddenly relocated, but quickly her giggle melted into a low moan as his tip pushed up into her. She braced her hands on his bent knees and angled her hips, her darkened blue eyes fixing on his as she sank down onto his throbbing length. They both cried out softly as she took him to the hilt, Parker's hands traveling to her lower back to support her better astride his lap. Her legs folded up around him and Parker gripped her tight, locking her in place and starting to thrust up into her tight heat.

Mari shuddered and gasped as he started moving inside her, her head lolling back as she bounced in his lap from the force of his motions. "You like this position Tinkerbell?" Parker asked hoarsely, grinning from ear to ear as she started to respond with intelligent words but her voice trailed off into a broken cry as he drove up into her more quickly. Still sensitive from her earlier climax the brunette fell apart in no time, her eyes rolling back and her most feminine muscles clamping and fluttering around him in ecstasy.

"That's right, come for me baby... Fuck you feel so good." Parker growled, kissing her hard and losing a bit of his control as her walls clenched and drew him in deeper to her body. He thrust up into her like mad, her mouth parted in a silent scream and the sound of their skin slapping together got louder. He managed to carry her through another bone melting orgasm before finally succumbing himself. He bucked his hips up into her until he was totally spent, her pleasure soaked his thighs and he could tell without asking by her glazed expression and the way he was having to hold her upright that she had had a much more intense orgasm this go around.

Mari cried out as Parker’s tip proded at her entrance, settling over him and burying him inside her body as she sunk down onto his lap completely. He sighed raggedly in the same moment that she did, her own frame wrapping tight around him as he cradled most of her weight, his motions much quicker and rougher than they had been before and she could hardly keep control of her cries, knowing she had to try in order to keep him going, fearing he might stop if she made too much noise.

He slammed up into her and her head lolled forward to meet his forehead, nearly sending them tumbling but he was strong, keeping them both in their current sitting position. His lips crashed with hers and she moaned, cupping his face in her hands and devouring him until she felt wave after wave of pleasure, clenching around him and breaking their kiss to take a shaky breath of air, gasping as she fell over the edge once more. He pushed up into her heat until he lost it himself and was utterly spent, slowing his roll and meeting her glossy eyed gaze.

“Good morning.” She greeted with an airy laugh, making him grin at her crookedly as he leaned up to capture her lips. Parker’s hands traced over her sides and down to her rear, gently lifting her off of him so he could slip from her body and she sighed watonly at the loss of him inside her. She hadn’t even stood since last night but already she could tell with the way her legs were trembling around him that she might struggle with even walking back to her room.

“Well I certainly approve of your wake up calls, Tarzan.” Mari praised, kissing him lightly and pressing her forehead to his own, wanting nothing more than to stay and let him have her all day if they both lasted that long. “I really should go though, sweetie…” She reminded him, running her hands along his scruffy chin again and wrapping her fingers around the back of his neck, holding him there for a moment or two longer despite her words. “I’ll see you soon for breakfast.” She murmured, not wanting to go but knowing the longer she lingered the more she risked getting caught.

Parker nodded and kissed the corner of her mouth before she slid out of his lap and wandered shakily to grab her clothes. He chuckled a little at her newly born fawn stance, trying to keep her legs from wobbling. “Sure I’d have been just fine had you not torn your shorts off.” She teased, knowing full well she had insisted he undress and take her. He pointed that fact out to her instantly and she stuck her pink tongue out at him, wiggling her panties back up her thighs and snapping the band around her hips, seeing him eye her. “Behave.” She said playfully, flinging his own shirt at his face as she scooped up her own and pulled her arms through the sleeves, leaving it unbuttoned mostly as she slipped up to his door.

Mari gave a little wave that he returned and trotted off to her own room, checking the hall even as she entered to ensure that she didn’t hear her father at all yet. He must have still been asleep because there was no sign of him, no scent of coffee in the air, no television playing in the livingroom and she smiled, knowing they had managed just fine. She slipped into her bathroom and showered off, taking more time than she might as she kept replaying her evening and morning with her lover, wanting nothing more than to see him again already.

Once dressed she bounded out to the front of the bunker, seeing her father in the kitchen, making up an overly cheesy pan of eggs while his bacon sizzled and cooked on the other side of the stove while he sipped his coffee at the same time. “Mmm… Burritos?” She inquired, making him jolted ever so slightly as he heard her, he must have been zoning considering he was humming a Beatles song to himself as he cooked. He smiled brightly at her, turning instantly and setting down his mug to hug her tight once his hands were free. She giggled at him kissing her cheek, “Morning Daddy.” She hummed, a particular gleam in her eyes.

“Did you want some help?” She asked and he laughed, nudging her to get out of the kitchen so he could cook, instructing her to watch her bridal shows like her mother used to and not get up again. Though she could hear the little catch in his voice despite that his words weren’t sentimental in the least but he must have been thinking about the fact that she was older, “No crying on me.” She stated, squeezing his hand and lingering anyways. “Dad it’s just another birthday, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

Mari smiled at him and left before he could say much of anything else and sure enough when she came out Parker was in the living room. Her heart raced instantly but she padded over to him, sitting down at his side and giggling despite herself. He asked her what on earth she was so happy about and she thumped his chest, making him grab her wrist and pin it down, tsking at her not to start with him or he’d have to take it out on her later. “That a promise?” She smirked, talking quietly so her father wasn’t privy to their conversation in the other room. He asked her how she was feeling, if she was sore at all and she shrugged, “A little but… In a good way.” She answered, letting him lace his fingers with hers as she fell into his side, curling up against him on the sofa.

Parker recognized distinct change in Mari's father after her eighteenth birthday. As much as it seemed to pain him, the elder hunter was making a notable effort to be more tolerant, both of he and Mari's relationship and of Mari making decisions for herself in general. He still cringed when he saw them kiss and occasionally reminded the pair that he still would enforce his rule of them staying out of each other's bedrooms, though it was really just him standing on principle since the couple was fairly sure he knew they often slept together and simply didn't want to acknowledge it.

Parker started Mari on an intense training regimen, drilling her long and hard even to the point where the brunette would leave their sessions angry with him for pushing her too far at least in her opinion but he often would soothe her ire later by making her body sing. Sometimes he wondered if she didn't pretend to be more upset with him just so he'd come drag her to his bed later that night.

The trio developed a fairly solid dynamic after a year of living together, and Mari was starting to ask Parker and Dean more and more if they would finally let her start taking hunting cases. The pair of more experienced hunters were still dragging their feet however, and with good reason since while Mari was a great student she still tended to let herself get fired up too quickly and that spelled death on a hunt.

Not long after Mari's nineteenth birthday, Parker was doing his daily intensive morning workout down in the gym area, pounding the hell out of his worn heavy bag and working off his lingering frustration from a particularly bad vision he'd had last night. He had woken up thrashing and screaming from it, to find that Mari had come in to comfort him as was her habit but the brunette was huddled on the floor by his door, weeping and cuddling with Finn, so frightened by what she'd seen unfolding in his mind that she hadn't even been able to continue trying to bring him out of it. He had held her for awhile after, though he wasn't much comfort himself considering how affected by the violence he'd seen he was and after awhile he'd walked her back to her own room, leaving his furry friend to soothe her to sleep while he went back and tried unsuccessfully to sleep.

She had tried working the Castiel many times, trying to find a way to use her angelic influence on him without seeing his visions herself, but no matter what she tried it just didn't seem to be in the cards. Parker urged her to stop trying to help him, but still she persisted and now he wasn't even sure how Mari would be feeling this morning after how bad last night had been.

Parker hit the bag with all his strength, yelling a bit out of frustration and catching the bag as it swung violently from the force of his blow. He heard a quiet voice by the doorway and he looked around the bag, seeing Mari holding her tablet and looking at him with a worried expression.

"Hey... How you feeling?" He asked hesitantly, crossing the space and wiping the sweat off his face with the towel around his neck. Mari looked up at him and her blue eyes softened with sympathy, retorting that she was the one who should be asking that question. Parker chuckled and shook his head. "I'm fine. What's up?" He asked, trying to avoid having to talk about what he'd seen last night since it was still so fresh in his mind.

Mari didn’t like the things she saw nor was she even remotely comfortable with the fact that Parker went through that all the time. She only caught his visions on occasion when she would comfort him, not nearly every night like he sometimes put up with. She didn’t know how he did it; how he managed to at least pretend to be okay enough to comfort her rather than himself last night. Her heart still raced every time she thought about it again and no matter what she did the images ran through her head whether she wanted them to or not.

She tried to get her focus elsewhere; researching in the way that her father taught her to do so before a hunt and she wanted to get her mind off of last night however she could which to her meant jumping into a hunt with the aid of Parker she hoped. She took the books and her tablet, reading up as much as she could find before she worked up the courage to even bring up the case to either men.

She padded out to the gym that had more or less become Parker’s sanctuary or playground or both… pushing open the door and seeing exactly what she expect, her lover channeling his aggression and using it as inspiration to work out like he always did. She frowned when she heard him yelling from the build-up, knowing he was holding in a lot more than she originally thought, “Hi.” She greeted quietly, clearing her throat when he looked around the bag to meet her eyes. He must have noted her concern based on the way he spoke to her in a far more chipper tone than he might have and she knew for certain he was trying to play off everything for her sake more than his own.

“I should be asking you that.” The brunette pointed out, her brow crinkled with worry for the man but he claimed he was fine. She accepted for now, figuring he didn’t want to dwell on it when he didn’t have to especially considering they couldn’t do much of anything about what he saw. She tucked her hair behind her ear, soon fidgeting with the small twists that ran around the sides of her head and met in a clip at the back. “Nothing I just was looking some stuff up.” She told him quietly, scooping up his water when she passed by the weight bench he left it on, carrying it over to him.

She figured he could guess what she had been up to considering she didn’t exactly just haul her tablet around for no reason. She handed off the bottle and he took it gladly, popping the top and gulping down a good amount with a huff of breath when he asked her again what was really up. “I have this case that’s near Chance, Maryland or it is in Chance I’m not really sure but… here.” Mari started, clicking on her tablet and handing it to him hesitantly. She didn’t fear Parker nor did she fear her father but she was however afraid of upsetting them and while she might have a little more courage to bring things like this up deep down she felt like she might explode with the pounding of her heart.

Parker took the device and peered down at the article she had pulled up as she took to his side to read as well. “There’s been a line of drowning’s in Chesapeake Bay which okay this time of year with the tides and stuff it’s not really that unusual but the town’s population is only in like the mid 500’s or something and it’s depleting fast. I was looking through old reports from like two-three years ago and towards the end of May three years ago, was the first drowning they had in almost a decade. I mean small town, everyone watches over everyone right? Somehow no one saw this lady get in the water, supposedly not even her husband.”

She paused, letting him scan over the screen for another moment or two on his own before reaching under his arm to slide her finger across the device, pulling up the next bit she wanted to get to. “Death count is up to fifteen as of yesterday… A kid named Robert Turner, no relation was dragged under the water. Guess he got pulled so deep his friends couldn’t keep up or make it to him in time to pull him out. His body was searched for but according to the article police think he was caught on something and sunk… Never heard of a dead body sinking but he floated ashore this morning.”

“I was reading through some of my Uncle Sammy’s old notes and stuff and he wrote about this one case… a vengeful spirit type of thing. The little boy drowned when swimming with a couple of his friends. Turns out they accidently killed him and never told anyone for decades and then all the sudden he came back from the dead, starting taking out everyone these people loved that got into the same lake. I’m kinda wondering if it’s something similar.” Mari mused, taking the tablet back from Parker’s larger hands and clicking to a different screen as she read through some of her own writing that she had collected when taking notes on the articles. “A lot of the people that’ve gone missing the past year or so were present when that woman got sucked under. It’s like Final Destination crap in a backwards sort of sense I guess? Could be completely off base but I mean small town, hot summer days, most everybody is going to have been hanging around the shoreline at the same time. Probably better that if that’s the case, we don’t wait until half the population in the town is dead.” She pointed out.

The brunette looked up at him, clicking her tablet off and waiting for his approval or dismissal though she hoped it wasn’t the latter. “It’s about a 21 hour drive, give or take a bit… kind of out of our way but it worries me that it wasn’t on Uncle Garth’s radar. Or maybe it has been and he’s not giving the job to anyone… I can give him a call too, see what he knows but if he’s got nothing then we might be up for the job. His guys have been spread thin, I think we can handle this on our own.” She rattled on, standing taller as if she might fight her lover who only chuckled at her. Her shoulders slumped, “I really wanna do this. You and Daddy have got to stop treating me like I’m some fragile little china doll for you boys to pass back and forth and cradle.” She said, her eyes welling with angry tears for him laughing at her but he raised his hand, questioning who Garth was and her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Oh. Uhh—Friend of my Dad’s from decades ago. He’s not around much but it’s cuz he’s running the show alone again with my mom gone. Mom used to help him organize hunts and keep tabs on all of the guys, run the phones and play FBI agent or Zoologist whenever they needed her to. He took over for Bobby then she took over for Garth.” Mari answered with a shrug, starting to speak again until Parker questioned Bobby. “Really? Parker I hardly think that right now is a time to learn this crap.” She snapped at him and he raised his hands in defense and she soon caught on to what he was doing, avoiding his verdict on the issue.

“Look I just… I thought that having a case would get our minds off of things and having one a distance away will… let us be alone together. Dad won’t wanna tag along that far out anymore when he’s got work here.” She finished off, trying to keep her eyes from tracking over her boyfriend’s sweaty frame, needing to keep her focus if she was going to win this one. “I want it to be you and me and I wanna get away and start hunting. For all we know this thing could just be some freak monster or something… I don’t know.”

Parker looked over the information Mari had gathered on her tablet, listening to her all but begging him to let them take on this case or what she suspected was a case anyhow.

He let go of his less important questions concerning her father's colleagues and cleared his throat skeptically. "You might be onto something here, it's good legwork you did. But I'm not sure your dad is gonna like letting you cut your teeth on a case so far away, even with me along." Parker cautioned, picturing Dean's disapproving expression already.

Mari sighed and took her device back, agreeing that her dad likely wouldn't like it but that was why she needed him to back her up and help her convince the elder hunter that they were on to something and needed to investigate it further.

Parker cocked his head to one side and quirked his brows at her. "You know... We can't just use this to run away from what we saw last night. I'm sorry you had to see that, and I know you wanna help me, but... Baby you gotta understand," the young hunter reached out and gently took Mari's hand in his, "Visions like that, they're part of my life, I wish I could say bad ones like that are rare, but they're not really. I don't want you to feel obligated to rescue me when they happen. You'll drive yourself crazy trying to do that." He smiled softly at her when she started to tear up, pulling her closer to bend down and kiss her cheek.

"Let's go talk to your dad about it. I think we can get to the bottom of this no problem." He assured her, taking her hand and leading her up out of the gym to find Dean.

___  
The pair had been driving all day, music blaring, windows down, Finn sticking his head out the back to pant in the breeze. You almost would think the pair of hunters were on their way to a romantic getaway, with how carefree they looked and acted.

"Town's comin' up, wanna stop here for the night?" Parker asked the brunette seated beside him. They were coming to the halfway point to Maine and he was ready for a meal and a bed, with Mari in it.

 

Mari pushed up into Parker’s frame, crying softly but her emotions were silenced by his lips pressed to hers. She supposed he was right, she couldn’t stop these dreams from coming to him no matter how hard she tried every night now. She hardly saw her own bed anymore and some night she wasn’t even sure that he knew she came in or not, waking only to feeling well rested like she coaxed him into with her angelic abilities. It put a strain on her to say the least and while she would never blame him for it when she had been the one putting in her all to ‘fix’ what he saw but it still affected her greatly.

He suggested they go talk to her father and she forced a smile, tugging him down once more for a final kiss before he took her hand. She clutched to it out of fear for what her father might say but much to her surprise he okayed the hunt so long as Parker called the shots and she checked in with him when they stopped and whenever they got leads. She didn’t like his terms much but she would take what he would give her.

\---

Mari’s heart was racing the entire time they were driving, worrying her lower lip from time to time as she thought and occasionally feeling Parker’s hand on her leg to keep her in the here and now. So she hadn’t hunted for real in a long time, wasn’t even sure if that first job of hers counted anyways considering it was so textbook. She eased when they put the windows down and Parker slipped in her favorite Beatles tape for the last couple hours, letting it play and rewinding it so she could listen again. He knew her habits all too well, the simple things that would calm her mind and help her body relax.

She turned at the sound of his voice, having been gazing out the passenger side window. The brunette smiled up at him, squeezing his fingers that had been laced lazily with hers for the past half hour or so. She gave a nod but ran her free hand over her stomach, “Yea but wanna stop off at that Bubba’s Burgers place over there first? I’m starving.” She muttered, grinning once more when Finn leaned over the back of her seat to come and pant in her face, licking her cheek when she glanced at him. “I think Finn is too.” She laughed.

Parker pulled off and ran inside to get them food when Mari told him she didn’t feel much like sitting inside the joint and they did just as they had before, setting up on the hood of the car with their meals and quietly eating under the steadying darkness. They ate during quiet conversation most of their dinner but she could feel her lover’s eyes lingering on her longer each time he stole a glance, making her heart flutter and her body burn hot for him. “Careful Tarzan, gonna make you take me here with an audience if you keep making goo-goo eyes at me like that.” She teased, winking at him when he laughed and helped her off the hood of the car with an offering of his hand.

Her lover drove them back and she was all too pleased to get a chance for rest… if he would allow it that was. He walked Finn around the front of the motel’s office while she went inside to get them a room, confirming with the manager that their furry friend was allowed to bunk here just the same. “Got one queen. I hope you’re not disappointed.” She hummed, wiggling the key between them as she popped up in his space. He grinned as her hand propped against his chest to keep herself up on her toes so they could be nearly eye to eye.

Parker bent to speak near her lips but he didn’t give her a kiss like she wanted, asking if she was taking the couch then. She laughed, rolling her eyes when he pulled away and took the key, grabbing their bags from the trunk of the car and she helped him carry them to the room. “Actually I was thinking that me and Finn could share the bed and you could sleep at the door, just in case of intruders.” She teased in return, waiting for him to unlock their home for the evening.

Mari entered first, unleashing Finn so he could roam around his new domain except he didn’t, sighing heavily as he leapt up on the mattress. “Hey no leaving rings of fur everywhere buddy or I won’t get my deposit back.” She chided sweetly, following him over to the bed but before she could reach him her lover snatched her up in his arms, making her squeak as her feet left the earth. “Parker!” She yelped, swatting at him when he tossed her over his shoulder easily, his arm hooked around her legs as she slapped at his backside to let her go.

He chuckled, talking to Finn as if he was alone and he gently told the dog to take to the sofa which he did, hoping down with a wagging tail and heading over to the couch. Mari sighed, the sound turning into a surprised ‘oof’ when the man shifted suddenly and dropped them both down onto the mattress. She giggled as he rested most his weight atop her, “God how much do you weigh, you’re worse than Finn, you know that?” She laughed lightly, shifting beneath him just enough to free her arms and wrap them around him.

Parker pulled up off her, propping himself on his elbow and lying beside her instead and looking at her in the way he always did. She smirked at him, rolling to take position over him when he lay back in the same moment, taking to gripping her sides as she settled to straddle his waist. “Do you realize that this is our first time truly alone together, no fear of interruption or people being privy to our activities… Well not people we know at least.” She pointed out, tracing her hands up and down his broad muscled chest, “I have high hopes of you making me scream tonight, baby.”

 

Parker chuckled, slipping his hands up over Mari's hips and gripping her gently. "I think that can be arranged." He smiled devilishly up at the young brunette, going through his list of options and trying to pick what he wanted to do first. Mari wasn't the only one excited about having this evening to themselves.

"Why don't you take that shirt off, hmm? Let me see you..." He prompted, fidgeting with the hem of her top and letting his fingers skim over her bare skin beneath the garment. Mari grinned and bit her lower lip, reaching down and slowly tugged it up over her head. Parker's eyes darkened as he looked over her exposed upper half, licking his lips unconsciously as she ran her hands up over the swell of her breasts.

"Take it off..." Parker instructed, his voice getting husky with want. Mari shivered and reached behind her back, unclasping her simple black bra and discarding the flimsy garment on the floor. The young hunter drew his muscled, inked arms up and cupped her full breasts, fondling her flesh and getting harder for her as he explored her softness.

"You are so beautiful baby." He murmured, tweaking her nipples and squeezing her flesh harder, making the curvy brunette mewl and lean into his touch. She started to curve down over him and her deep brown hair fell in curtains about his face, enclosing them in their own little world.

"I'm gonna make you scream over and over Tinkerbell. C'mere." He promised, smiling wickedly before tangling his hand in her hair at the nape of her neck and drawing her down close enough to capture her lips with his. Parker immediately plundered her mouth, growling with need as he tasted her and let his hands roam over her bare skin.

He kissed her hungrily, starting to rock his hips up into hers and sparking the flame between them that he planned to have built into a roaring bonfire before the night was over. Mari hummed against his lips and ground down against his hardness, her nails scratching over his arms making his flinch and hiss.

They broke apart to gasp for breath and Parker unfastened her jeans, his dark brows raising playfully as he pushed his hand into her pants and firmly stroked her center through her soaked panties. "Mm babe you're so wet... I can't wait to be inside you..." He panted, forcing two fingers inside her abruptly as he spoke.

Mari’s lips parted at his rough demands, all too happy to give into them as she tugged off garment after garment and arched over his broad frame. She was fairly adjusted to their activities as well as his compliments, happy to accept both quite frankly. She made eye contact with the man fondling her full chest, moaning lightly at his promise of making her scream like she wanted. He tugged at her to line up their mouths and she hardly had time to process anything as their lips crashed together and he devoured her hungrily.

It pleased her to know that she could get him going so easily, feeling him rock up into her hips, his hardness drawing along her sensitive clit. She gasped at the feeling, unable to pull off his lips, rolling her hips in tandem with his motions and getting wetter with each movement. The brunette dug her nails into his corded flesh, scratching down his tattooed skin, her eyes darkening as they pulled back for air.

He wasted no time in unfastening her bottoms, hardly letting her chance to deny him, not that she would she already felt dizzy just thinking of the things he could do to her body. He knew her and well, that was fair to say, knew exactly how to get her going and get her off in moments flat if he wanted. Her lips parted in silent cry that turned into an oddly hitched breath as his fingers dove right into her slick heat. “Oh god…” She panted.

Parker smirked up at her from where he lie, his fingers entangled in her hair to keep her looking in his direction and it was hard for her to fight the heaviness to her eye lids but she did, staring at him as he stroked her walls just how she liked. Her slim hips rolled into his hand, riding his digits eagerly and seeing the darkness in his eyes. She braced her hands on his shoulders as he sat forward just enough that he could kiss at her on occasion, ensuring he got a full view of when she tumbled. “Fuck… Oh.. Fuck, Parker.” She cried out, his heel pressing against her clit for added sensation.

His fingers withdrew and he alternated to teasing her clit alone despite her grip on his wrist trying to earn more again but he denied her. The motions along her button of nerves stopped just as she was nearing her breaking point. “Please…” She begged, trying to keep him there and touching her, his hand started up again and he kept her teetering, riding that edge but not letting her fall quite yet and it was almost painful, the burn in the pit of her stomach, the fire going unquenched, “Baby please I wanna come so bad.” She whined, her head tipping forward to press her forehead against his at his prompting and he instructed her in a rough voice to come in his hand.

His digits slipped lower into her body once more and she clenched around him erratically and drawing his digits in further. He hit that sweet spot deep inside her that made her see stars, falling over the edge and finding her peak, coming around his fingers and soaking his palm, hearing him growl at the feeling of her slickness drenching him. Mari’s eyes fluttered closed as she rode out her high on his hand, sighing as he withdrew and she could hear him licking his hand clean of all evidence of her, always seeming to have a particular hunger for her taste. She opened her eyes to look at him, grinning and leaning forward to kiss him sweetly, humming at the taste of her on his lips.

Mari bit at his bottom lip, tugging it into her mouth and dragging her nails over his arms again. “You better get the hell outta these clothes, Parker.” She growled out, reaching down to tear his shirt up over his head. He chuckled and asked her why on earth she would want that but she was far too busy, biting at his neck and forcing him to lie back, that was until he harshly flipped her, tossing her weight beneath him and asking through clenched teeth why she wanted him out of his clothes so bad.

She stared up at him, feeling vulnerable as she panted heavily with her want. He did nothing, waiting for an answer and she half gulped before speaking, “I want you to fuck me, Tarzan. You can’t fuck me in your clothes now can you?” She pointed out, crying out when he ground against her partly bare lower half, yanking off her jeans the rest of the way and asking her if she was challenging him. She giggled, “More or less… I’d much rather you inside me, making me scream your name and come again… and again around you baby.” She responded in a rough whisper.

 

Parker twitched with want just hearing her fevered words about want him inside her, tugging her panties off after her jeans so she was completely bare beneath him. "That's funny you say that, 'cuz I was just thinking that's exactly what I'd like as well." He quipped, craning his head down and kissing her deeply. He broke the contact and pressed his brow against hers, his eyes remaining closed as he took a second or two to simply listen to her ragged breathing and feel the way she was trembling against him.

The young hunter rose up and rid himself of his clothing as per Mari's insistence. He fished his wallet from his shed jeans and took out the condom he had stored there, not wanting to bother going even the few feet away from his lover to get one from the small box he'd packed in his duffle. Parker tore open the foil packet with his straight white teeth and rolled his protection on, not missing the way Mari's gaze was sweeping up and down his chiseled frame while he was occupied.

Parker reached down and grabbed Mari's legs, bending them up and back till her knees were hovering on either side of her head and her soaked sex was raised and open for him. He held her firmly locked in place and squared his stance, craning over her and grinding his length along her slick entrance and over her still tingling clit.

Mari keened with want and tried to tip her hips up enough to merge their bodies but Parker rose his own hips to prevent her from doing so. She pleaded with him take her and he turned his head to nip at the inside of her knee, his stubbled chin scratching at her smooth skin.

"Are you sure that's what you want? You're not really being very straightforward with me here Tink." He teased, a wolfish grin transforming his features when Mari gripped his arms pinning her legs back and she demanded yet again that he fuck her till she screamed. He loved hearing her demands, it got him going to know just how badly she wanted him. Finally he gave in and plunged into her tight heat, groaning at how good it felt to finally bury himself inside her.

Parker normally liked to start out slower and build them up more gradually to their release, but her talk had riled him up and so with basically no preamble whatsoever he began pounding into her hard and deep, thrusting like mad and grunting roughly as he lost himself to the sensation of her walls clenching around his throbbing length. Mari obviously hadn't been expecting him to be so rough so quick either, her lust-darkened eyes going wide and her lips parting in a broken moan that spiraled up in pitch and volume the more he drove into her.

Parker changed the angle of his hips so he'd hit the sweet spot deep inside her he knew would send her into oblivion, pumping in and out of her slick core so rapidly it was giving Mari's moans of pleasure a bit of a stutter. "Fuck... You feel so good baby, come for me..." He groaned, slamming into her harder and watching eagerly as her face contorted with pleasure and she screamed his name in ecstasy. Her walls clamped around him and he carried her through two bone melting orgasms before finally succumbing himself.

Parker groaned and jolted as he came, riding out his climax on the tail end of hers, panting roughly as her last spasms of pleasure milked him dry. He released his grip on the crooks of her knees and slid from her body, discarding his condom and falling back onto his side next to her on the tangled comforter. Mari was struggling to breathe evenly, her legs trembling from the force of her release as she slowly straightened them back out again on the bed. Parker put his hand on her flat abdomen and idly traced patterns on her skin, smiling fondly at the glassy-eyed girl giggling up at him.

Mari’s brain shorted out as soon Parker entered her abruptly, taking her hard and fast from the start to where she hardly had time to process anything else. She cried out brokenly to him, feeling him buried deep inside her, his strong arms easily maneuvering her where he wanted and needed to make her lose her mind like only he ever could. She clutched to him wherever she could manage, her vision blurry and her body shaking in spasms of pleasure as he ordered her to come.

As if on command, her nails dug into his flesh, her back bowing off the bed as she found her peak, screaming his name as she came once then once more soon after. He rode out his pleasure inside her body, drawing out her orgasm until she couldn’t even hold onto him anymore, her hands slipping and if it weren’t for his arms pinning her legs where they were she wouldn’t have the strength to keep them in place. He sighed raggedly as he let up his grip, his motions slowing to a stop and he slipped from her body. She slowly eased her legs down, letting her feet dangle a bit as she tried to gather herself.

The brunette’s chest heaved with her breathing, staring blankly at the ceiling as she tried to gather herself from her mind blowing highs. Her legs shook as she straightened them out finally, turning at the feeling of Parker’s movements until his large hand rested over her abdomen possessively. She giggled airily when their eyes met, seeing the fond grin on his face, all too pleased with himself for making it happen like she requested. “You sure as hell don’t disappoint, Tarzan.” She sighed, rolling onto her side and getting half tangled in the blanket that was strewn over the top of the mattress.

He instantly tucked his hands beneath her arms and pulled at her, shifting her weight easily and tugging her body towards his own so they could lie a bit closer, clearly seeing she was struggling a bit on her own. She lie on her back again, keeping his strong arm pinned around her waist, feeling his breath against her neck as he shared her pillow and her free hand closest to him, carded her fingers through his short hair, touching idly as he asked her if she had any other requests. She laughed in her nose and glanced at him, “I have a long list of things I’d like you to do to me again and again, you know that… But with a nine to ten hour drive left tomorrow… best we save most of them for another day.” She hummed.

She closed her eyes at the feeling of Parker’s soft lips ghosting over her skin, far slower than before, the warm sensation against her chilled skin making her shiver. His hand slid down her front as he kissed her, his fingers finding her center and pushing her thighs apart so he could touch her again. Mari’s eyes darkened, turning her head to meet his lips in a slow torturous kiss, gasping lightly into his mouth as his digits slowly pushed into her heat, working her desire back up. She rolled her hips into his hand, savoring his touch as he seemed to want to make up for his previous roughness.

His free hand cupped her face and she rolled onto her side once more to face him, taking him in her hand and stroking his returning hardness while they kissed. Parker growled at her touch and she couldn’t help the satisfied little smirk at hearing his response to her, feeling his response to her as she bent her leg at the knee, allowing him better access to caress her wet mound. Slow and sweet wasn’t always their thing but sometimes she liked these moments with him, taking the time to build each other up.

Parker tipped his hips slightly up into her hand, groaning as her easy pace slowly built his want back up. He pumped his digits in and out of her core, circling his thumb over her clit in tandem with his curled come hither motions inside her body. Mari hummed and sighed as she adjusted her legs to give him better access, her blue eyes darkening and her lips curving in an anticipatory grin.

They continued to work each other up, Parker pumped harder into her and Mari gasped, scooting closer to him on the bed and he craned his head down to start kissing and sucking at her full breasts. The brunette trembled and moaned as she drew closer to her peak, her grip on him tightening and it was all he could do not to lose rhythm as he felt his own release coiling low in his belly.

"Fuck baby I'm gonna come... Ahh..." Parker growled against her flesh, closing his eyes and burrowing his face into the crook of her neck, his whole body tensing as he reached the cusp of his pleasure. He stroked her walls and ground his palm against her clit, wanting her to fall over the edge with him. Mari responded to the increased sensation, crying out loudly and riding his hand, shuddering as her orgasm swept through her. Her desire soaked his hand as he kept up his motions, trying to make her climax last as long as he could.

Her sounds and her soft hand pumping his length sent him over the edge, Parker groaned his lover's name as he came, his seed spurting up over his chiseled tattooed abs and slipping down over Mari's fingers still gripping him. He sighed raggedly in the wake of his pleasure, raising his face up to meet hers and he smiled softly before kissing her gently on the lips.

"Okay, now I think I can go to sleep." Parker said with a little chuckle, rolling over to grab some tissues so they could clean themselves up a bit. He tugged the sheets out from under their naked bodies and covered them at the waist, they both still needed a moment or two to cool down. "Even if we get an early start, we probably won't be able to get much done till the morning after we get to Maine, so I'll get more chances to make you scream." He mused, grinning devilishly at his girlfriend and opening his arm up for her to cuddle into him. The pair fell asleep fairly quickly, getting partially woken up a couple hours later when Finn decided the bed was big enough for all three of them.

Early the next morning they pair of young hunters pulled out of town, eating their breakfast burritos on the drive, Mari fed a couple to Finn as well. They stopped a few times to stretch and let the dog romp around, and again Parker had the same sensation that they weren't really heading towards a job, they were on some kind of vacation. It had been a long time since he'd had such a good time with someone, and they weren't even doing anything special, just driving from point A to point B. Parker had had a few girlfriends but never anyone he felt so good, so relaxed with like Mari. It was like they could enjoy themselves even when they weren't doing anything.

“Oh I’m so disappointed.” Mari giggled at his mention of being able to make her scream a few more times before they really had to get down to business. She slipped into his arms and rested her hand delicately along his chest, letting him simply hold her as her eyes fluttered closed. She drifted off beside him, like she did most nights she spent with the man, her sleep coming far easier knowing he was spooned up against her. 

The couple woke early the next morning and took to driving after checking out of their motel and letting Finn do his business while Parker packed up the car. She didn’t feel at all like they were going on a hunt, not like the first time when she searched and fought alone or even the second when they were on a stake out together, this felt nothing like it. They had drove for hours together, nearly an entire day and she was pretty sure that neither of them were exactly trying to get to this location any time soon.

He pulled off again for gas, leaving Finn in the back seat until Mari let him out and he tore off to the grass, barking like mad at a flock of birds until Parker whistled the way he always did to get their companions attention once more. She smiled as she watched the dog turn as abruptly as he could, charging back towards them and leaping at his owner’s direction. The brunette took off to the little convenient store attached to the station, getting them snacks, mostly her and Finn but she made sure to get a Powerade of her lover’s favorite flavor so he at least had that.

She came back out and bounded around the car when Parker was closing up the gas tank, slapping the little door shut and she sprung at him, her arms wrapping around his neck and her legs hitching around his waist, taking to his back and not catching him off guard at all. The young Nephilim growled playfully as if she might be able to take him down, her cherry laffy taffy giving away who it was even as she covered his eyes. “I’m taking you down punk.” She giggled, taking her hand away as she felt him bite at her candy stick. Her head craned over his shoulder and he seemed completely unfazed by her but she could see the corner of his mouth curling up indicating that he was at least amused.

She curled around him, the muscled man supporting her weight easily as he walked over to the driver’s side door but she didn’t hop off. “You know what I was thinking…” Mari mused, her arm hooking around his neck and she grunted lightly when he shifted her weight up his back more, nodding his head and Finn happily followed. His hands took to holding her calves and he simply opted for walking a bit while holding her like he was, asking her what she was thinking. She tore into her candy, her other hand offering the bag she was carrying so he could take it and he did, looping it around his wrist and listening to her.

“That we get as far as we can before dinner… stop off at a nice place for chowing down. Kinda worried about both my big guys getting all stiff legged being in the car that long.” She commented near his ear, her head craning over his shoulder. “I mean we can marathon it if you want to. I can drive for a bit but I’m not even sure they’ll have the beach open at all so how much harm could come if we take our time a bit.” Mari mentioned, squeaking when he dropped her down suddenly and her rear hit the top of a picnic table just near the grassy area beside the station.

She laughed, unwrapping from him when he pulled away and she thought that maybe she upset him somehow. Parker turned and climbed onto the bench while she sat on the top of the table, her legs on either side of him and he rested his forearms against her thighs, looking up at her. She arched a brow at him, “What are you doing?” She questioned, chewing on the piece of candy she bit off in her mouth. He shrugged, asking her if her head was in this, if she knew they were going on a hunt. “Yea… Parker I researched this case on my own, made the calls to Garth and everything, of course I know we’re on a case.” She responded a little curtly.

“If you just want to get there that’s fine.” Mari half snipped at him, starting to pull her leg from one of his sides so she wasn’t sitting so intimately with him or anything along those lines for now, feeling uncomfortable all the sudden but perhaps he had caught onto her slight worry towards even doing this. She wanted this but that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous and maybe he was having second thoughts about letting her do a hunt like this at all. He grabbed at her leg to stop her from pulling away so he could talk, saying he was just asking. “I just thought that… I don’t know you seemed like you wanted to take your time too. This kind of spending time together is way different than the hours we get at the bunker. I know this is a job, I do but that doesn’t have to be all that it is does it?”

Parker sighed as he held his girlfriend from escaping, knowing he'd upset her with his question but it was important for her to remember that first and foremost this was work, dangerous work. "Of course I want to spend more time with you, quality time like this where it's just you and me. But... I want you to do something for me real quick, okay? I want you to think about your mom. Think about how much you love her, miss her, how much it hurt when she died." He paused for a second, lightly stroking her thighs and watching her expression wilt as her thoughts drifted to her mother.

"Now think about this: Every single one of those victims you researched for this case, they all had family, people who cared about them and are hurting, just like you, because they lost them. The reason... The real reason you and I are working this case isn't because we're going to kill a monster. We're doing it for those people who have lost a loved one, we're preventing more people from having to feel that loss, that pain. No matter what you and I might want or need, we can't lose sight of the fact that the work we do effects people's lives in the most fundamental way possible." Parker explained quietly, hoping that Mari would be able to see past her own reactive emotions to really understand what he was telling her.

"Now that doesn't mean you should feel bad about wanting to have a little fun. People get hurt and die every second and we can't possibly do something for all of them. It's just the way the world is, and we have to live in that world, find a little joy in it to keep going. That's why I have my tattoos, you know? To remind me of what I've done, what I've failed to do... But also to remind me that I have the power to change things, to build on my old mistakes and be a force for good, as much as I'm able." He sighed wistfully, a big part of him didn't feel worthy of speaking to anyone about doing good, after all the bad he'd done. 

He shook his head slightly and continued, "I love this time we've had together but you and I have important work to do, and we can't lose sight of that. Let's get there, get this done, and then take our time going back, hmm? Take a detour or two if you want. Sound like a fair deal?" He asked with a crooked grin, glad to see her smiling slightly now despite the fact that tears had welled over her dark lashes over the course of him speaking to her. He didn't want her to feel guilty, he just needed her to really understand what it was they were doing out here and why.

\---  
The pair arrived in the coastal town in Maine late that evening, renting a room at a small old hotel and ordering in some Chinese takeout, including a carton of chicken fried rice and a few skewers of beef for Finn. After their talk earlier in the day Mari seemed to be in better spirits, chowing down on her orange chicken and finishing off his beef lo mein as well. She teased him about finding a porno to rent for their night's entertainment, grabbing the clicker and surfing for some of the more elicit channels. 

Parker chuckled and cleaned up their garbage, sitting on the end of their bed and making a face at her when she stopped on "Busty Vampire Vixens" and made a mocking face at him like that would be a good choice for them to rent.

"Really? I have a feeling we'd spend most of that show making fun of the factual errors." Parker quipped, laughing at Mari's pretend pout and patting his lap. "Why bother paying to watch a porno when we can just make our own for free, hmm? C'mere gorgeous." He prompted, grinning when the petite brunette set the remote down and sauntered over to stand between his legs.

Parker slid his hands up and down Mari's hips and thighs, looking her curvaceous figure up and down and getting aroused just thinking about how hot it would be seeing her dressed in something a porn star might wear. He thought Mari looked good whether she was fully clothed or naked, but a black corset, some fishnets and heels... He definitely would never say no to that.

"So what do you say, Tinkerbell? I'm sure you could put those 'Vixens' to shame." He said in a playful tone of voice, hooking his fingertips into the hem of her shorts and tugging her closer, unfastening the button fly of her pants and craning his head to nip at the exposed waistband of her lacy panties.

“Aww come on.” Mari whined when Parker seemed uninterested in the porno film she started to switch to. She was only teasing in her choice but certainly wouldn’t be opposed to getting into a movie or two like that with her boy. She pouted at him jokingly, giggling when he pat his lap for her to come and sit, liking his suggestion of making their own entertainment for free.

She set the remote down and sauntered over to him, stepping between his legs, letting her eyes slip closed as Parker’s hands slid up and down her sides. His jeans weren’t doing the greatest job of hiding his want for her forming right now when she opened her blue orbs once more at the sound of his voice. She squeaked as he tugged at her shorts, prying them open easily before she could really even react or respond to his questioning.

He nipped along the waist of her purple panties and she purred at the feeling, her hand tracing over his tattooed skin and up the back of his neck to his head, threading her fingers into his short cropped hair as she could and relaxing in the bliss of his lips on her body. He pushed up the hem of her shirt a few inches, kissing at her belly and over to the edge of her hip, growling lightly against her exposed flesh. “What makes you think that hmm? Guessin’ you’ve seen glimpses of those Vixens… in order to make comparisons.” She teased, hearing him chuckle against her.

“No I’m curious how you lasted, what was it… three maybe four months? Only watching me… keeping your hands to yourself. Being all greedy and what not.” Mari continued, the spreading her legs slightly as her lover pulled at her bottoms, letting the garment pool at her feet. She let him keep his attentions on her body, hearing his muffled voice as he continued and answered her that she didn’t want to know how he kept busy. She yanked at his hair, making his teeth draw along her skin and they both hissed suddenly.

The brunette tugged at him until he arched back onto the mattress and her free hand slid along his chest as she climbed into his lap. “I want to know… Did you think of me, Tarzan?” She inquired, her eyes going dark as she settled over him, her hand snaking down his still clothed chest and to the growing bulge in his jeans. Her lips curled up as his face contorted and he twitched at her touch, pressing her palm to his length and rubbing him firmly through the fabric. “About what it’d be like to take my innocence… To hear me cry your name, to have me go down on you…” She continued, keeping her fingers tight around his hair to pin him back though she knew full well if he wanted he could get away.

His hands slid up her thighs and around her backside, gripping her ass and forcing her down against him in response just like she wanted. She liked when she got him so riled he nearly forgot all his manners and yet still managed to tend to her. She arched down to whisper against his ear, feeling him stiffen and stay as still as he could while she spoke, “’Cuz I thought about you every night.” She informed him.

Parker's hands flexed involuntarily on Mari's hips at the words she whispered harshly against his ear. Just picturing the beautiful young brunette working herself up and getting off thinking of him was enough to bring him to the edge in an instant. He took a deep, rough breath trying to get his own desire in check so he could enjoy this little tryst properly. They hadn't ever really addressed what they did 'on their own time' so to speak, but he found that he was more than a little turned on by the thought of what his girlfriend did to pass the nights before he allowed their relationship to progress to that next level.

"Is that so?" Parker murmured, catching her gaze and kissing her deeply, his hands roaming up and down her body. The young hunter turned their bodies and tossed Mari down onto the bed, hooking his hands in her loose jean shorts and yanking them down and off. He removed her shirt in much the same brusque manner, his desire getting the better of him as his imagination ran wild picturing Mari making herself come undone.

The brunette's chest was heaving with her rapid breath, picking up on his own intense level of want. Parker tossed his head further up the bed, shedding his own shirt and starting to work on his belt and jeans as he spoke to her. "Make yourself comfortable Tink. I want you to prove that just the thought of me gets you off... I wanna watch you come and then I'm gonna make you come harder. Unless you think you can do better than me." He challenged with a playful smirk.

Mari reacted just how he anticipated she would, they had been together long enough that he had her number and knew that she would leap on the chance to show him up, even in a less conventional arena like this. His girlfriend's blue eyes had gone nearly black with desire and she accepted his challenge with enthusiasm, scooting up the bed to prop her head and shoulders on the pillows and fixing him with a devilish little smile as she slowly trailed her hands up and down her body.

Parker knelt at the foot of the bed, every nerve ablaze and every synapse firing double speed as he took in every detail of his girlfriend's beautiful figure. Mari tugged her full lower lip between her teeth and giggled, perhaps feeling a little flustered doing this under his scrutiny. But he knew his lover and she was a bit of an exhibitionist at heart, so it didn't take her long to get comfortable enough to send her hands wandering down to her full chest, squeezing and rolling her breasts and sighing at the contact.

Parker twitched with want as Mari reached beneath her back to unclasp her bra, exposing her chest and his hands twitched with the impulse to touch her softness, to tease and tweak her rosy nipples like she was doing herself. But this was about her showing him how she took care of herself, so he held back his urge to climb up to her and take matters into his own hands.

Mari continued to play with her breasts, her eyes hooded and her breathing getting more shallow as she slipped one hand from her chest down her stomach to slip under her panties. Parker's eyes flickered between her center and her face, watching her fingers move beneath the flimsy fabric and her expression change as she touched herself. He wanted to lean forward and snatch her panties off so he had a better view, but again he had to remind himself that at least this time he wasn't going to alter her process at all, so he could have a 'fair' baseline to compete with when it was his turn to make her scream.

Mari couldn’t say that she was all that surprised by Parker wanting to watch her get herself off when she had been the one to bring it up in the first place. He turned their frames, tossing her beneath him and she got herself situated as per his commands. She was nervous at first but the pair had been together long enough that he had seen all over her even at her worst and yet here he was still wanting her, all of her.

She took his challenge to heart, her hands working over her chest and unhooking her bra to expose herself to him. He eyed her hungrily, starting to shed his own clothes when she let her hand slip down her frame to the lace fabric of her thin panties already soaked through with her desire. Her opposite hand twisted and tweaked her hardened nipple of one breast, teasing her clit at first to get herself going. She hummed at the sensation, starting off slow as to tease her lover opposite her.

Her eyes grew hooded as she worked herself up, feeling her body riding the edge already she was so riled from his gaze alone. Her lips parted in a soft moan of pleasure, slipping her fingers lower to dip inside of her heat. “Mmm… Parker.” She purred in a quiet whisper, hearing him groan at the simple sounds leaving her mouth. The brunette teased herself to the edge again, gasping as she neared her peak, clenching around her digits as her body arched into the contact of her hand.

Parker was chewing his lower lip, his hands balling into fists as he resisted the urge to touch her or himself. She shifted up onto her knees, giving him her rear as she slipped her panties down. She braced her hand on the headboard her other working between her legs again, her juices dripping from her body she was so soaking at the simple thoughts reeling over and over in her head. Her hand made quick work over her body, alternating between dipping into her heat and swirling over her clit until her inner most muscles flex and clamped around air, knowing with the sounds Parker was making he was getting a more than generous view of her soaked sex.

“Right there baby… Parker… Oh God yes! Yes!!” She cried out, her arched body hovering as she started massaging her chest again with her free hand, her cheek falling to rest on the mattress, ass in the air for him to watch and through hooded eyes she caught his gaze, watching his hand slowly starting to pump his thick length as her mouth fell open and she yelped and gasped, coming around her fingers and drenching her hand in her own juices.

She rode her hand in earnest until her body was trembling before his eyes, feeling his free hand brush up and over her firm ass and she smiled at him from where she lie, knowing full well he was having trouble not leaning forward and cleaning her up. Mari withdrew her fingers, sitting up just enough to let him see her sucking off her fingers and hand eagerly, perhaps to tease or perhaps part of her ritual when she thought of him. She shifted closer to him, her breathing heavy as she crawled on her knees, bracing her hand on his thighs and seeing him still trying to keep his control. She pulled off her own fingers with a wet popping sound coming from her mouth and he leaned into her, his lips parting as he resisted the urge to kiss her. “Y’know I never used to come like that ‘til I started thinking about you.” She hummed, pressing her lips to his so he could taste her lingering sweetness. “Gimme your best shot.”

Her words were like a bullet fired from a gun, and quicker than thought Parker's hand slipped between them, ripping her soaked panties from where they were still stretched just above her knees with one quick, sharp yank. He tossed the now useless scrap of fabric aside and surged forward, gripping her waist and lifting her easily, slamming her lower back against the flat wooden headboard making it thwack against the wall in turn and he quite literally sprang up into her like a coiled spring that finally snapped under too much tension.

Watching her touch herself like that, knowing beyond a doubt that it was because of him that she could drive herself to new levels of pleasure turned him on like he never imagined it could. It unlocked something primal, possessive in him he'd never felt with another woman. His normally ironclad control was sandblasted away in the wake of his desire and all he knew or cared about in that moment was that he needed to claim her, to make her scream his name and never forget that no matter how much she might get off at the mere thought of him, the real deal was better.

Mari cried out as he slammed up into her, completely caught off guard by his voracity and she wildly scrabbled at his shoulders for purchase, making him growl with a mix of pain and pleasure as her fingernails dug into his inked skin. She finally got a grip on him with her hands and her legs naturally drew up around his waist as well, hovering above his corded thighs only because he was holding her up, her positioning entirely in his control.

Parker gripped her securely and drove up into her tight, dripping core, pulling her down to meet his thrusts so he'd hit as deep inside her as he'd ever gone. There was no gradual build up, his pace was rapid and rough and judging by Mari's broken cries of pleasure she didn't object in the least. Her back still against the headboard caused the piece of furniture to smack against the wall with every upward motion he made inside her, adding a strangely erotic metronomic sound to their act. "Come for me Mari, now." He ordered, pressing his brow to hers and watching her eyes roll back in her head as her body leapt to meet his demand of it's own accord.

Parker had to bite down on his tongue and hold his breath to keep from losing it as Mari's most feminine walls clenched and spasmed in pleasure around him, his name along with a litany of curse words rushing from her parted lips as she abruptly came to her release. He pumped up into her a fraction slower, drawing his thick length nearly out of her only to bury himself again, drawing her orgasm out and making her whole body quake in his arms as he made it last.

Just as she started to recover and her eyes met his again Parker resumed his wild pace, making both of them groan loudly at the sensation and he felt her desire soaking his own thighs as he wound her up for another climax on the tail end of the first. This was the first time they'd had each other completely skin to skin and it was beyond a doubt the most satisfying experience he'd ever had. He knew he wasn't going to last much longer but that animalistic part of his brain that was currently in control was only concerned with making his mate forget everything except how good he was making her feel.

"Fuck... You're amazing baby... Come for me again, it feels so fucking good, ah... Ah!" Parker growled, pressing his brow into her sweat-dampened neck as he pounded furiously up into her heat. Mari's back bowed away from the wall and she screamed raggedly until even her ability to produce sound was taken away by the force of her orgasm. He made her peak last as long as he could, slipping from her body at the last second and coming hard between their now sweat-covered bodies, his seed spurting up onto her flat belly and his own hard abs.

Mari yelped as her back suddenly hit the head board, making it thwap against the wall behind her, her hands darting out to desperately try and grip onto something, anything to help keep he pinned. Parker’s sudden entry made her gasp, shuddering against him and biting her lip to keep from crying out too loudly instantly. Apparently he had liked watching her get herself off far more than she would have expected he did, she knew he would like it but to the point of taking her like he was. Not that she would complain one bit.

He slammed up into her tight heat and she was desperately trying to hang onto her lover, nails biting into his back and her legs pinned around him to the best of her ability but he took all control, there was nothing she could really do otherwise. He yanked her down onto him in time with his thrusts, taking her far deeper than he ever had and with each motion she cried out brokenly, her nails digging a little deeper. Parker ordered her to come and nearly right on command she did, head lulling and her body arching towards him, cursing harshly under her breath as she clenched around him, coming hard against his thick length.

The brunette’s body shook with her pleasure, her chest heaving as she tried to gather herself again but she barely had the chance. He withdrew almost completely and started back up, driving up into her soaking heat once more, their bodies slapping together with the effort. She moaned, her arms wrapping tighter around his person, humming slightly at the sensation, her body overly sensitive to his movements as she barely had chance to recover from her first high he brought her to.

His words were like the last piece she needed to ride that edge again like she wanted, hearing the heavy want and need in his voice, how much he loved taking her no matter how or when. Mari’s body bowed with her pleasure, her hands around him slipping lower to keep herself in place though with Parker’s strong arms it was likely she wasn’t going anywhere anyhow. She cried out to him once more until her voice was completely shot, fluttering around him and coming yet again. She groaned at the loss of him in her body, unable to last without losing it himself deep inside her body, panting heavily as she felt his seed against her abdomen.

She slumped, her body going completely slack against him and her hands shakily tracing over his side as his heavy breathing hit her neck. “Okay…” She started with a huff of air, catching his attention and making his head rise up so he could look at her. “Fuck… You win. You soo win.” The young Nephilim laughed lightly, hearing his chuckle as he took a moment to start kissing at her bare skin, making her sigh until he rotated their bodies, taking control of her weight still and pulling her to sit with him. He commented on the mess that they made and she scoffed, “You mean that you made, Mister See-who-can-make-Mari-come-the-hardest.” She teased.

Parker sat up further and grabbed the box of tissues over on the desk that must have been complimentary or left there by another guest. He leaned over her, forgetting about fixing himself up and instead taking to wiping her abdomen clean, his lips following the same path and making her sigh at the sensation. Her nails raked through his hair at the side of his head and she giggled when he growled, turning at suddenly biting at her wrist. “Did I not feed you enough for dinner?” She questioned with a gentle tap to his cheek, pushing him away from her frame and he laughed, sitting up and wiping off his own front before lying down with her again.

The man’s eyes were heavy and she was pretty sure she hadn’t seen Parker truly tired after they had each other like they did… perhaps ever. While most of the time he seemed far more content right now he seemed so completely satisfied with their activities he wasn’t concerned with much else other than lying with her in bed and that was okay by her. He yanked her to him, her body shivering at the slight chill in the room against her sweat dampened skin but Parker hardly seemed to mind at the moment, making her give her back to him so he could spoon up tight against her when he tugged up the covers over their bodies.

His hand slipped around her waist and she sighed contentedly, wrapping her fingers over his along her belly and inching back as close to him as she could get, craving being skin to skin with him through the night. They said little to nothing, drifting off to a fully restful state side by side or rather back to front and she couldn’t remember sleeping better than she had that night. Parker’s alarm he must have set either out of habit or for this trip in particular started to chirp on his watch somewhere beneath his jean.

He shifted, finally prying himself from around her and getting up to click it off. No sooner did she feel his hand on her shoulder, gently trying to stir her and telling her he was going to hop in the shower. “Mhmm.” She hummed tiredly, rolling back onto his side of the mattress and taking over his pillow as well as his warmth. He chuckled and told her she needed to be up and about so they could get moving rather soon so not to sleep the whole time he was in the shower. “Okaaaay. Can you stop talking now? Thanks.” She whined, her eyes flying open when Parker’s hands grabbed at her sides and he tore the blanket off, scooping her up and throwing her naked form over his shoulder with a slap to her ass, telling her it’d be faster if they just showered together.

She squeaked at him, yelling his name and cursing at him but she couldn’t help but giggle as he easily hauled her back into the bathroom, flicking on the water. And while they got cleaned up, it would have taken far less time had they been able to keep their hands to themselves. He had her twice within the hour or so and by the time they got out the entire room was steamy and hot. They padded out in towels together, getting ready together and changing at the same time. This was a hunt but by far the most vacation like hunt she had ever taken, not to say she had taken many but she liked Parker as a partner and that much was clear.

They drove the few miles into the town that they needed, stopping off at the local police station to run a couple interviews but Parker seemed far more keen on seeing the water and the location. She didn’t get why exactly but perhaps he thought something in the water was causing a pull to drag people under, the other agents and officers seeming baffled by the entire events. Mari resisted her urge to clutch at Parker’s hand, it wasn’t often that she couldn’t be openly affectionate with him in that manner, holding hands and clinging to his side for comfort and partly out of habit. This would certainly be the biggest adjustment, having to pretend they were FBI or something along those lines and not hanging all over each other. They had to keep to the professional manner of the federal agents.

 

Parker was still young, but he had a confident air about him that people tended to respect and so even when he was in his late teens he had been able to pass himself off as all sorts of authority figures. He had been a little worried about bringing Mari along for interviews at the police station but the brunette acquitted herself well, asking smart questions and behaving professionally though he did have to remind her a couple times not to do things like fix his tie or take his hand while they were working in public trying to appear official.

As expected, the officers told them much of what they already knew, but the reports they gave them to look over all had a few key similarities that made Parker eager to get out to the beach itself and survey the situation firsthand. He was switching into work mode now, there were different levels he had depending on what task he was faced with but in this case he just wanted to get into the nitty gritty and figure out just what it was they were up against. He had a small idea but if he was right the thing they were up against was like nothing he'd come across before. It both worried and intrigued him.

The pair left the police station with their copies of files of all the deaths and headed back to their hotel room to eat lunch and read through everything carefully rather than the quick once over they'd given the information at the station. Parker sat at the little table and tore into his sandwich as he read, feeding Finn a chip or two as he ate. Mari was changing out of her business attire by the bed but he didn't let his eyes wander, he wanted to review this information as fast as he could so they could head out to the beach while there was still plenty of light left.

After a moment he became aware of the young brunette standing in his periphery, and he glanced up from the paperwork he was holding to see Mari dressed only in her bra and panties, grinning at him playfully as she leaned over to snatch one of his barbecue chips for herself. He smiled at her and shook his head, "Can't go investigate murderous ocean phenomena in your undies Tink. I'll get changed here in a minute after I finish my food so you better get your own lunch eaten if you don't wanna be casing the beach on an empty stomach." He said in a good-humored tone, not missing the way his girlfriend wilted a bit at his dismissal of her presenting herself in a scantily clad way.

"Hey." He set the file down and caught her wrist as she turned to go get her clothes. "You're beautiful babe. And I plan on remembering how you look right now for later once this job is done, so don't be surprised when I come after you." He said with a warm smile, nodding at her when she asked him if that was a promise. He kept reading and she got changed, attacking her own food with her usual gusto and asking him what it was he expected to find at the beach.

"Well, not much honestly. I mean not at first. All of the deaths occurred at high tide and according to the mapping here that already happened today, early morning. But we can at least get a lay of the land, look for signs of possible suspects, water nymph, ghost, kappa... We've just gotta go see for ourselves." Parker responded, shrugging as he finished his meal and stood to change into some cargo shorts and a t-shirt, more fitting for tromping around the shoreline.

He faced her once he was dressed and gave Finn's neck a scratch when the large dog came to stand by him, picking up on the fact that they were getting ready to head someplace. "Ready to go?" He asked with a smile, hooking his thumb over his shoulder as he spoke.

Mari may have been more than a little disappointed in the fact that she couldn’t so easily distract her lover from his task but she knew he would more than make up for it later. She quickly dressed and tore into her food in the same manner that she always did, watching Parker work and occasionally getting a peek at the files he was holding. She had done all the research on just about every supernatural being but that didn’t mean that either of them knew what they were up against just by looking into death reports.

She finished up her food while Parker stood to get dressed, taking the opportunity to look over the original report once more, curiously wondering why it would have started the date it had in particular. She popped the last bite of her sandwich in her mouth and picked up her bag of chips to take with her, nodding in the man’s direction when he asked if she was ready. He laughed at the fact that she was hauling the rest of her meal with her, licking off her fingers and taking his hand in her clean one so they could walk together outside and to the car with Finn trotting beside them happily.

She let their furry companion into the back seat just as always, climbing into the passenger side and letting Parker drive them out the mile or two of road it took to get to the exact location. “So we get to play tourist now right?” The girl asked, staring out the window at the stretch of sand and sea they were pulling up to, hardly hearing his response or the repetition of her name. “It’s huge. Parker look.” She instructed, smacking his leg to get him to look as well. He arched a brow when she turned to look at him, saying he had seen the ocean plenty of times and this was only a small portion of it.

Her eyes lit up, “Really? I mean I know it goes all around the world and stuff but… That’s crazy.” She muttered, barely letting him get to a full stop before she opened her door and unfastened her belt, climbing out of the car and heading straight to the edge of the pavement that led to sand. She closed her eyes, feeling the sea breeze against her cheeks and in her hair, humming at how surprisingly relaxing it was, the smell the view, the breeze that was slightly chilled. Parker parked the car and let Finn out who immediately tore off into the sand, seeming like he had done this before as he chased after the seagulls sitting along the water’s edge.

The man came up beside her and nudged her shoulder, reminding her that they had a long walk and work to do. “I know but… why walk when you can take Finn’s lead.” She commented, taking off after the dog and running out of her shoes as she caught up with him. The sand felt strange beneath her feet but a good sort of strange, it was warm and soft, like dirt but a thicker grain and yet it felt lighter, she felt lighter. Finn barked at her when she managed to run past him, chasing after her with just as much enthusiasm as they both ignored Parker’s calls. She scooped up a stick and flung her arm back, tossing the branch for the dog to run after and he did just so, picking it up in his teeth and rather than bringing it back to her he ran back towards the car as if he might take it home with him. “Hey!” She yelled, laughing despite herself.

She jogged back, her hair mused from the wind and salty air and she smiled noticing that Parker had picked up her shoes on his walk over here. “Thanks.” She panted, laughing again and taking them from his hand, dropping them down in the sand to slip them back around her heels. He asked her if she had ever seen the beach before but he clearly knew the answer. She shook her head, “Mom showed me pictures, the few she had of when she went with her mom to the coast sometimes. Sheltered life, remember? Dad hardly wanted me at school let alone a more open space like this. Wouldn’t be surprised if he thought I’d make a run for it or something…” She huffed for air, feeling Finn’s nose nudging at her leg. He dropped the stick and she bent to pick it up happily, until Parker’s voice changed and he reminded her that they needed to work too.

“I know, jeez.” She stated, her eyes narrowing at him and her brow coming together in annoyance. “You just said we were here to look around and get a feel for the land. Just because I’m having fun right now doesn’t mean that I’m not paying attention.” She snipped at him, her tone a little harsher than she meant it to be but she was starting to feel like he borderline didn’t trust her. He grabbed at her hip and sighed, saying he understood her excitement but requesting that she really do keep an eye out for anything. She nodded but tried to pull away from him, a little upset until he pressed his lips to hers in a slow sweet kiss, perhaps because the area was clear and right now they weren’t on duty FBI agents or anything of the sort.

She hummed into the contact and bat at his chest, “You’re a cheater. I’m trying to be upset with you for being an ass.” Mari teased, giggling when he poked at her side and took the stick from her, throwing it for Finn and they both watched him run. He took her hand and tugged her with him, mentioning that they could go for a swim if she wanted and she wrinkled her nose, “Probably too cold for that. I wouldn’t want to go in with all the people that have drowned anyways… at least until we know the reason for their death and stuff right?” She suggested, though really her heart was racing at the simple thought of having to get into the actual water, seeing it was one thing but touching and being engulfed by it she wasn’t so comfortable with.

They walked a bit together, talking about the case and what their options might be until they reached a rocky ledge. Parker helped Mari climb over the caverns and to the other side so they could keep to their trek. Finn rounded the ledge just as well along a sandy path, propping himself up onto one of the rocks and panting into the wind as he stared absently into the water. He barked and it was hard to know why he might be, the dog was pretty trained in the supernatural world and with his keen senses he was fairly good at determining if there was something else around though with the added stimulation of the water and excitement of the ocean there was no way of being certain where his outbursts were coming from.

He leapt down and started sniffing at the sand, making himself sneeze as he burrowed his nose into the ground. Mari hopped off the rocks with Parker’s aid, clutching to his shoulders and curiously watching Finn go nuts in the sand. She shook her head but then as her eyes tracked up the couple both realized where it was they ended up. “Finn… Buddy stop.” She scolded, gripping at his scruff on his neck and pulling him to keep from digging like he was trying to. His dirty face rose up and he looked at her, his tongue falling out past his lips again and he simply dropped down into the sand, using the shadow of the rocks to his advantage.

The brunette moved past her lover to get to the site there were at, her eyes scanning the rock and drift wood crosses that marked the deaths of each person who drowned her the past few years. “It’s a memorial.” She commented though Parker likely already knew that. She traced her hand over one of the crosses when she got close, her heart breaking for all the losses this town had.

Parker's brow furrowed as he looked over the solemn little collection of markers fashioned from the bones of the beach itself, driftwood and bare stone, ornamented here and there with personal tokens left by mourners. He walked carefully among them towards the back of the collection, crouching down at the oldest most weathered marker made of knotted old driftwood.

"This is the first victim we read about, the one who's body never washed back up on shore." He murmured, reaching out to gently touch the old brass locket strung on the driftwood cross. He tried to pry the piece of jewelry open but it had been rusted and corroded shut by time and salt spray, so he let it be for now. 

He was honestly amazed that after all this time no one had made off with the item. Not that it was particularly valuable from a monetary standpoint but it just didn't strike him as something easily left alone by the casual bystander. Even his first impulse was to pocket the item, with a mind to find a tool and pry it open and satisfy his curiosity. Parker called for Finn and the dog came promptly, nosing at him and panting from his excitement at being at the beach. The dog loved the water, his breed specifically tuned to be strong swimmers, and it was difficult for him to stay focused when a case took them anywhere near water.

"Hey boy, hey. C'mon pal, work with me here buddy. What do you make of this, huh?" He asked the canine, tugging the locket off the stand and holding it up for Finn to sniff. The Newfoundland snuffled it eagerly, his whole demeanor changing as he picked up the distinct scent of the item and started searching around for traces of it. Parker doubted very much that after all this time there would be anything for Finn to trail... Unless this was a case of an angry ghost and the scent was being tracked anew over the beach more recently. He trusted Finn's nose and instincts, if he could find anything definitive to track, then ghost was most likely the answer here.

Parker straightened back up and looked back over at Mari, who was crouched like he had been before another cross. There was a small weather-stained teddy bear wearing sunglasses and board shorts by the marker she looked at so it was likely one put up for a child. Her blue eyes were misty with tears and he smiled sadly at her, hoping she would be able to channel the grief or anger she felt seeing the lives lost here into helping prevent more deaths. Hunting definitely wasn't a sunshine and roses kind of profession, the sooner she got used to that and learned to get motivated rather than paralyzed by the bad things she saw, the better.

Finn barked and Parker turned his head, recognizing his furry companion trying to get his attention a few yards down the rocks. So he had found something. "Hey, let's see what Finn's got." He called to her, turning and following after his dog giving Mari a chance to compose herself for a second without his scrutiny.

"What is it buddy?" Parker asked, picking his way over the uneven rocks to where his friend was barking and weaving back and forth around a tumbled stack of exposed rock right at the shoreline. He inspected the rocks, but didn't see anything immediately out of place. He gazed out over the sea, shrugging when Mari came to stand beside him and asked what if anything he had found.

"I'm not sure yet." Parker mused, raising his arm to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight as he gazed out over the watery horizon. "But I'd put money on ghost, spirit, shade, that sort of thing. It fits the best going off what we've got." He surmised, looking back down at his girlfriend. 

She asked him what they should do and he smiled. "Just get ready for tomorrow I suppose. Seems likely from the other deaths and hers that the ghost only manifests at high tide. Which according to our handy-dandy tide mapping app will be... At 5:30am tomorrow morning." Parker checked his phone for the time.

Mari wiped beneath her eyes, the toughest part was when you really started to think about that so many people died here and for years it went unnoticed even by hunters. She followed her boys over to the edge of the rocks where Finn was barking at nothing in particular though it was no surprise, the dog had higher and more keen senses than they did, likely feeling something of another presence around them, perhaps one that was attached to the drownings more currently for all they knew.

She squinted into the sun, blocking it with her small hand as best she could and looking where her lover did as she asked him what they needed to do. She still seeked his guidance on things considering she was still learning as she went, reading books and actually being out in the field were two totally different things. He looked at his phone when he answered and with that there wasn’t much they could do based on the leads that they had right now, high tide was the only indication of the next catch so they would have to come back later.

She smiled and nodded, letting him help her back up onto the rocks so they could walk along the beach once more to the car, deciding to enjoy the free afternoon that they had. They couple woke bright and early the next morning, heading out before the sun even came up and Mari had been on and off an early riser thanks to her father and now Parker who was adamant about working out before breakfast but this was ridiculous. She felt groggy despite all that he did to try and get her awake, not until her third cup of crappy coffee did she even start to feel its affects.

He took the lead and guided her back to the sand but when she stepped foot onto the shoreline her entire being changed. The ocean was like magic and while she still had yet to get to truly appreciate all of its beauty she took what she had to work with and ran. The sun rising felt good on her face along with the gentle calming breeze as it neared 5:20 in the morning. She yawned, steadily walking with Parker back to the site, hand in hand once more and they went back to inspect the markers with what little time they had before high tide began in ten minutes. They were armed, hardly dressed for a stroll on the beach but with the rising death toll people didn’t seem to want to be around this stretch of beach at all anyways so there was little fear of being caught.

Mari crouched down once again to the same cross she found before with the tiny teddy bear sitting perched against it, tattered and sun bleached and she pat its head with a little sigh. “Sad to think that if it is a spirit, it’d take a kid just the same. Someone who hardly had a chance. It’s not fair.” She mused, sniffling a little and feeling her lover’s hand on her lower back, prompting her to stand and quietly agreeing though she could see in his eyes he wanted her to focus on the big picture of keeping more death from happening. “Guess we’ll just sit and wait huh?” She sighed, dropping down into the sand and Finn followed her lead, sitting at her side while Parker stared at the water, the three of them seeming to almost be trying to bring in whatever this thing was to get it to show its face.

The wind picked up heavier the closer it got to high tide and suddenly Finn got up, barking like mad at the water edging towards his feet when he stepped towards the water. “Don’t scare it off bud.” She chided gently, trying to get his attention despite her little yawn of exhaustion and boredom, Parker was always better with waiting things out but her patience barely lasted longer than a few minutes. Her attention focused on the sand and she started tracing patterns with her finger in the ground until her lover’s voice caught her attention.

She looked up and he was pointing in the distance, something floating in the water but it didn’t look human quite yet considering how far out it was. “That could just be debris or a seal or something right?” She suggested and he shrugged, getting up onto the rocks and heading as close as he could without getting hit by the waves. He told her he wanted to get a better look, that perhaps the thing didn’t come on land or something whatever it was, “It’s a ghost, not a mermaid, babe.” She laughed, standing up and wiping her rear end free of the sand. She kept to her place where she had been sitting though, not trusting that the tide wouldn’t suddenly eat her up and swallow her down, taking her out to sea.

“If it doesn’t come we could try like a summoning ritual out here. How long’s high tide supposed to last?” She questioned, raising her voice over the gusts of wind, squinting up at him as sand flicked into her face. She couldn’t hear him respond, blinking rapidly as sand got in her eyes and she scolded Finn for barking like he was, “I can’t even think with you here, my God.” She yelled at him, watching the dog leap up onto the rocks behind Parker and when she finally managed to clear her vision she saw him looking at her, saying something but still she couldn’t hear over the waves and the wind.

Mari shook her head and indicated that he was too far away for her to catch what he was saying and just as he took a step towards her a drenched and wrinkled woman appeared behind him. “Uhh—Parker!” She yelled, shooting her finger over his shoulder for him to look and Finn lost it, going into a fit of barking and trying to get around his owner’s feet to protect him from whatever this was. The woman looked like she had been at sea for decades, like she had absorbed a decent amount of the water and sand around her, not at all dressed like you might to go to the beach.

Parker turned and as soon as he did the woman vanished only to appear again at the rock beneath him, grabbing at his ankles when Mari was trying to keep the dog under control, fearing he might dive right into the water. She screamed seeing her lover just in time for him to crash to the ground, his weight knocked out beneath him and his head smacking hard into the rock as he was dragged down. “Parker!!” She cried, letting go of Finn’s scruff and watching him tear off like she had been keeping him from doing. “Finn no!” She yelled and the dog leapt into action, moving from rock to rock until he was back onto the sand, diving into the rough waters and determined to get to his owner who had suddenly disappeared. Mari’s hands clasped over her mouth and she inched closer to the rock Parker was previously on, feeling a presence and a change of air behind her, she spun on her heel and nearly tumbled backwards at the sight of the dripping woman before her now.

She took a shaky breath and stared the spirit down, falling on her ass when she jolted forward to make a grab for her. The woman dissipated, reappearing where Parker was lying trying to get himself straightened out and Mari hung herself over the edge to see if he was breathing, the pool of blood telling her he wasn’t in any good condition. Her eyes watered and she fought her urge to cry until the water slammed up against her lover and threw him into the rocks once more, sucking him out to the open water. She scrambled to get up, jumping off the rock and taking to running along the sand, uncertain what to do when all she could concern herself with was making sure he was okay. She hadn’t any idea where Finn was, his barking had stopped and she was alone in this now or so she thought. She bit her lower lip, her blue eyes darting over the darkened water for a sign of life and just when she was going to abandon hope the water broke and out popped a gasping Parker.

He screamed at her to do something, to help him just in time to be dragged back under the surface of the ocean. She jogged back the few feet to their arsenal set up, grabbing the sawed off shotgun that once was her father’s. Mari drew it up and waited for another sign, inching her way close enough back to the rocks that she could take aim, her hands shaking with fear.

Parker was being tossed and spun beneath the surface of the water like a rag doll, his head reeling from the initial blow he'd taken on the rocks. His lungs burned for want of air and his eyes stung from the salt of the ocean. He could vaguely see the dim sunrise glimmering above him through the water but no matter how much he struggled it was as if the ocean itself was gripping his ankles and keeping him below the surface.

Ninety percent of Parker's mind was focused entirely on breaking the surface and getting air in his lungs, but the small amount left over was racing, trying to come up with a response based on what was happening. The drowning victim, the woman, was clearly a ghost and her apparent command of the waters that claimed her explained how the following victims had been killed beyond a shadow of a doubt. But he had never come up against such a powerful spirit before, the ability to manipulate such a vast volume of water like this was staggering.

He watched helplessly as the watery figure of the woman reformed above him, walking upon the ocean's surface as if it were solid ground. Parker screamed, a rush of bubbles escaping him as he realized the ghost must be going for Mari and he could only hope that she and Finn could hold her off till he got free. He had to get free, he had to keep his lover safe.

Topside the wailing apparition was slowly making her way towards the shore, her hollow eyes fixed on the young woman standing in the sand with a weapon raised but it was wobbling in her hands from her unsteady grip. Finn lay several yards away, winded from being slammed down on the rocks but the animal made himself get up when he saw the ghost approaching the girl he had long accepted as a member of his pack. He sprinted down the shore to stand between Mari and the woman, baring his teeth and growling like a demon dog out of hell ready to defend her to the death.

The vengeful spirit smiled, unconcerned with the creature growling at her and even less with the little girl holding a gun on her. All her victims wore the same expression of fear, of hopelessness when they realized they weren't going to make it out alive. She savored that despair, that terror that mirrored her own when she died. Died alone and no one cared, no one lifted a hand to help her so why should any of these people be spared? They were all guilty in her eyes.

\---  
Parker's lungs were on fire, his vision starting to gray out from being deprived of oxygen. The water felt like it was getting heavier but he wasn't sure if that was because of the ghost or simply because his body was shutting down. His own blood from the gash on his brow was clouding up the water and he absently wondered if he might not've lasted longer if he didn't have a concussion. Oh well, no point in speculating now.

He struggled until he couldn't anymore, his movements slowing and his body instinctively gasping in water because he wanted so badly for air. Parker could only hope that Mari would make it out of this alive, he wished that more than anything else. He might not survive, but she had to. 

Then all of the sudden, the invisible grip on him let up, and he was free to move under his own power. His adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping him going at this point, but he wasn't going to waste this chance no matter how he'd gotten it. Parker surged up to the surface, choking and sputtering as he took in a ragged, desperate breath. His head was throbbing and his lungs were still ablaze but he made himself push down his physical pain, turned off that side of his brain and put all his focus on finding out if Mari was all right.

"Mari!" Parker screamed, seeing her sitting sprawled on her bottom in the sand, gripping her father's sawed off shotgun and weeping. Finn was lying a few feet away, and the young hunter was hit simultaneously with relief that Mari was alive and whole and panic that Finn might be dead. He yelled her name again and she finally acknowledged him, crying back to him and scrambling up off the ground. She ran to the shore's edge as he struggled his way back to dry ground. 

He stood shaking and sopping wet, his brow and left side of his face quickly stained red by the large gash just above his eyebrow. His normally sharp gaze was going fuzzy but he had to keep it together, had to make himself stay as alert as possible. "Mari, what happened? Did you kill her?" He panted, wiping the blood running into his eye with the back of his hand and flinching at the way the salt water was stinging his eyes. She babbled a bit, asking him if he was all right and he gripped her shoulders hard, giving her a little shake to make her focus on what he was saying to her.

"Mari. Where is the ghost? Did you take her out?" He asked in a more urgent tone, needing to understand if they were still in danger or not. She shook her head, saying she shot it with rock salt but that only made her 'melt' back into the ocean like she'd already seen her do. Parker's mind raced and it suddenly dawned on him, he cursed under his breath at himself for not realizing sooner that this ghost had a peculiar advantage over most. 

"Dammit, it's the salt water. She died in the ocean, became a part of it, so salt isn't gonna do shit to her... And there's no body to burn.... Shit." Parker thought aloud, trying to stay focused on the problem but he didn't have any longer to think, suddenly getting slammed in the back by a siphon of water and it shoved him forward into his girlfriend sending them both tumbling into the gritty sand.

Mari screamed and Parker rolled just in time to put himself between her and the ghost who had reappeared angrier than ever, taking a chunk of rock the size of a football in the gut that the apparition had hurled at the brunette's head. The young hunter coughed and doubled over from the impact, grabbing his collapsible iron baton he'd made long ago specifically for fighting spirits and sweeping it through the ghost's midsection. 

The drowned woman wailed and disappated for the moment, and Parker took the chance to whip around and tell Mari what he needed her to do. His voice was barely above a whisper but he still managed to make himself heard, "Mari, the locket on her grave.... Go salt and burn it, it's the only way... I'll keep her busy, go. Go!" He ordered, groaning in pain as he made himself get up and face the shore.

Mari was kicked back onto the sand with her lover taking a blow that was meant for her, her blue eyes watering with fear more for him than herself. She waited expectantly for the spirit to drag him out, gripping at him as tight as she could as though she thought herself strong enough to pin him back and keep her from taking him away again. Her fear extended to that of the water itself, wondering if she might be taken too but then he steadied himself enough to swing his iron baton through the woman’s abdomen and she dissipated just like before.

She scrambled to sit up and check on him but he spun around where he was, instructing her to get the locket and salt and burn it like she was taught to do with bodies. Her mind raced, “Parker but what if…” She started and he coughed, telling her to go because it might be their only shot right now. She tried not to cry, nodding her head and hauling the shot gun with her back over the rocks, slipping on a puddle of water and feeling that same pull from the woman again.

Mari scrapped her knee and the hand that caught herself from falling face first, tweaking her wrist but none of it was enough to make her slow. She got up quickly and dashed back to the grave site, plucking up the locket from the sand where it had fallen from the wind before that morning. She clutched it in her hand, taking it up to a dryer place and pulling a salt round from her jacket pocket, breaking it open hurriedly and dumping out the contents. She could hear him fighting on the other side and her hands shook violently, thinking in her mind she already lost him.

She could hear the sound of the water, Parker splashing around and she knew he was about to be taken from her again but she refused to be the reason. The brunette tucked her hair aside to see easier, reaching back into her pocket and grabbing the lighter that belonged to her lover, flicking it opened and setting the wick ablaze with one swift motion. She trembled from the cold and the adrenaline, pressing the flame down to the locket and watching it set fire. It took a moment or two for it to get anywhere, melting down the gold into nothing and exposing the image inside of a young man, a military man and on the opposite end was that of a child.

Her eyes watered at the thought, this woman was normal once, when she lived, had a lover and a baby and yet her memory came to nothing. This was all that remained of her and perhaps her family never came to claim her or cared to find her. The images melted away just the same, the fire dimming and the object turning to nothing at all and she heard screaming from behind her, a fire a light where Parker had been and she quickly stood, leaving her weapon behind as she darted over to him where he lie, watching the woman’s form burn out to ash.

The tide eased and Mari sobbed when she disappeared, allowing her to get to her lover like she wanted and needed. “Parker.” She hiccupped, dropping down beside him and trying to help him away from the water, frightened by the thought of it even being near at the moment. “She’s gone. It’s gone. The locket… I did what you said. You’re okay.” She soothed, cupping his cheek and trying to convince them both that he was. She sniffled, her voice catching as she broke into little sobs, tracing her finger over the wounds along his head and face.

Mari hadn’t been able to pull him out, to do all she could because the water held her back. She couldn’t swim, couldn’t dive in and help him like she wanted to and it was her fault he was hurting now. She watched his eyes keep fluttering shut, gurgling until he coughed up the water housed in his lungs and stomach, all that he swallowed and she sat with him regardless. “Come on Tarzan.” She encouraged, giving a little smile down to him as if that might pull him back to completely. “I can’t carry you, y’know.” She laughed, seeing his shirt drenching in blood from a gash he sustained on his side just like before only she kept it together as much as she could for him.

Parker felt like he'd just been run through a giant washing machine on spin cycle with a sack of hammers and knives. That ghost was by far the most powerful he'd ever faced off with, and he hadn't thought all the facts through before heading into the fight because he'd been overconfident. Of course it made perfect sense in hindsight that the spirit would have command of the churning briny waters considering how long she'd slept in their cold embrace. But it was over now, he'd seen her burst into flames and evaporate with a shrill shriek, telling him that Mari must've performed her task of destroying the locket.

She came running back to him, speaking as soothingly as she could despite the residual panic in her voice but now that the ghost was gone and he knew Mari was all right he had a higher priority than his own health and he brushed off her trying to coddle him after emptying the contents of his stomach and lungs of all the saltwater he'd been assaulted with.

"Finn..." Parker croaked, crawling through the soft wet sand a pace or two to where his best friend lay, his heart clenching and filling him with more pain than any of his many lacerations and bruises could. He had seen the dog take a hard hit and he had spent the whole time fighting wondering if the animal was dead or alive.

He reached out and gingerly patted the dog's wet fur that was now tangled and caked with sand, looking him over and biting his lip to keep from uttering his distress aloud. "Buddy? You still with me?" Parker murmured hopefully, feeling a little relief at least when he felt Finn's heartbeat under his hand. The dog's ears perked up at his voice and the Newfoundland lifted his head, whining softly but his long tail started thumping against the ground regardless of any pain he was feeling.

"Good. Good boy, Finn. You're all right aren't ya boy?" The young hunter said with a deep sigh of relief, chuckling a little despite his worry and pain. Mari gently petted the dog as well, looking from Finn to Parker and commenting on how the canine had protected her without a second thought.

"Of course he did, he know's what's important, don't ya boy! C'mon man, up and at em." Parker scratched behind Finn's ears and forced himself to stand up, groaning at the way his body protested the movement. He was bleeding from his head and his side, and he was pretty sure he had a few bruised if not cracked ribs not to mention the pounding headache that was building thanks to being deprived of air on top of having his head dashed on the rocks a few times. He likely had a concussion as well.

Mari was looking him up and down, he could see how hard she was struggling to keep herself together and he smiled softly, trying to lighten the mood somewhat. "Hey, at least you don't have to puke this time, huh? Progress." He teased, reaching out to gently grip her upper arm and leaning in to kiss her brow, wincing at the little mark of blood he left on her skin from his split lip. "You okay?" He asked, his features softening a bit with concern.

Mari nodded, mentioning that her wrist hurt a bit but it was nothing she couldn't handle, prompting him to head back to the car with her so she could drive him to the hospital before he lost much more blood. Parker nodded with a wry snicker, looking down and seeing that his favorite Bruins hockey shirt was ripped to ribbons and growing increasingly stained by his blood. "Aw man, I've had this shirt since I was twenty. Damn." He commented idly as he started walking with Mari to the car, trying to keep his focus off his own pain that was making his vision swim and his feet fumble.

Finn followed after them, limping slightly but seeming okay for the most part. Parker ambled over the car, stumbling a bit just as he reached the vehicle and Mari ran to steady him, but nearly went down herself with how much bigger he was than her. "I'm okay, I'm okay..." He reassured her, but his voice sounded slurred to his own ears. He was getting really cold really fast and he started to wonder if maybe his injury was a bit more serious than he first thought.

Mari’s focus had originally been Parker, her eyes watering as the man reached over for his dog and she was more than pleased to see their companion who she had come to love just the same, start to wag his tail in response. “He jumped right in front of me again to try and block me from her. He protected me, didn’t you Finn?” She cooed, patting him gently herself before shifting and helping with hovering hands for Parker to stand straight up.

She winced with sympathy for the man, her eyes welling and her lower lip trembling but she refused to let herself cry, not when everyone told her she needed to be strong on hunts. He commented on how she hadn’t thrown up, not yet at least but in all honesty she hadn’t given herself time to even consider the blood and all of that, too worried about ensuring that he was breathing and still with her. Parker asked about her well-being and she sniffled, nodding in response. She moved her hand back and forth with a closed fist, testing her pain, “My wrist hurts a little but… I’ll be okay.” She confirmed, taking to nudging at his hip to get him walking.

She pat her side and Finn whimpered as he got onto all fours, “Come on, let’s get you to the hospital before you lose too much blood and pass out on me. Finn.” She called the dog’s name over her shoulder after informing Parker of the plan, guiding him to the direction of the car and refusing to let go of his forearm. “Sorry about your shirt… I’d much rather it be that than you internal organs ripped to bits.” The brunette commented in return, letting him walk on his own as she rounded to the driver’s side door.

He stumbled and she rushed to his aid just as she was starting to open the door for their furry friend, having been hoping that she wouldn’t have to pick him up considering she likely couldn’t on her own. She rushed over to try and keep her lover upright but he was far taller and larger than her, his towering build nearly crushing her back to the earth despite her best efforts. “Parker, no you’re not.” She huffed, grunting as she tried to use the car to her advantage and pin him against it but still he slumped.

“Baby… You-You’re not okay… I need you to stay with me all right?” She requested, her hand pressed firm to his chest and fingers balled into his shirt as she used her free hand to fumble with her keys and unlock the door. He nodded but his head lulled and she caught him, gripping the side of his neck and trying to get him to open his eyes and look at her. “You have to help me… I can’t hold you, Tarzan. You need to get in the car okay?” She pleaded with him lightly, keeping her tears in check because right now it was kicking in that she needed to help him more than cry about him.

He was trying, feeling his weight shift and he slid down the side of the car until she managed to maneuver him to tuck into the seat. She helped guide his legs into place against the floor, telling him to buckle himself up and he did, careful and slow. Mari knew he was losing too much blood, that something was wrong but what she didn’t quite know yet. She darted around after closing his door and to her relief Finn had gotten himself into the backseat already, set to go and waiting for her. She looked at him over the seat when she climbed in the car, rubbing the dog’s head gently, “If you see your daddy passing out you lick his face okay, Buddy? He can’t go to sleep right now, not until we get there to get him checked out.” She told him as if he were human and completely understood what she was telling him.

Finn licked at her cheek as if in confirmation and it was enough to set her mind at east, her shoulders relaxing. She turned around and faced forward, starting up the car and backing out of their space to tear off down the road and out to the nearest hospital. It was a couple towns over, not too long of a drive but more than she had wanted to put her lover through right now, wanting simply to get him there so she knew what was going on exactly. Once or twice she saw Finn lean over and nose at his head or neck, whining or woofing softly to get his attention and Parker’s hand would lazily raise to acknowledge him with a pat on the head.

Mari pulled up to the hospital in the closest spot she could find, “Finn you watch the car. We’ll be right back. I’ll get you some lunch when we’re done.” She promised the dog who looked just as concerned about his owner as she was. She came around to Parker’s door and popped it open, taking off his belt when he didn’t and grabbing him by the wrist. “C’mon. We don’t have time for you to take cat naps.” She teased, patting his cheek and seeing him grin when she said, “Think you’ve gotten enough beauty rest, can’t have you be prettier than me.”

He helped her as best as he could, getting up out of his seat and she slung his arm around her shoulder, feeling his weight against her. If her mind wasn’t racing and she wasn’t so set on getting him inside the building, she might have noted it more, might not have been able to handle it and cradle him like she currently was. Slowly but surely they made it through the sliding glass doors that opened automatically at their arrival. A nurse rushed to aid her and she hurriedly explained that they had been swimming and he got caught in the tide, though it may have seemed odd considering they were both fully clothed it was the best she could come up with though with what the locals knew, they didn’t seem all that surprised that the tide had been too much for even him. Maybe they heard stories, that something was causing it all and that’s why the area stayed so clear.

Parker was taken completely from her grip and she felt like she might cry when they told her they had it under control, brushing her off. “I’m his fiancé. He’ll ask for me. I just wanna be there with him, please.” She begged and it was enough for them to let her follow though it was clear they thought there might be a deeper issue here with his injuries but what, she wasn’t certain. They checked him over as they took him back to the room, confirming he had a rather severe concussion and being under watch might do him some good for the afternoon at least. She sat shaking in wet clothes for almost an hour, simply staying at her lover’s side as he wavered in and out of a conscious state before a nurse finally offered her a blanket at least. They checked his vitals, making sure that with the loss of oxygen for so long and the water in his lungs, there wasn’t deeper damage.

Parker drifted in and out as he lay prone on the hospital bed, leaving their cover story to Mari for now because he simply wasn't in good enough shape to do more than focus on staying conscious. He heard the doctors telling Mari something about his vitals being unsteady, and felt the loss of her grip on his hand when they wheeled him away. He hoped she would be all right, he knew how hospitals frightened her at the best of times but there wasn't much he could do when they were taking him away from her like this and he didn't even have the strength to mutter a word of reassurance to her.

Several hours later Parker woke again, feeling sore and out of it but decidedly more human without feeling like there was a lead weight on his chest. Mari was beside his hospital bed, talking to someone on her cellphone that he could only assume was Dean. She noticed him awake and murmured something about calling back and hung up, smiling weakly at him and coming to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Hey... We gotta stop meeting like this." Parker joked, reaching up to cup her face and wincing a bit from the movement. Mari giggled though it was less than animated, gently gripping his wrist and asking him how he was feeling. "I'm okay, I think. What's the damage, they tell you? Can I get outta here?" He asked, trying to sit up and immediately regretting the action, groaning in pain and lying back with a ragged breath.

The brunette shook her head, informing him that he'd have to stay awhile, they had to do emergency surgery and repair some internal bleeding he'd sustained in addition to his external injuries which had required plenty of work on their own. Parker sighed, not relishing the thought of having to be cooped up in the hospital. Mari assured him that she had been praying to Cas all afternoon, so hopefully they'd get lucky and the full angel would arrive to patch him up and get him outta here with a free miracle.

The young hunter nodded, gripping Mari's hand tight. He could see how upset she was despite her valiant efforts to keep her tears in check, and he blamed himself for it. Maybe it had been too soon, too intense of a job for her after all. "Hey... Don't cry Tink, I'm here, we made it. I... I saw you freeze up on the beach out there... I'm sorry babe, we should've started smaller, I should've picked some simpler stuff for us to do first, get you more acclimated." He apologized, assuming that her worry over him was so great partly because she was blaming herself for hanging back, for getting scared but she had every reason to be, that ghost was pretty damn intense after all.

Mari sat down with Parker, keeping her hand on him in any way that she could manage right now, tears slipping past her lashes and down her cheeks, staining her shirt and making it wet again. She fidgeted with the blanket over her lap, wanting nothing more than to lie in bed with her lover and curl in against him like they always did when one was upset only she couldn’t, his body couldn’t handle much contact at all no matter how badly she wanted to hold him.

She took a shaky breath and explained what the doctors did in a far vaguer version since she didn’t really know all of what it meant. But she did know that he was okay, he was awake and moving a little sluggishly but still. “I’ve been praying to Uncle Cas though and I haven’t gotten a response though it’s not uncommon seeing as I can’t really hear angel radio much like Mom could.” She sighed, clinging to his hand with both of her own and fearing he might slip away again even if only to sleep. “If he hears me he’ll come when he can. I’m not all that easy for him to ignore.” She laughed lightly though it broke into a little sob.

Parker didn’t miss the way she was trying not to look at him, trying not to keep crying like she had been and when he spoke to her, assuming that she had been scared because of the ghost and nothing more… She didn’t know how to respond. She ducked her head, fingers curling around his and she took another hitched breath, shaking her head at his assumption, “It wasn’t the hunt… Well not the ghost anyways. I could handle that, I could have come to aid better but…” She started her face crinkling as she crumbled into a crying mess.

His brow furrowed, starting up again and saying that it was a rough hunt and he knew she needed more practice but going into it they didn’t realize what they were entirely up against. “It—Parker it wasn’t the ghost that had me freaked. I can’t swim.” She half snipped at him like it was his fault or something, hating that he was making the wrong assumptions towards her freezing up like she had. She cocked her head to look down at him where he lie on the bed, his shoulders slightly propped up so he was sitting at an angle. He asked her to repeat herself, saying that was silly considering this was a beach side hunt.

“I know. Okay, I know that.” Mari snapped again, breaking down completely, her shoulders wracking with sobs. “I couldn’t go in after you because I can’t swim. It was watch you die or end up drowning trying to save you by jumping in. So the rock salt was my only real option and then it didn’t work and I froze because I couldn’t do anything!” She cried, the light make up she wore on occasion starting to smear beneath her eyes. He pointed out that it might have been something for her to tell him considering their location.

“You’re really not helping me feel any better.” She sighed, tugging her hand away from his and taking to hugging herself like she used to when she was upset, before she had Parker around to cradle her on his own. “I know you’re here. I know we made it and you’re going to be okay but I put you in danger… I know I did but I didn’t think about if we had to get in the water, I thought it’d be routine, exorcising the beach or something along those lines… I don’t know.” She muttered, the words coming out in a rush as she cried, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

 

Parker bit back his knee-jerk reaction: shock, anger at the sudden realization that he had unwittingly allowed his girlfriend to be in far more danger than he first thought. He knew she was inexperienced and that was all that was keeping from giving in to his frustration, that and his gratitude that despite this new development they had come out on the other side and the only one who'd gotten seriously hurt was him.

"I know, I know you didn't... You didn't know..." Parker sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a second to swallow his anger and let it bleed out of him. "This is what I need from you right now, okay? I need you to take a deep breath, and come here and lie next to me." He prompted, scooting over slightly with a groan of discomfort, opening up his arm to let her in beside him on the narrow hospital bed.

Mari's face crumpled further and she gingerly settled herself beside him, tucking herself into the narrow space and nuzzling her face into his chest. She was careful to keep her weight off of him, and he wrapped his arm around her and tugged on her slight frame, forcing her to lean on him at least a little bit.

He could feel her shuddering slightly against him, crying as quietly as possible and he simply let her for a long while, shutting his eyes and taking even breaths, trying to soothe her as much as he could when he couldn't cuddle her as tightly as he normally would.

After awhile she seemed to cry herself out. A small voice emanated up from her and though he couldn't see her face turned away from him he could hear the pain in her expression as she apologized again, saying sorry for nearly getting him killed.

"No, no... Shh..." He hushed her, rubbing her back and turning his head to kiss the top of her head. "Look, we definitely need to work on communicating a bit better. You're my partner, and I need to know exactly what you need from me to be prepared for hunts we take. That way I can watch your back and you can watch mine properly. We're a team, right? And I wanna be a team with you for a good long time, so things like this... They're important. But what's most important is this." He hugged her as best he could once more. "That you and I are here, together." He smiled softly, feeling her start to weep again but he hoped it wasn't all from sorrow now.

Mari crawled up onto the head of the bed with her lover, gently letting her hand rest over his chest wherever he didn’t wince from her touch. She sobbed once more as soon as his arm slipped around her, resisting her instinct to completely curl in on him. He said nothing in regards to what was occurring, at least not for the moment though she figured he would be mad, maybe a little hurt that she didn’t even bother bringing it up just in case something happened.

She wiped beneath her eyes with the sleeve of her thermal shirt she wore, struggling to get her breathing at a normal pace. She didn’t look at him, she couldn’t look at him right now, tucking her head further into his chest and side so he could barely see her. She closed in on herself, “I’m sorry… Parker I’m so sorry I almost got you killed because of this.” She muttered, biting her lip to keep from crying again though she was fairly certain that there wasn’t a single tear left for her to shed.

He hushed her softly, assuring her that they simply needed to learn to talk, to ask questions so they both knew as much about the other as they could. He made a valid point, she should have spoken up even if they didn’t end up in the water he deserved to know that it was important for her to keep to the shore until she learned. That was never a skill she thought she would need to master, swimming and keeping a float. Her fingers curled into a fist along his gown across his firm chest, squeezing her eyes shut at his last words.

The brunette cried once more, clearly having more tears to spare that she wasn’t expecting but this time they burned anew and it was because of his expression that she needed to remember the important part of this, that they were still here and still together. “I love you.” She whispered into his chest, feeling his hold tightening on her suddenly. She thought for a moment she hurt him with her movements, shifting off him and muttering an apology but he gripped her bicep and kept her from slipping too far away. “I didn’t mean to hurt you… I probably shouldn’t be squished up here anyways. I hurt you enough as it is.” She stated, trying to pry his hand from off her arm.

“What’s wrong?... Parker…?” Mari questioned, her eyes still bright with tears. She thought he was hurting, that he wasn’t saying anything because he couldn’t but then he pointed out that he needed her to repeat that to his face. “Repeat what?” She asked, sitting up on her knees and growing confused but then it clicked and she flushed red instantly. “You heard me.” She grinned, leaning forward to kiss him. “I love your sorry ass, Tarzan.”

Parker almost felt more than heard the words she spoke, a little chuckle escaping him as he realized suddenly that they had never actually spoken those words aloud. It was strange because when she said it, it felt like... The closest he could think of was like a homecoming. It was natural, comforting, but exciting at the same time. 

He was only caught off guard by it because he knew immediately that the way he'd been feeling about Mari for a long time now, that was love. They had just never spoken the words until now and he wasn't even sure why. Maybe it was fear, maybe simple naivety but the bottom line was that it felt good to hear it, because he knew it deep in his bones almost like it had always been there, waiting for him to tap into it.

Mari's watery blue gaze was flickering between his eyes and she was clearly waiting for him to respond. He smiled hugely, reaching up to gently brush his fingertip over the lines of her face. Tracing the line of her delicate jaw, up across her brow, down the bridge of her nose and along the outer edge of her perfect full lips. She was holding her breath he could tell and he couldn't resist, holding his tongue a bit longer till she finally pushed him slightly and asked him if he had anything to say.

"Ow! Easy, easy." He exclaimed, making more of a deal of his pain than it really was on all the meds he was on. "Hmmm... I am getting kinda hungry. I bet the hospital food is crap though, we should sneak out for pizza." He teased, huffing in more genuine pain when she thumped his chest without really thinking about his injuries and protesting his joking.

She seemed to realize that she'd hurt him and looked down at his bandaged chest as if she might see physical evidence of the pain she'd caused, but he ignored it for the moment. Parker reached and cupped her face, drawing it back towards him to make her face him again.

"Hey." He murmured, making her meet his gaze. "I love you too. Mari... I love you more than anything." Parker said quietly, a gentle smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Her eyes welled over once more, but now he could see it, see the happiness beneath the pain and worry. She shifted closer and he groaned again at the weight she put on his injuries, but again he didn't care because he was too busy meeting her lips in a deep, tender kiss.

They lay like that for a long while, kissing and muttering softly to each other, almost like they were touching and tasting for the first time. Parker tangled his fingers in her hair and held her close, sliding his tongue against hers and hearing her mewl slightly made him smile against her lips.

Then suddenly a deep, rough male voice hit their ears and Mari flinched back, blushing a deep scarlet at the sight of her angelic uncle standing in his typical trench coat and slacks in Parker's hospital room.

Mari whacked Parker’s chest without thinking, her hand instantly pulling away when she heard him in pain and she caused it. She yanked her hand back, the opposite wrapped in a bandage to keep it a little more upright from the sprain she sustained. She stared down at his chest, reaching out a little worriedly, thinking she harmed him worse once more but his own large hand shot up and he grabbed her face, cupping her cheek and making her look at him.

Her eyes met his, her cheek squished in against his palm as he made her keep looking at him so he could speak and he did, telling her the words she spoke in return. Her blue eyes watered only this time it was with happiness to finally hear aloud that he cared like he did, just as she did him. She didn’t know why it never came up before, perhaps they didn’t feel ready to voice it quite yet but now that it was out in the open she wanted nothing more than to get that confirmation in as many ways as she could.

She leaned forward, sealing their lips in a deep and slow kiss, savoring his taste as if she might never get to kiss him like this again. The brunette’s frame ended up at his side, beneath the blanket she had gotten from the nurses, her leg wrapping over his own and his body turned just enough that they could kiss like they wanted. She hummed into the contact, feeling his kiss in every corner of her body and if he wasn’t as hurt as he was, she might have had a mind to seal their love with something more.

A deep voice came from behind them, “Should I come back another time? I recall a prayer that seemed urgent. Parker you look well… despite Mari attached to your person.” The angel mentioned, arching a thick dark brow in question to the pair. He saw his niece’s fluster but paid it no mind, stepping into the space and clearly she hadn’t been paying enough attention to know that another presence lingered.

Cas padded over to the bed and Mari shifted, pulling out of Parker’s hold though the man seemed a little reluctant to let her go. She smiled and took his hand as she stood, “Cas… I didn’t know if you were coming or not. Dad said he hadn’t heard from you either...” She admitted, tucking her hair behind her ear to keep it out of her face, it was still mused from the salty damp air surrounding, feeling the tangles as her fingers ran through it. “Can you fix him up? And take us home? I kind of think that it’s best if we just disappear, they’ll think we made a run for it or something and I don’t think they’d allow me signing him out quite yet anyhow.”

Castiel nodded, stepping to Parker’s other side and placing his hand over the man’s forehead, getting a feel for just how deep his hurt might be. “So long as you don’t have the Impala. Your father would never allow me to leave his ‘baby’ here. As I understand there are three of you here though?” He inquired in an all too serious tone, catching Mari’s little nod as she remembered that they had Finn with them.

“Dean wants you home. I will send you two first then I will return for the dog.” The trench coated angel informed them both, his fingers moving to Parker’s temple and his eyes glowed blue, his hand emitting light just the same and Mari watched him in awe as she so often did when he used his mojo. It wasn’t likely she ever got to use hers, so she found it fascinating when she was witness to it. He kept his focus for a moment or two and she felt Parker’s hand clutch tighter to her own, having gotten little to no warning that he was being healed so instantly.

Mari’s eyes watered, hating seeing him in pain but at the same time it was better than having to wait for him to recover on his own terms. He screamed, pursing his lips to keep from still yelling when Mari silenced him softly. Cas pulled off after a moment or two, the longest time in her eyes. “Your body will be sore a day or two from the damage to your ribs. Shouldn’t be much more than that. Mari.” He extended his hand to take hers and she gently placed her wounded one against his palm, watching him as he examined it.

“It’s not worth the time. I… It’s just tweaked.” Mari shrugged, wincing when his grip tightened and he fixed up the swelling in her limb, the mark along her skimmed knee vanished completely and he smiled at her, asking if she was ready to go home. “Yea just… Don’t forget Finn okay? Big black dog. You can’t miss him. He’ll probably sense you coming anyways.” She stated, watching him shift back to Parker’s bed and press his fingers to the man’s temple, taking them both without another word. Clearly he was busy or Dean had been adamant about her return as soon as he got there.

It was no surprise when they showed up at the Bunker and her father was sitting worriedly on the couch, jiggling his leg and biting at his thumb, clearly wondering if Cas made it there or not. Parker stumbled and rather than jogging over to her Dad like she wanted, she took to her lover’s side, bracing her hand on his chest and trying to keep him upright. He muttered that with everything that happened the vanishing act made him feel a little woozy. Dean shot up from his seat and rushed over to aid her in guiding him to the couch and with that Cas vanished.

The older hunter asked where the hell their angelic friend was going and Mari smiled, “Finn’s in the car.” She answered and he questioned what was with the grin. “Nothing… Just thinking about Cas having to deal with him on his own. He’s probably getting slobbered all over already.” She mused, giving a laugh as she dropped down to the couch with Parker, her attention on him more so than her father who she hadn’t seen in a few days. “You just gotta take it easy. I’ll help you to bed in a bit. You should eat something…” She muttered, curling her legs beneath her and fusing over her lover instead.

Dean cleared his throat harshly and she glanced up at him, laughing and standing up when he gestured for her to get off her butt and do so. “I’m okay, Daddy. I promise. All three of us are.” She swore to him, hugging her arms around him tight and kissing his cheek when he did the same to her own. He looked her over and said he didn’t care so long as she made it back, just her at least. “Dad.” She whined, thumping his chest. “He’s a part of this too. I know you like him.” She teased, nudging his shoulder with her own.

The man winced, looking pained as he tried to sort of admit that he didn’t completely hate Parker for stealing his only daughter. “Nobody stole me. I still live here y’know.” She reminded him, kissing his cheek again, “He saved my ass again anyhow. You should hug it out.” She laughed, sticking her tongue out at him playfully and laughing louder when Parker opened his arms and gestured for the man to come to him for a warm embrace.

"Yeah. I could go for a cuddle." Parker said in a good natured mocking tone, his face a little pale from the way being transported on the angel express turned his stomach but otherwise his expression was lively. Dean shot him a dirty look but still Parker left his arms extended as he if he fully expected the older man to come over and embrace him.

Dean shook his head, grumbling under his breath and cursing both of them under his breath and striding off into the kitchen. Parker laughed hard at his reaction, regretting it when his still sore ribs protested and he calmed himself down with a little pained sputter. Mari flitted back over to him on the couch, gently touching his chest and asking him if he was all right.

"I'm fine, really. You worry too much babe." Parker assured her, brushing her hair back from her face and smiling at her softly. He leaned forward making sure that Dean was still out of sight and earshot, leaning in to kiss her fast and hard just in case. Mari giggled and flushed, but her expression bent slightly when he informed her that as soon as he felt one hundred percent, she and him had a date with the swimming pool.

\---  
In a little under a week Parker and Mari drove into the small town far out from the bunker, claiming they were going out for dinner and a movie to explain the late hour they planned on staying out till to Dean. The elder hunter grudgingly accepted their relationship now but he still got fidgety when they were out past midnight.

In reality, the pair of young hunters had a different itinerary planned for their little late night date. Parker drove them down to the local rec center, it was old and worn but had decent facilities including a fairly good sized indoor pool. The building closed at seven every day, so by the time they arrived after dark at a little before ten the place was long deserted. 

A few locked doors and poorly positioned security cameras were no match for Parker and in moments he, Mari and also Finn were standing in the darkened pool enclosure, standing at the edge of the deep end of the long blue rectangle. Parker put his hands on his hips and looked around, a slight smile flickering over his face.

"All right, looks good. Finn!" Parker whistled and pointed at the pool, "Test out the water for us buddy!" He said with a wide grin, laughing at Mari's shriek when the dog heaved himself off the ledge and into the water, splashing both of them with the cool chemical scented water. Mari asked again for about the hundredth time if they really had to do this, and Parker turned to catch both her hands and tug her closer.

"Yes. Yes we really do. Look I know it's intimidating right now, but not only is it a good skill to have, it's fun. I promise." Parker insisted, tossing his head back at Finn who was busily propelling himself through the water. "Check this guy out, he loves it. You'll find its a lot better experience when a psycho ghost bitch isn't trying to kill you." He chuckled, letting go of her to start shedding his clothes and stuffing him in the drawstring bag he'd brought along.

Mari bit her lower lip, clutching to Parker’s hands on her hips as if worried he would pull a stunt like throwing her in suddenly. She looked down at the water and back to Parker, taking a step away when he called for their furry friend to get in the water first. He did just as instructed, leaping off the edge and into the open pool, making her jump back at the cool water slapping against her skin. She screeched and wiped off the excess water from her calves, “Do we really have to do this? How many other water cases could we take? I mean really…” She mused.

He grabbed both her hands and turned her to face him, making her squeak once more as she feared falling into the water. She trusted him completely, listening to his answer as he promised her that it would be fun once she learned. Her eyes darted over to Finn as per his indication, following his gaze and seeing the large black dog happily kicking in the water. “Sure he is… Parker you know that he’s a dog right? And I’m… well not.” She reminded him, watching him pull away from her suddenly and promise again that he loved the water and she would too.

She bit her lower lip, eyeing his muscular frame as he tore off his shirt, getting a look at his inked flesh just like she liked to. She had seen him far more bare a number of times before but each time she couldn’t help by ogle him a bit. “Really hard to argue with you when you’re taking your clothes off you know.” She stated with a good natured laugh, hearing him do the same and he ran past her, startling her as he dove into the deep end with nearly as big of a splash as Finn.

He popped back up from the water’s surface, wiping the drips from his face and back through his hair and Finn propelled himself towards him, barking lightly into the darkness. He encouraged her to come in, promising that the water was actually fairly warm and she nodded, hooking her fingers into her shirt and undressing herself. She padded along the edge of the pool and headed to the shallow side where Parker was now standing, easily towering out of the water but she knew it would be different for her. He inched towards her and having Finn swim up to the ledge to lick her face actually made her relax, feeling like he was trying to encourage her too.

Mari dipped her feet into the water to test it out and Parker offered his hands, leading her down the steps like anyone else might when teaching a child to swim. His gaze was full of affection and alight with his faith in the fact that she would do just fine. “You lied.” She quipped, shuddering as her tummy was hit with a cool rush of water. She could see him roll his eyes even in the darkened enclosure and he tugged at her. “Don’t… Parker please.” The brunette begged him, a little catch in her voice and she hadn’t expected to be as frightened as she was. “You know those people that drowned on that case… They all knew how to swim.” She told him, knowing he already knew that.

He sighed audibly and eased up on his pulling at her fingers, telling her again that at least she knew how to handle crazy spirits like that while the others didn’t. She knew she was being a little ridiculous but when she discovered that her father and uncle could hardly swim she wondered if that ran in her blood, maybe she wasn’t cut out for much other than floating on her back. She took the final step into the cooled water and it wasn’t quite so bad once she made it as deep as she had.

Parker dropped down to his knees so he was a little closer to her level, his hand sticking out under the water and gently wrapping around her hip. He asked her if she wanted to go for a lap with him and she, clutched suddenly at his wrist as if he might pull her under though she knew he wouldn’t she wanted to ensure it was him holding her and not someone or something else. Mari felt his familiar rough fingers, ghosting back and forth over her belly where they lie and he swore he would take her slow, let her walk out until she couldn’t reach the bottom anymore.

“I feel stupid.” She whined, hating that she didn’t simply know how to keep herself up in the water, it seemed different than when she was in the hot tub before with her family when she was far younger, different than when she took baths nowadays. There was room and that room was filled with water, something she couldn’t tread in and couldn’t very well breathe in if she needed it. She walked with her lover holding onto her hip and the water edged up to her shoulders.

She panicked, kicking suddenly as she took another step and couldn’t feel the floor beneath her but before her head could slip beneath the surface, Parker caught her, his arms easily wrapping around her and supporting her weight as well as his in the water. He hushed her to keep her from freaking out and she gripped him like her only life line because he very well might be for all she knew. “M-Maybe you should… dip me under the water so… I can feel all of it? That way I’m not… so worried about it going up to my neck?” She suggested uncertainly, her eyes watering more because she felt like an idiot going almost twenty years of her life without having ever had reason or time to learn something every kid was meant to know. Parker asked if she was ready and she plugged her nose, puffing out her cheeks and he grinned at the face she made, her eyes squeezing shut in completely preparation for how this might feel.

He dropped their weights and both of them dunked under the water, her arm around his neck clutching to him tighter so he wouldn’t let go and he didn’t. She tapped at his shoulder, scrambling for them to get back to the surface after only a few seconds and he pushed off from the bottom where they had ended up, launching them back out of the water and she sighed when she opened her eyes, happy to see herself above the expansive water. He asked if she was okay, feeling a jolt as his foot collided with the wall and he let her rest over his chest, using one arm to hold her against him and the other to paddle himself out, Finn happily following their motion, seeming intrigued by what they might be doing. “Fine. So far… It’s just, different.”

Parker smiled encouragingly as he towed his girlfriend through the water. He didn't really have much call for swimming but he was comfortable in the water, and his superior size and strength let him easily maneuver both of them around in the pool.

At first he did all the work, making laps around the deep end of the pool, letting her get used to the feeling of the water. Finn happily trailed along behind them, occasionally swimming circles around them as if he was showing off his superior skills. Little by little Parker separated himself from Mari, letting her move a bit more freely but when he tried to let her go she squeaked and thrashed, clinging to him and making him laugh.

"Easy, easy." He soothed, holding her up but keeping his distance, so she was basically floating except it was his hands keeping her up rather than her own buoyancy. "Now just relax... The first thing I'm gonna teach you is how to float..." He said, keeping his tone even and soft, trying to keep her as calm as possible. It took lots of trial and error but he finally got her to float on her own, and she was so pleased that she started to flail in the water and sink like a stone, requiring his rescue to keep from swallowing the whole pool.

"All right you're doing great babe. Now lets work on treading water, maybe a couple strokes, but that'll be all for tonight okay? Keep it real basic. We've got plenty of time, no need to rush." He advised, pulling her back to the level in the pool where she could just barely touch the bottom and keep her head above the surface.

The pair kept at it, kicking around and making a good amount of ruckus. They never made it to actual swimming, it took Mari so much time to learn to tread water that it was all they had time for. Parker had to keep his laughter in check, the young woman was so impatient, so eager to learn this and be done with it that she was actually impeding her own progression. But then again, that was how she tended to approach most things in life, full-tilt without much thought for the consequences. It was both frustrating and endearing to him.

But after a lot of coaching, the brunette got to where she was able to keep her head above water for a couple minutes at a time, and Parker saw it as real progress considering when they started this evening she didn't even want to get in the water let alone water deep enough for her to tread in.

Mari was shouting happily as she kept herself above the surface, turning in a slow uncontrolled circle and when she faced him her expression was alight with excitement and pride. It was like watching a kid, she asked him if he could see her keeping herself up and he laughed, nodding in acknowledgement of her accomplishment.

"You're doing great Tink! Have you swimmin' circles around me in no time." He said in an amused tone. He glided through the water to where she was churning up the water, gripping her and drawing her close. He held her up so she didn't have to keep propelling herself and gently pressed his brow to hers. "We should probably get outta here pretty soon... Don't want your dad wondering where we are." He murmured, slipping his hands down her body to encourage her to wrap her limbs around him. 

Mari swirled in circles, all too happy with herself for having made progress at all and while it was less than what she was wanting, it was something and seeing her lover smile and show he was proud of her made her realize that something was better than nothing. She giggled at herself and felt Parker grab at her so she could stop having to keep herself afloat.

She smiled at him, her hands delicately resting against his broad shoulders, following him forward until their foreheads pressed together. She slipped her arms and legs around his body, letting him hold her and humming in response to his suggestion. “Probably.” She murmured, tracing her hand up to the back of his head and tugging at him until he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her slow and deep until it built into something far more hungry and desperate.

She mewled and shivered at the feeling of his hands on her body and his lips pressed to hers, ravishing her mouth with his own. He walked through the water with ease until her back touched the wall, lifting her to the top step and following her forward. The brunette giggled at him, “You know… I’m not opposed to keeping him waiting a little longer.” She mused, arching a brow at him when he muttered a question in confirmation.

She nodded in response and just as he started to kiss at her neck and cleavage, Finn trotted up out of the water and shook himself off, the droplets hitting them and making the couple jolt in surprise at the sound. They looked up and their furry friend seemed more than ready to head out to the car, making her sigh. “Or not. Apparently Finn doesn’t agree with that much.” She muttered, tapping Parker’s right shoulder in indication for him to turn around and he did, offering his back to her and prepping himself for her to hop on. She wrapped her limbs back around him and he gave her a piggy back ride all the way to their bag, trusting her to hold on for herself while he bent and picked up her clothes, offering her a towel as he packed away the rest of their things in his draw string bag.

Mari tugged the towel around her while he was still hunched, using the angle to her advantage and soon he stepped over to the fence, giving her a boost easily over the chain link enclosure. She sat at the very top while he passed her the bag, waiting for him to leap up and over. When he got to the other side he offered his hands again, taking her down and off the fence before rising up the bottom a bit for Finn to crawl back through in turn. The dog squeezed his way out and her lover took her hand, guiding her barefooted back to their car.

She shuddered at the cool night air, bouncing on her heels at the passenger door, “Huuurrrryy.” She whined at the man who was currently putting their stuff away in the backseat. He chuckled and came up to her side to unlock the door, asking her if she was cold and within that time Finn had taken place in the car, soaking the seat with his thick wet fur. “Yes.” She answered, squeaking when he pulled at her towel to get her to turn around, asking if she wanted him to turn the heat up a bit. Mari laughed at his stupid line, “Thought you wanted to get home, hm?” She hummed, shifting with him towards the back door he already had unlatched while he started kissing at her again just like he had before and always did. "What made you change your mind?"

"You did." Parker replied with a low chuckle, fidgeting with the edge of the towel wrapped around Mari's body and prodding her to the side to open the back door of the car. The girl giggled and climbed inside the vehicle, scooting backwards to make room for him as he followed her in. He knelt on the seat a bit awkwardly in the small space, pulling the door shut dousing the ceiling light leaving them in the near darkness of the unlit back lot of the rec center.

Parker leaned over into the young brunette's space, making her slowly bend back and lie on the wide cushioned back seat. He tugged her damp towel loose, exposing her front and making her skin break out in goose bumps as he breathed over her still wet flesh. She shivered and he chuckled, devouring her with his eyes and settling between her legs.

"You're very tempting in that little swimsuit you know." He commented, fidgeting with the ties of her bikini top. Mari's dark brow arched and she replied that maybe she would wear it around more often then, earning a little laugh from him as he dipped his head down to tug the straps of the bikini loose with his teeth. 

"That's probably not a great plan. Don't want to scar your dad after all." He responded, dragging his teeth over her collarbone up to her throat where he started kissing and licking at her flesh. Mari moaned at his touch, shivering partly from cold and partly from excitement as his hands roamed up and down her body, pushing her towel completely off her front and exploring her petite body like he had done many times before. He liked being intimately familiar with her every curve and hollow, but it was still exhilarating every time no matter how well he knew her.

Mari wrapped her arms around his neck and craned up to nibble at his ear, making him hum and growl as she dragged her leg up to hook around his hip. Parker pressed her down into the seat, biting at her neck and cleavage, making her tremble but this time he knew it was only due to what he was doing to her, his body heat and their desire had her flushed all over from heat and want.

Mari moaned beneath him, her limbs wrapping around him instinctively, shivering out of want from his touch as well as the cool air surrounding them and hitting her dampened skin. She arched up into his frame, seeking his warmth for herself, her fingers and palms running along his sides, up his back and across his shoulders to pin him against her. She craned her head up to nibble at his ear, tugging it lightly with her teeth and hearing him moan at the sensation.

She grinned, shuddering beneath him as he pulled down to kiss at her skin again, his mouth pushing down the remaining fabric of her bikini top. Parker’s lips found her chest, kissing and licking torturously slow at each pert nipple in turn, making them stiff out of desire and no longer from the cold. Warm, familiar and comfortable was what he was for her, sighing and mewling at every point of contact their skin made. His large rough hands pushed the top aside and up off her body, her arms following his lead and assisting him in the small space.

“Maybe so but… Mmm…” She hummed pleasingly as he started kneading at her soft flesh, making her push up into his touch, tugging his waist down a little and encouraging him to grind against her even through their wet swimsuits. “Could always throw it on when we’re home alone… Or let you pick something out.” She suggested, feeling his teeth on her throat when he suddenly grinned and the feeling made her giggle, knowing full well he was considering his options. Most all of which he had seen.

She shifted beneath his weight, aiding in pushing off her bottoms and he sat up on his knees just enough to tug them off from around her calves and feet. Mari smiled and flushed at the look in his eyes when he saw her bare once more, slipping over her body again and kissing up from her stomach to her lips. She bit and tugged at his lower lip, groaning as he ground against her bare body out of instinct. His hand moved from her waist to push down his own swim trunks, shimmying a little awkwardly out of them, earning a giggle from her and a chastising bite from him in return.

Her legs wrapped back around him, using her heels to silently urge him to her and she could feel his arousal prodding at her slick folds. He read her well, knew when she was ready and wanting based on the subtle movements she made, the way her breathing picked up and her pupils dilated nearly almost all black and the way she would lie out for him to simply take as he please. He pushed into her bare and she groaned at the feeling, something about being completely together, made the act feel entirely more intimate. She met his blue gaze in the darkness, his own lips parted as he started at a slow and steady rhythm, letting her adjust to him being buried inside her body. She pulled at him until he was pressing most of his weight into her, keeping her warm and lingering close like she wanted him to be.

 

This was not a typical venue for them but it was nice to have the excuse to be completely flush against his lover in the confined space. Mari moaned loudly as he moved inside her, her nails raking down his back and making him flinch at the edge of pain added to his pleasure. It had been since before their last hunt since they'd had each other and it felt so good being buried in his heat he could hardly force himself to maintain an even pace.

"Fuck baby... You feel so good." Parker growled, reaching back to grip her thigh wrapped around him and bracing to angle his hips up, hitting the sweet spot deep inside her that he knew drove her crazy. Mari responded instantly, arching hard at the increased sensation and crying out to him, spurring him to continue with her desperate words and tightened grip.

Parker grunted with the effort of restraining himself as he sped his pace only slightly, dipping his head down to capture her lips and greedily swallow her answering moans of pleasure. They broke apart for breath and Mari gripped his face, telling him she wanted him to take her harder and even though he knew it was a greater risk he couldn't help but comply with her fevered demands. He drove into her hard and fast, panting from how good her tight heat felt and relishing her loud cries and the way she was shaking against him. 

The car was rocking back and forth slightly from their motions, Parker knew he wasn't going to last much longer and he met Mari's gaze, laughing breathlessly as he spoke in a low whisper, "Are you close beautiful? I wanna feel you come..." He slipped his hand between their bodies, rubbing frantic little circles over her clit, watching with satisfaction as the brunette's face contorted with pleasure as she begged him not to stop his motions. "Come on babe, come for me..." He urged, driving into her faster as he continued to tease her clit. 

Just as Parker was about to meet his limit Mari gasped and stiffened beneath him, her body jolting and her voice breaking as she came hard around him. She clung to him desperately as she rode the waves of her pleasure, he had to tug away from her to slip out of her in time to come against her trembling thigh with a ragged groan. "Fuck... Yes Mari..." He muttered in a husky voice, his pleasure leaving him breathless for a moment.

Mari giggled as she floated down from her pleasure, combing her nails through his short damp hair and asking him if this would be a standard part of their swimming lessons.

"I certainly hope so." He replied with a chuckle, kissing her softly and carefully sitting up into a crouched position in the tight space. Finn poked his head over from the front seat and whined at him, making him laugh harder and scratch his friend's wet head. "I know buddy, I know. We'll get home and get you fed relax." He assured the canine who seemed satisfied with his owner's words, comprehended or not. 

Mari trembled beneath her lover as her last wave of pleasure rolled through her body and she came around him like he requested, feeling him slip from her body and his seed spurted on her thigh. She giggled airily up at him, raking her fingers along the sides of his head and pulling him down as she laced her fingers together on the back of his neck. “Is this going to become a part of the lesson plan, Coach?” She teased, arching a brow at him and he leaned down to give his confirmation.

They cleaned themselves up with the damp towel beneath her and she was pleased that they thought of leaving it considering the mess they made of the back seat. She laughed as Finn whined at them both, his head flopped chin down against the front seat, his eyes sad and pleading and Parker and the dog always had unspoken understanding of the other, knowing the dog’s mannerisms easily enough to understand that he was hungry over everything else. She shook her head, hearing his tail hit the seat repeatedly in his response, seeming pleased with whatever Parker said though he likely couldn’t make much of it, just understood his light tone.

They packed up and dressed once more, being sure that they got covered up in real clothes and were dry enough that her father wouldn’t think anything of it. It was no shocker when the man was sitting watching television but had fallen asleep remote in hand. Mari grinned, nudging at Parker to keep walking and she quickly got into her pjs before coming back out to tend to her father. “Daddy. Hey… we’re home.” She muttered, knowing he would chalk her attire and hair up to her having come back and showered first before disturbing them. “Wanted to say good night at least.” She whispered, kissing his cheek and he got up, asking her how the movie was and she answered as they walked hand in hand back to his room. She kissed his cheek again and hugged him at the door, wishing him good night before slipping away to find her lover once more.

\----

Mari had taken to swimming a lot more so now that she knew what she got out of it afterwards, like a confirmed reward for if she put the work in for her ‘coach’ and she might not have been at it long but she was doing well. She didn’t have the greatest strokes but it was enough to keep her up and moving in the churning water. The couple went every couple nights to the pool at the rec center, swimming until late in the night, early enough as to not upset her father completely but the man had become more accustomed to their ‘dates’ and stopped waiting up for her to come home, clearly still working on his own progression.

She was standing in the restroom, tapping her finger on the ledge of the sink while her other hand flicked through the calendar of her phone, counting the days. “Seriously?” She muttered, cursing under her breath and darting out in her bra and panties, her mind coming to the realization that she had missed her time of the month by about a week. She padded out, still wet from her shower and ran to the calendar she kept in her vanity, a tiny planner that had most everything in her life written down, hunts, dates with Parker they set up, nights she knew her father had to work late, lists of things both herself and Parker needed to do around the bunker.

Her blue eyes skimmed over the last month’s page and she counted out again, her heart starting to race and sure enough, five weeks to the exact date. Mari bit her trembling lower lip and dropped the day planner back into her vanity, slumping into the little stool and pressing her hand to her stomach. A baby at nineteen? She was barely learning to care for herself, to hunt like Parker and her father, barely convincing Castiel to train her further and now this would prevent all her progress. She thought for a moment, back to when and if this could even happen and memories of Parker taking her in the motel room that second time came to mind. They hadn’t been safe, for the first time ever and same went with the first night at the pool but he pulled out in time or at least she was pretty certain that he had.

The brunette tousled her hair along the back of her head, leaving it damp and wavy for now, something her mother would have hated. She closed her eyes, thinking about the woman and wondering what she had been through with her, she would never get those stories from the source, never know how to handle a pregnancy and get a woman’s perspective. She slumped and cried into her hand, something that normal people fought so hard to have scared her more than she ever would have thought. 

Mari gathered herself after a few moments, standing up and heading to the box of tissues on her nightstand, pulling one out and wiping her eyes then nose as a knock at the door startled her into pulling herself together completely. “Yeah?” She called, “I-I’m not dressed.” She told them but Parker’s deep voice came from the other side of the door and in all honesty she was hoping for her father to be the one coming to check on her instead. He pushed the door open and smirked at her attire, heading her way after closing the door instantly and sounding disappointed she didn’t wait for him to join her in the water.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, not able to muster up her usual comebacks and his brow furrowed, pulling back from her when she didn’t immediately fall into his hold. He questioned her teary eyes and she forced herself to smile, “Just was thinking is all… About my mom and stuff and it got to me.” She answered, not the whole truth but it wasn’t exactly a lie either.

He nodded slowly and pulled her into his arms, cuddling her where they stood and kissing at her cheeks. Parker's hands ran over her frame in a comforting gesture rather than a 'trying to get you going' manner he normally tried. "Is dad up yet?" She asked, pushing away from his chest again because she simply couldn't deal with this right now, not that she didn't love him or want to be around him but at the moment all she could consider was if he would be okay. He told her that the man was currently making his morning coffee and she wiped her nose on the back of her hand again, nodding and walking to her dresser.

Parker followed the few steps, curiously wondering what was really going on. "Nothing. I was hoping he might have time to make me a breakfast sandwich like he used to on Friday's. Is it okay that I want to see my dad?" She snipped at him defensively, tugging on a flannel shirt that was loose on her and shimmying into a pair of cotton shorts, stepping around her lover but pausing when she got to the door. "Did--Did you eat already? Maybe we could have breakfast together?" She offered, not wanting him to catch her off mood.

 

Parker resisted the urge to press her to explain her obviously affected mood, it was clear to him that she was anything but fine and while it might have a lot to do with her missing her mom there was something else in the mix, he just wasn't sure what. He knew how she acted when she was simply feeling more lonesome for her mom than other times, and this was very different. It made him wonder if he'd done something to upset her, but he couldn't think of anything off the top of his head.

He shook his head, pushing down his musings for the moment. "Sure. Yeah breakfast sounds great babe." He answered in a neutral tone, offering a slight smile. It wouldn't do any good for him to force her to tell him what was really wrong, all he could do was hope she'd come around to telling him in her own time.

The pair made it out to the kitchen with Finn in tow, greeting Dean where he stood messing with the coffee maker and cursing under his breath. Parker and Mari exchanged a look, the machine had been on the fritz for months now but the elder hunter refused to spring for a new one until the current appliance gave up the ghost entirely.

"Not working again, huh?" Parker asked, going to the fridge for a protein shake since there was apparently no coffee to be had at the moment. 

"No. The damn thing hasn't worked right since Kevin got his ghost juju all up in it's circuits." Dean muttered, thwacking the machine slightly and grinning when the blow finally caused the coffee to start dripping down into the pot. "There we go, come to Papa." Dean said in a lighter tone, looking to Mari and asking with a long familiar look if she wanted him to fix her a cup.

The brunette eyed the pot suspiciously and declined, making her dad shrug. "You don't want coffee? You feeling all right bug?" Dean asked with a dry chuckle as he poured himself a mug. The grimace he made when he sipped it made the younger hunters laugh and Mari confirmed that she didn't want any coffee that resulted in expressions like that.

"C'mon, it'll put hair on your chest." The elder Winchester justified his bitter beverage, taking another drink and trying his best to choke the liquid down without making a face.

"Right... That's a real selling point dude." Parker drawled from the fridge, grabbing the bowl of cut of fruit and walking over to the table to offer Mari some as well as pouring her a glass of juice. "Can I make you some toast or something babe? Looks like your dad is on his way out." He asked in soft tone, wanting to cheer her up or at least let her know he was there for her even if she had gotten snippy with him for no reason he could understand at the moment.

The brunette nodded, smiling crookedly and he busied himself making some breakfast for the pair of them while Dean got ready to leave for the shop.

"Little Susie homemaker over here. You'd make a good mom Parker." Dean teased, nudging the young man who laughed in turn. The two men had developed a much better report over the past few months and it was nice to be able to joke with him like this. He would still cut him from neck to navel if he hurt his baby girl, but for now at least seeing him tending to Mari like this pleased him.

"Yeah well, somebody's gotta be. This one over here forgot to feed Finn twice in one day. Our kid's are gonna have to learn to make their own sandwiches, right Mari?" Parker teased, and both men laughed at his remark, but when they looked back at the girl seated at the table she was nearly in tears, silencing them both immediately.

Parker realized that his remark had hurt her feelings, though normally such a comment wouldn't evoke such a strong reaction so he was caught off guard. "Babe, I didn't mean-" He began, but Mari shot up from the table and started laying into him, her tears making her words barely intelligible.

Mari smiled at her lover thankfully for offering to make her up some breakfast, he must have caught on that she was having somewhat of a break down this morning though she knew for certain that he hadn’t any idea why she was acting like she was. She would have to be certain before she told him she supposed, so for now it seemed best to simply bite her tongue on the issue. She sat at the table and sipped at the juice he brought her, only half listening to her family talk.

Dean commented on Parker’s need and ability to care for her and while she certainly knew that she required a little more than most, it wasn’t exactly that she couldn’t do anything. Her lover seemed to think otherwise, commenting on how she had forgotten about Finn more than once in a day and as often as once or twice a week if she didn’t get her gentle reminder from him. The smile at the thought of how caring Parker might be with their baby bent at the thought that he believed she could hardly even take care of herself.

Her expression fell and her hand absently brushed over her flat abdomen, the gesture blocked from the top of the table. They both started laughing… laughing at her for still being somewhat of a kid herself and she knew she couldn’t do it, she couldn’t be a mom and no one else believed it possible either. The two men she loved and cared about and would do anything for, hearing them bellow as Parker pointed out their child would have to learn to fend for themselves.

She felt the tears in her eyes instantly, starting to break down at the table in front of them, catching her audience’s attention. Mari pushed up from her chair and made her way to Parker, jabbing a finger towards his chest, “You didn’t mean what? To say that you’d do it all? To tell me that you take care of me! Like I can’t do it alone because—because I could! I don’t need you waiting on me especially—“ She sobbed, sucking in a harsh breath, “—especially not if you’re going to say things like that about me. Y-you think I need you far more than I do.”

“I’d do just fine on my own.” The tiny brunette insisted, trying to make her words clear enough for him to at least catch them. “Good to know that everyone thinks I’d be a shitty mother. I’m trying!” She yelled, tensing when he tried to put a hand on her waist and cheek and get her to calm down. She pushed him, “Don’t! Parker don’t touch me right now!” She screamed at him, glancing up at her dad as she marched right past him and out the door just as he opened his mouth. She refused to hear what he had to say for the moment, storming off and back into her room, slamming the door once Finn made it inside with her.

She tossed herself onto her bed, curling up into the mused blankets and pillows and sobbing brokenly. Her furry companion leapt up with her, whimpering softly at her as he joined her with his head in his paws against the pillow, nosing at her folded up arms to try and get to her face. Mari shifted and rolled just enough to be able to see him and he her; he inched closer to her and she draped her arm over his thick furry neck, scratching at his head and nose. “I don’t mean to forget about you, buddy. I’m better than I was right?” She asked as if he might actually answer her.

The dog simply licked at her tear stained cheek in response, “I probably would be a really bad mommy, huh? But… I’d still… I’d try really hard to get it right.” She continued, pleased to have someone to vocalize things to even if he couldn’t respond or understand her words. Maybe that’s what made it easier for her to say it to him. She wasn’t even certain yet if she was pregnant so why was she so concerned about it when she knew nothing. She absently scratched at Finn’s head and down his back, making the dog sigh heavily and his eyes started to close. She rested close to him and let her eyes flutter shut as well, drifting off for she didn’t know how long.

Mari woke to the sound of Finn scratching at the door, sniffing beneath it and she could smell that Parker was making some sort of breakfast, far more than he originally said he was going to do. She figured he thought it might make up for his comment but already she was telling herself that no matter how much she liked to eat, the gesture wasn’t enough. She got up and out of bed, throwing on her hoodie and a pair of jeans instead, pulling the door opened for Finn to wander out. “Come on buddy.” She encouraged, “Wanna go for a walk?” She cooed and the dog seemed rather torn, sitting in the middle of the living room and looking from her to the kitchen uncertainly. Sometimes she could have sworn he was smarter than he let on, that he knew what was going on and was trying to encourage her to instead come with him for breakfast to make up with Parker.

Parker wandered out at the sound of her voice and she quickly stepped to the door, slipping on her shoes and grabbing the keys to her car. He asked where she was going, telling her that he made breakfast if she was still hungry. “Not really. No.” She snipped, trying not to cry once more, her lower lip quivering. “I’m going for a walk. Finn doesn’t want to join me so I hope you don’t mind caring for him on your own. Not like I do much anyhow, right?”

The tall hunter surged forward and snatched her wrist, while his other hand slapped the door closed, seeming rather irritated by the way she was treating him right now. He asked her what the hell was really going on and she couldn’t even look at him, trying to tug free from his strong grip on her. “Please… Parker please let me go.” She begged him, not fearing him so much as what might slip past her lips. “I just really want to be left alone.” That wasn’t quite true either, she wanted his comfort but at the same time she worried about the fact that she needed it as much as she did. Her free hand gripped at his fingers, trying to pry them off of her wrist as tears slipped past her dark lashes again and her breathing hitched.

 

Parker was struggling with his own anger now, he understood that something had upset Mari but even if it was something he did he wanted her to just come out with it, so they could talk things out and get past her being over sensitive and hurt. He didn't like the way she was acting, but most of all he just didn't like that she was hurting and not letting him help her.

The younger hunter sighed and stared at her hard, giving her a few seconds to reconsider this whole dramatic storming off thing and just talk to him. But she didn't say anything more, so he let her go and stepped away from the door enough to allow her passage through it. "Don't wander too far Tinkerbell." He murmured as she walked past him, knowing her history of bolting but he figured she wasn't planning on doing anything that drastic.

The young brunette nodded stiffly and hurried away from him, going straight for her vehicle and getting in it without looking back. Parker hoped he was making the right choice, letting her go and blow off some steam then trying to talk things out with her again later. Parker shut the door and leaned against it for a moment, wracking his brain yet again for anything he could've possibly done or said to make her this upset.

"You let her leave? Where did she go?!" Dean called from the bottom of the stairs, an edge of urgency to his voice that probably wouldn't have been there if his daughter hadn't run on him once before and scared him half to death. He took the steps up two at a time to push past Parker and open the door in time to see Mari pulling out onto the main road along the bunker.

"Dammit." Dean muttered under his breath, turning an accusatory glare on Parker. "So what was all that about?" He asked, grabbing his jacket and searching his pockets for the keys to his baby.

"I... I don't know. I'm hoping if I let her go, clear her head for awhile... Maybe she'll feel more like talking once she's calmed down." Parker mused, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest. "You heading to work?" He asked the older man, flinching a bit at Dean's harsh expression.

"Hell no I'm not. I'm gonna go make sure my girl's okay first." Dean snapped, shrugging his jacket on and flicking his keys around his fingers. Parker scoffed slightly, mentioning that she was gone now, they'd have to wait for her to return on her own but Dean cut her off, "You really think after she ran the first time I didn't take measures?" The hunter swiped the screen on his phone and pulled up a GPS app. Parker leaned over to get a better view of what he was looking at and couldn't help the crooked grin when he realized what it was.

"I bugged the car, and the key fob. I'm not gonna lose her again." Dean said with a note of finality that let Parker know he wasn't in the mood for any comments he might have to make on his actions. The elder Winchester stormed out, clearly unimpressed with Parker's choice and got in his own gleaming vehicle, tearing out of the parking space in pursuit of his daughter.

Dean sped down the highway, blaring his music as he was want to do and following the blinking light on his phone that told him where his kid was headed. He wasn't sure what was wrong but all he did know was the thought of her storming out again, even if she wasn't actually planning on staying gone this time ripped him up inside and all he could think about was getting her back as soon as possible. Maybe she and Parker had grown closer over the past months but he was still her dad after all. He didn't care if he was overstepping, Mari would always be his baby girl and if she was hurting he wanted to do whatever he could to fix it.

He didn't have long to go, the blinking dot indicating her position came to a stop off the main highway a few miles and after about twenty minutes of driving down a dirt road he was sure was making his baby filthy he came upon the car he had given over for Mari and now Parker as well to use. It was empty, and the secondary tracker in the key fob showed that she had wandered off over the hill in the rolling cow pasture she had apparently picked out for her refuge.

Dean shoved his hands in his pockets and ambled up over the rise, seeing his daughter several yards off sitting in the tall grass, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around her legs. The elder hunter sighed, hoping that he still had at least some ability to help her now that she was grown. She used to come running to him when she had problems, now she ran away... He wanted to fix that too over time, if he could.

He came over to stand beside her and she looked up at him through her tear-filled eyes, looking more than a little surprised to see him. "Hey Bug." He greeted her, sinking down into the grass beside her and looking out over the sunny field. He said nothing, waiting to see what she might do or say first.

Mari took off like a shot towards her car, fumbling with her keys as her tear blurred vision kept her from unlocking the door as quickly as she would have liked. She sniffled and forced open her door, climbing in and blaring classic rock music to try and drowned out her thoughts. She cried the entire time that she drove, wiping beneath her eyes to clear the stains along her face and ensure she could see down the road. Thankfully it was rather clear of traffic, not many things for her to run into should she lose her focus.

She made her way to the highway, taking it a decent number of miles before pulling off at a place she had seen, not one she exactly knew but one she thought was calming and out of the way enough for her to think alone, to talk to her mother and Sam if she needed and to be honest she felt like she wanted them more now than the other two she had at home. The brunette parked her car along the side of the road, knowing full well it would stay pretty free of anyone coming up on it at all.

She dropped down into the grass a good few yards away from her car, tucking her knees up and hugging her arms around them. She rested her chin on one of her knees, closing her eyes and listening to the sound of the gentle breeze through the grass surrounding her. Mari cried softly to herself, thinking things over, if she wanted this, if Parker wanted this, if she was even meant to spend her life with this man. She never had doubts before but suddenly she felt more afraid than she had on the case in Maryland they went to where he had almost drowned and she could do nothing to stop it until instructed.

The thoughts made her feel worse, Parker was right, she relied on everyone for everything, expected him to simply save her and protect her but didn’t take the proper precautions should she need to do anything for him in return. She heard rustling beside her but it didn’t frighten her like it might, perhaps she hoped it to be a stranger, hardly caring what they did or said for the moment, she was far too deep in her head. Her blue gaze flickered up to scan the face of the company she suddenly had and it was a familiar one at that. Dean greeted her, sighing lightly as he sat down beside her without her invitation.

“Great I can’t even run away right anymore.” She whined, her lip trembling and she knew she was being dramatic right now but with everything going on in her mind it only made sense to her. Her father mentioned that after the last scare… he couldn’t go through it again, claiming that her mother used to find places like this too when she wanted an escape so he took a guess. She knew he was lying, that he had followed her or seen her car or something else but she didn’t even feel like fighting him.

“Daddy…” She mumbled partly into her arm, hardly raising her face up to look at him anymore, enjoying the view of the fields rather than anything else. “Do you think I’d be a good mom? D-Do you think… that I could do it on my own if I lost you and Parker?” The young angel asked him in a quiet voice. “I don’t want to be babied or seen as the baby anymore. I’m-I’m trying so hard to learn everything.”

He started to answer but she cut him off, “Did you know I almost killed him? That I almost lost Parker because I couldn’t swim and I didn’t tell him that I couldn’t. I wasn’t able to back him up on that case… I don’t want everyone losing faith in me.” Mari whispered, tensing away from him when he tried to put his arm around her and he looked like she had just punched him in the gut, his expression changing because for the first time she didn’t seek shelter in him. “I have more to say.” She insisted on her reason, dabbing at her eyes with her jacket sleeve.

“We snuck out for weeks so he could teach me to swim, broke into the rec center in town. He had to pull me out a lot because I wanted so bad to get it down so that would never happen again.” She confessed, shifting her gaze back to his face. “I-If I ever had a kid… If Parker and I ever had a kid, I’d like to think that I’ll do my damnedest to get it right. Like you and Mom did. I just—I wish she could be here to help me sometimes.”

 

Dean digested everything Mari told him, going through a spectrum of reactions and emotions that ranged from shock to anger to a bittersweet sort of regret. The girl wasn't the only one that missed Aleah, in this moment in particular.

"I hear you baby girl... Look, your mom was always better at this kind of thing than me, but really... What it sounds like to me is this all comes down to that you're going through a period of change. And change are scary as hell." Dean looked his daughter up and down, a crooked smirk crossing his face. 

"You're almost twenty... It's still hard for me to believe sometimes, seems like just yesterday I could... Hold you in one arm, make you smile just by making a doofy face, stealing your nose." The elder Winchester chuckled, reaching out to lightly nudge her delicate nose with his knuckle. It wasn't much but his words made her smile at least a little bit.

"You're finally making that big change, from a kid to an adult, Bug. It's hard, really, really damn hard. You start thinking about your place in the world, the kind of person you wanna be for the rest of your life. It's overwhelming and you're bound to question yourself sometimes. But you gotta remember that you're just starting out Mari..." His voice trailed off as he thought about how early he'd had to grow up, how glad he was that his daughter had the chance to grow more like a regular kid even if she was hurting now. 

"Look. You don't have to tell me, but whatever it is that's bothering you now, it's just a bump in the road. You're still moving. You've got plenty of time to learn to stand on your own feet, and learn to help others stand too." Dean smiled, watching his daughter daub at fresh tears with the sleeve of her jacket.

"I know it's hard without your mom. I miss her every day... Somuch. But I'm here for you and so is Parker." Dean stumbled a bit over her boyfriend's name, but the truth was that he was a part of his daughter's life now and was becoming increasingly more attached to the guy. "We both believe in you, and I know your mom, Sammy... Wherever they are, they do to. You're gonna be fine darlin'." He assured her, reaching out to rub his hand over her back in a comforting gesture. "So... You wanna tell me? Like I said, you don't have to. I called in to work today so, if you want I'm always game for some waffles." He suggested with a broader grin.

Mari sniffled, taking shaky breaths in as she listened to her father speak to her about how her life was changing. If he knew… really knew, then he’d understand that his words were far more true than he could imagine. “I know.” She muttered in response to him reminding her that she was just getting going and becoming an adult now, she had years ahead of her to worry and decide all sorts of things but if she really was pregnant that would change she supposed.

She tensed a little again as he promised she didn’t have to open up to him, his arm coming around to rest along her back, rubbing out the tension in her frame with his hand and fingers. She sighed at the familiar comfort of her father’s arms, inching closer to him and crying once more, only this time she was silent, weeping into his shoulder while he asked what was going on in her head right now. She couldn’t help but smile at his mention of waffles, knowing they would go to their usual diner they hit up for breakfast whenever they craved it, one place and one place only that had the best syrup around.

The young woman nuzzled into him and sighed, “I uhh—Daddy it’s girly stuff you don’t want to hear about, trust me.” She insisted and he winced a little but gave a nod, squeezing her and promising he wouldn’t run from whatever female things she had to tell him. He started up with rubbing her back again to encourage her to keep talking and she did, fidgeting with the long sleeves that hung down over her hands. “Well I missed my period last month or… this month I guess? Its… over a week late now.” She flushed red instantly; far more worried about her father getting angry to even have to think about the fact that his only daughter was sleeping with anyone, even a man he had come to love just as well. And now he had to discover that they weren’t being the smartest from time to time.

He stayed almost eerily still, waiting for more of what she had to say so she cleared her throat and Mari continued. “We’re usually good about the whole… well y’know umm… safety thing. I don’t know anything for certain, I mean supposedly change in your routine and sports and exercise can kind of mess up your cycle anyways so it could be that.” She whispered, wondering if he even caught what she said to him. “So when you guys—“ She started up again but he cut her off, finishing her sentence about how when they were teasing her about motherhood and how she might be, it was a little more touchy than it might have been. “Yea.”

Dean nodded and asked if Parker knew, making her bite her lip and shake her head in response. “I thought that I’d wait a bit? I don’t know see if I’m just… I’m late because of everything or I… ‘Cuz I don’t—I’m really scared to tell him.” She admitted, her eyes welling up, “I don’t know where we’ll be in the future. He could change his mind and what if a kid freaks him out and he bolts and then one of two things happen, I’m left with a kid on my own, no Daddy to take care of them or I’m left completely on my own with only my daddy to care for me. I don’t really like either of those options, no offense but I need him.”

Mari fidgeted again, playing this time with a blade of the long grass, tying it off and folding it into bits at random. “What do you think Mom would do right now? I’m trying to decide what she might tell me… hoping that it’ll lead me somewhere.” She murmured, the wind musing her hair and making it fly and stick to her wet cheeks. Dean brushed it away, tucking her long dark wavy locks aside and giving her a little smile, she could see the worry in his eyes still though that at nineteen his daughter might be pregnant but he didn’t address that first. He softly told her she needed to take a test, get her answer right away and let Parker know what was going on after the fact because she owed him that. He didn’t deserve her wrath without reason and she knew that he was right, she had been really harsh on him. “Do you think I pushed him away too much? Was he mad at me? I just… I knew that the only way to keep him from trying to tag along and talk to me was if I got angry. I think I went overboard.”

Dean chuckled and kissed her forehead, promising that no matter the outcome, it would be okay. “I’m sorry, Daddy.” She muttered, not letting him pull away and instead, her head fell to his shoulder and she nuzzled into his neck, wrapping her arms around him.

Dean forced the muscles in his shoulders to relax and his jaw to unclench, putting aside his gut reaction to the possibility that Parker had... Violated his daughter in the first place and not been responsible about it. He made himself focus on the fact that right now his daughter was frightened and felt alone, she needed his support not his anger right now.

He held her close, relieved that after some coaxing she was still inclined to seek comfort in his grasp. Mari wept softly for awhile, letting him hold her and honestly feeling a deep sense of relief. No matter what the outcome of this was, Dean was just glad that she was willing to let him be a part of her life, not running from him and her troubles again.

He waited for her to calm down, hugging her tight and hefting himself up off the ground, tugging her up along with him. "Don't be sorry, Bug. No matter what, I love you. And Parker... If he doesn't come around, well... I'll hunt his ass down and put him in the ground." He said with a chuckle, shaking his head when he saw the flicker of worry across her blue orbs. "But he won't do that, Mari. I've seen the way he looks at you." Dean mused, gently wiping away the tear tracks running down her face.

He led her back up to their vehicles, and Mari tugged on his hand, asking him in a suspicious tone to tell her how he'd reallyknown where to look for her. Dean grimaced, grinning as he scratched his hand through the back of his hair.

"I might have... Bugged the car. But it was only done out of love." He admitted, ambling over to the car and poking his head and shoulders inside, unscrewing the knob off the gearshift and removing the small GPS chip he'd hidden in the hollowed out inside of the object and replacing it. He conveniently forgot to mention that he also bugged her key fob, still wanting a way to keep track of his girl if it was needed. Some might call him paranoid, he like to think of himself as a 'concerned parent.'

Mari gave him a sideways glance when he put the chip in her hand, and he shrugged. "C'mon. Can you really blame me? Just pitch it out there baby girl. I don't need it anymore I think." He told her with a gentle grin, chuckling when her face lit up and she turned to chuck the chip out into the grass as hard as she could. The young brunette turned and flung herself into his arms, thanking him for being so understanding and taking him up on his offer for waffles.

"Sounds great Bug. We'll get some breakfast, then stop at the pharmacy." He told her, giving her an encouraging smile when her face wilted again at the mention of getting a pregnancy test. "We gotta find out for sure darlin'. Like I said, no matter what I'm here for you, and I know Parker will be too. Okay?" He gripped her shoulder and guided her back to her car, telling her to follow him into town and they did just that, meeting in the parking lot of their favorite diner.

The pair ate a huge meal, getting both of them in better spirits as it usually did. Dean texted Parker that they would be out for awhile longer but he felt like Mari was in a better mood, leaving out anything to do with why she'd been upset in the first place. It wasn't his place to make the choice for Mari whether she wanted to tell her boyfriend what was up or not, though he did plan to strongly encourage her to do so even if she wasn't really pregnant. If she was, well... He'd find out sooner or later.

Dean and Mari ate breakfast together with the steady flow of quiet conversation, him telling stories about her mother as well as her, when they first met, when he asked her to marry him. All things that she heard before but she never tired of his tales, having always found her father’s voice soothing in and of itself no matter what he might be saying. He always spoke far gentler to her than anyone else and she recalled how he had an even different tone when it came to her mother. The man might not appear so but he had a load of affection to offer to anyone that came in his life, perhaps cared too much sometimes but she loved him for it.

She followed him to the pharmacy and he simply guided her back to the section lined with condoms and pregnancy tests as well as generic morning after pills. Her mind thought of the options, the things people did to have a baby and then what other’s did to ensure they never were ‘stuck’ with one. She couldn’t even consider giving something so much her own to someone else or simply ridding her body of its presence. He waited with her in line, absently rubbing her back and she wasn’t sure if she was pleased the place was nearly vacant or not, feeling like every set of eyes were on her, carrying a pregnancy test, why did that seem so strange? Or maybe they were looking because she was with a man thirty something years her superior, with his hair speckling grey and here she was a petite nineteen year old. It made her giggle a little as she thought how silly it was to be here with her father in the first place.

“I feel really silly or… stupid. How do I even—take it?” She asked him in little above a whisper, thankful that her lover was busily beating up things in the gym and doing his usual workout routine, having no idea they were back quite yet. She knew full well he would be down there at least another half hour or so. Her father grinned at her, taking the bag and pulling out the little box they just bought, tearing the cardboard along the top and pulling out the instructions scanning them over and explaining to her briefly what it said. She nodded her comprehension and took the goods from him. “I’ll uhh—go pee on the thing then we’ll see what it says? I’ll come out after I y’know… pee… on the thing.” She repeated, feeling sick to her stomach.

Dean chuckled and tugged her so he could kiss the top of her head, nudging the bathroom door closed in his room and she could hear him shift and lean into the wall. The brunette’s hands were shaking as she slipped one of the sticks out of the box, reading out the instructions to herself as she wriggled out of her jeans. She sat bare bottomed on the toilet and popped off the cap of the stick, doing as it said and once finished it was the most nerve wracking pee she had ever taken. She placed the test on the edge of the counter, trying to hold her breath a bit as if, if she made too much noise or movement Parker might suddenly be privy to what was going on.

She padded out with her jeans back on her hips, stepping through the door and seeing Dean leaning his shoulders against the opposite wall just outside the bathroom. “It takes five minutes for the one we got so… We have to wait.” She muttered, her voice cracking a little as he took her hand and tugged her to sit on the edge of his bed, his door to his room closed as well just in case Parker were to wander by, he understood her desire to keep quiet until she knew for certain so she could decide if she wanted to tell him or not.

They sat in silence for little over five minutes, jolting when her father’s voice broke it and told her it was probably time to go look. He asked her if she needed help reading it or anything and she shook her head, “No I think I’ll be okay. I kind of… I want to see it on my own first but if I have trouble I’ll let you know.” She stated, heading alone the few paces to his bathroom to get her answer.

When Mari didn’t come out right away Dean got up, she could hear him through the cracked open door, asking her if she was alright or if she was confused. She broke into a sob and he barged in at the sound, looking startled and worried for her but she was staring at the little stick in her fingers, shaking her head at him. He stepped forward and tugged her by the wrist lightly and her hand dropped the test on the floor, falling against him and sniffling. “I want to be happy that it’s… that it’s negative but… I mean I am, I think.” She cried into his chest, shaking with sobs as he held her tight and hushed her, telling her she was allowed to be upset when she was thinking about both sides.

Telling Parker was going to be another thing. She took time to gather herself, leaving Parker to his training and hearing the shower going in the other room as she stood in the kitchen making herself a sandwich despite having just eaten. Her mind and heart raced, how would she tell him that? Did she even need to? Her father told her that despite their ‘no’ he needed to be given a real answer as to why she was acting how she had been. She supposed he had a point.

 

Parker wasn't sure if he agreed with Dean's decision to immediately go after Mari or not, but when he'd gotten the man's text awhile later saying they were together and were going to spend some time just the two of them, he felt a little better. Maybe if the brunette had a chance to talk things out with her dad first, she'd have an easier time talking to him about whatever it was that was bothering her so much. He still hadn't been able to think of something he'd done recently that was making her react so strongly in the negative to him, now he was honestly less upset and more curious to finally know the truth.

He pushed himself extra hard through his workout, finishing in half the time and doing several extra sets of everything to blow off the nervous energy the morning's events had built up in him. Parker heard the pair of Winchesters get home but decided not to immediately confront Mari, feeling like it would be better to let her come find him in her own time if she wanted to talk.

The young hunter finished up his exercises and went to get showered off and dressed. He kept expecting to find Mari around every corner, beyond every door, but still nothing. Was it a good thing or a bad thing that she wasn't seeking him out to resolve whatever issue there was between them? He wasn't sure. Parker finally decided he would just go find her instead, if she didn't want to talk to him still... Well he'd just cross that bridge when he came to it.

Parker checked her room first, then her uncle's room. Mari often went and sat on Sam's old bed when she was upset, even though basically all personal traces of her uncle had long been removed from the room and apparently burned by her father. She said she found it comforting in a way, that the many shelves of old books in the room reminded her of her uncle.

Parker kept searching, going out into the main library and living area, which was also empty. But at least from in there he could hear sounds of activity in the kitchen, so that must be where she was hiding. He took a deep breath, preparing himself to accept whatever she might have to say. If he had done something to hurt her he wanted to fix it, and he was definitely motivated to get back to how things were supposed to be between them, easygoing and happy.

Parker entered the kitchen and sure enough there she was, standing just to the left of the stove fixing herself a sandwich. He grinned crookedly and leaned against the open door frame, watching her a few seconds more without her knowledge. Finn hadn't even picked up on his presence yet which surprised him, but then again Mari was giving him little corners of her bread so the animal had treats on the brain rather than paying attention to his surroundings.

"What'cha making?" Parker asked in a good-natured tone, testing the waters with his girlfriend, gauging how to proceed by her response to his innocuous question. He hoped she was in the mood for talking. Finn perked at the sound of his voice but the dog only afforded him a half-second glance, returning his attention to Mari and more importantly the food she was sharing with him.

Mari kept herself busy, planning on talking to Parker a little later… or something… maybe? If she felt like it. She felt like eating now, nothing more really just taking to her sandwich and letting Finn distract her with his begging. She handed off pieces of the crust to him every so often, not that she minded it herself it just was the part of her meal she would miss least if she gave it to another.

She jumped slightly in the middle of licking off her finger of the glob of mustard she had just dropped on it, hearing Parker’s deep voice behind her. She froze, of course she knew she had to talk to him, had to tell him what was going on, her father said that it was up to her but it wasn’t really worth telling him was it? Not when it was negative, what if that scared him off even talking about how it had almost happened.

The brunette fed Finn another bite, feeling steadily less hungry now with the added presence and the change in the air between them in the room. “Just… a sandwich.” She half whispered, unsure if she should turn around to face him or not. She bit her lower lip and again felt like crying, recalling that her Dad said it was natural to be upset even if she didn’t know that a baby was what she wanted. He hummed lightly at her response, asking how breakfast was with her dad. “Fine.” She answered again in a far smaller voice.

She turned a few inches, seeing him stepping into the kitchen and she grabbed her plate. “I shouldn’t even be hungry I guess. I’m not actually… I think.” Mari mumbled, hearing the crack in her voice, her blue eyes flickering up to his face and she couldn’t even meet his gaze without feeling like she might fall apart. She saw him, standing there cradling a tiny mousy blond and it tore her heart to pieces as she thought about it further. “Are you hungry?” She asked, trying to keep the topic on food but he clearly hadn’t missed her starting to break down once more.

She felt weak all the sudden, resting her lower back against the counter top and feeling she might fall over as her mind reeled. He hushed her, reaching out with hesitation as if fearing she might actually try to swing at him or push him away again. He caught up the plate from her fingers and pried it from her hand, putting it aside and asking her if she was going to be all right. She shook her head, “I don’t wanna lose you, Tarzan.” She cried, only confusing him further.

He didn’t question it, gently guiding her to sit at the dining room table just a few feet from where they were standing. Finn seemed torn between seeing what was going on and sticking with the treat his adoptive ‘mother’ had made. Parker eased her to the seat and she dropped down, watching him kneel so he was level with her face, cupping her cheek and requesting that she talk to him. “I over reacted to your comment about my mothering skills or rather the lack there of… I know I did but I had a reason to.” She admitted in little above a whisper.

He waited, his brow knitting together but he seemed to be putting it together, glancing down at her belly and back up to her face and stammering out a question. She couldn’t read his tone, what he was feeling right now as he processed the idea. Mari sobbed and shook her head at him, “I’m not. I-I thought this morning that I was because I was late and I freaked and Daddy came to find me so I took a test in his bathroom while you were working out and I’m not. Parker there’s not.” She insisted, trying to fight her tears of slight disappointment because a large part of her feared he would think she was playing him in some manner, maybe get frightened by the thought. She knew he was a better man than that but she didn’t want to risk it.

Parker felt his insides clench with panic when he pieced together Mari's cues and words to mean that she was pregnant. She quickly assured him that she wasn't actually carrying their baby, which was at once a huge relief and a bit of an anti-climax. So that was why she had been so upset by his mothering skills remark earlier... Made sense now. Though he felt bad if she honestly thought he believed she wasn't fit to be a mother. He liked to tease her sure but that wasn't really true.

Parker could see how upset his girlfriend was, reeling from the notion of such a huge change in their lives and he knew the tumult he felt over the course of the past few minutes was nothing compared to how she'd been feeling the past several hours. The young hunter reached for her and pulled her into a tight hug, feeling her shaking like a leaf against him and his heart welled with sympathy for the girl. She must've been terrified that her being pregnant would be a deal breaker for him.

He let her cry for a little while, whispering soothingly to her, not really trying to talk to her seriously yet just letting her unload the stress and worry she'd been storing up. Finally after awhile she pulled back, sniffling and looking up at him expectantly. Parker smiled gently and offered her a clean napkin from the holder on the table to dry her eyes and wipe her nose since she'd worked herself into a bit of a mess.

"I understand why you were upset now, and I'm sorry that you were so stressed babe. But... I mean, you know that if... If something were to happen, I would support you, right? I'd stick around." He said in a definitive tone, looking her straight in the eye so she knew he had no wavering doubts about what he was saying. She seemed to accept his words, nodding slightly and he smiled, reaching out to affectionately ruffle her dark hair.

"And just so we're clear, I don't actually think you'd be a bad mom, okay? You'd be great." He added, leaning back and tearing off another little bit of her sandwich to give to Finn who was still fairly focused on her full plate. "See? Finn thinks so too he loves your sandwich skills." He joked, trying to bring up the young woman's mood though it didn't seem to be working as well as he would've liked.

"Is there anything else bothering you Tink?" Parker asked quietly, taking her hand and waiting for her to speak. Mari seemed hesitant to keep talking but she finally asked him in a quiet voice if he was relieved that she wasn't actually pregnant. Parker took a deep breath, considering his answer carefully since he didn't want to upset her any further by accidentally misspeaking today.

"In a word? Yes. But not because I think you'd be a bad mom or because I'm opposed to the idea out of hand..." Parker scooted a little closer to the brunette to capture both her still trembling hands in his, squeezing them reassuringly. "With the way I grew up, how I've lived... Kids were never something I considered as feasible. I mean I like kids, but crazy hunter-slash-assassins aren't really the best choice for a family man, am I right?" The hunter chuckled a bit at himself more than anything before continuing.

"But... Since we've been together, since my life has changed... For the better, I think by the way, maybe... Maybe someday, if we both decide it's what we want... Maybe that's not so unfeasible after all. So I am glad that you're not pregnant now and we aren't caught off guard, but that doesn't mean it's something I don't want on the table for later. What about you?" He asked softly, hoping his honest answer wasn't just upsetting her further.

Mari took Parker’s words carefully, trying not to cry again when she thought that he might say he never wanted this, not with her or anyone else. Her body was tense as she asked him to tell her, “Are you… Are you relieved that—that I’m not pregnant?” She questioned, blinking rapidly to clear her vision so they could look at one another.

She wasn’t amused by his talk of Finn or to Finn rather… that was for another time she wanted them to seriously discuss this, not joke to make her feel better especially when it wasn’t working to the effects she knew he wanted it to. He seemed to catch on, refocusing on her face and holding her hands in his own, her face crumpling when he told her that he was in fact relieved she wasn’t pregnant.

He very quickly covered himself, insisting it wasn’t because he thought she was a bad mom or would be should that happen. He squeezed her fingers softly and her breathing hitched but she refused to sob again for the cause. She nodded slowly as he answered her, saying that with his bring up… family was never something he thought he would have, be capable of or… even want for himself. His chuckle deep in his chest made her heart break that he still might think himself so unworthy of a partner that he didn’t deserve to have a family.

The brunette forced herself to look at him, keep his blue gaze locked with her own and smile at him saying that she changed his life for the better. She wasn’t upset, not really she understood what he was getting at now. That today just wasn’t the time, they hadn’t been planning it, hell they didn’t even know where they were headed with their own lives not enough to bring in a third and untainted party.

She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling when he asked for her opinion. “Well…” She muttered, wiping her nose again since she was more than a tiny bit of a mess. “I think that you would make an amazing father, Parker. There isn’t a single bit of me that fears you wouldn’t be successful in raising a child to know right from wrong, regardless of all you have been through… Hell I bet because of it all you’d know even more to teach our children someday.”

“Someday.” She repeated, emphasizing it with a squeeze of her fingers around his. “I want to be a young adult first… I want to have my first real drink. You know my first legal drink. I’m not even twenty yet. I’m still classified as a teen, I’m just learning how to truly be a hunter. I was scared that I messed all that up. I-I don’t mean that if it happened it’d mess things up I just… Well you get what I mean.”

Mari sighed heavily, her eyes watering again, “But thinking that I could be pregnant and finding out that I wasn’t… That hurt a lot more than I thought it might. I think that I saw images in my head of you with a baby and us being a family and I liked what I saw. A thousand things went through my mind and that was one of them, that I want you to father my kids when it happens. Just not yet.” She laughed, leaning forward so she could rest her face against his chest. “I want it to be you and me a little longer because I’m selfish that way which means that we’ve got to be smarter. I have to go on the pill or something.”

Parker held his girlfriend close, smiling slightly at her words and nodding in response to what she said though she couldn't really see it. "Sounds like a plan to me Tink. I am sorry that I put you in the position to have to worry about this though. I should've insisted on being smart every time in the first place." He apologized, feeling more than a little responsible for this mess. If he hadn't let what he wanted get the better of him, this probably never would've even come up. Still, it was kind of a nice mental image, picturing Mari with a little boy or girl of theirs.

The pair split the sandwich that Mari had made, though the young woman ended up giving most of her portion to Finn since she was still full from her outing with her dad. They spent the rest of the day together and it ended in a movie marathon that lasted well into the night, but really they weren't so much interested in the films they were watching, more just in getting in some time together to just relax and enjoy each other.

\--  
Parker opened the car door for his girlfriend, slipping his arm around her petite waist and walking into the old-timey bar with her, laughing when her dad made a big deal of getting ahead of them to open the door for his daughter. The pair of men had been going out of their way to treat Mari like a queen today, seeing as how it was a special day for the young brunette.

The trio pulled up stools at the bar, ordering a slew of the girl's favorites like mozzarella sticks and bacon cheese fries, as well as three cold beers to get them started. When the got served Parker took one of the frosted bottles and snapped it open on the edge of the bar, handing it over to Mari with a wide grin.

"Happy 21st birthday Tinkerbell. Many happy returns." He said happily, clinking his own beer with hers and smiling at Dean over her head as she took a pull from her first 'legal' drink. They ate and laughed for awhile, Parker and Mari had recently returned from a hunt in Georgia and were telling Dean about it, only another seasoned hunter would find the humor in the way Parker was describing how the shifter they'd taken out had been discovered because it had gotten a few of Parker's tattoos wrong and that tipped Mari off that he wasn't the real one.

"Monsters not taking any pride in their work anymore man. It's disgraceful." Parker joked, shrugging and taking a drink from his own bottle while Dean ordered another round for the three of them. He asked his daughter if she wanted another beer or if she wanted to try something different, and she shrugged saying that a beer was just fine.

Parker interrupted her answer however, waving his hand and shaking his head. "No no, you gotta get at least one fancy frilly drink, right? We're celebrating after all. Why don't you get one of those pina colada things you like?" He suggested with a grin, and the brunette agreed to his idea, seemingly pleased that they were both so eager to treat her to whatever she wanted.

The bartender fixed her frozen fruity beverage and gave Parker a little knowing smile as he slid the fancy glass over to the girl. Both Parker and Dean went back to their own drinks and food but were keeping a bit of an eye on her now. They kept taking and eating, but after a few moments Mari looked at her glass a little closer, claiming she could hear some kind of clinking noise like maybe their might be a piece of glass in the cup.

Parker held in a chuckle and wore an expression of concern, taking the glass and looking at it, his brow furrowing as he inspected it. "Hmm... Seems fine to me babe, maybe you just heard some other glasses clinking together or something." He suggested, handing it back to her. She didn't look convinced but nodded, shrugging and sipping more of her drink. But only a minute or two later she was complaining of something hard in her glass again, tamping her straw in the thick blended ice and claiming she could feel the straw hitting something. She looked from her dad to Parker and they both shrugged, unsure of what to tell her.

She fished around in her cup a bit, finally feeling something catch and she drew a slush-covered object out of her drink with the end of her straw, her blue eyes getting round with surprise at her discovery. It took everything Parker had not to speak or react as she examined it, wiping the object off until it was clear that it was a sparkling diamond engagement ring.

Mari looked at Parker in utter disbelief, and he couldn't hold his smile back now as he got up off his stool and knelt down on the likely less than clean bar floor. "I know it isn't very fair of me to ask you for something on your birthday, but... Marilee Winchester, will you do me the privilege of being my wife?" He asked, looking up at her hopefully.

Mari was almost certain the boys were acting funny, the fact that they wanted to treat her to everything that she wanted… Not entirely uncommon but when there wasn’t a single complaint or joke made in response to her asking or requesting something or other, she was getting confused. Maybe they started drinking before they left… but she was pretty sure that wasn’t true. Her brow arched when Parker insisted she try a frilly drink, just one to get her first legalized version or something along those lines.

She accepted from the bartender and took a couple sips, pouting at the sound her glass was making. “There’s something in my glass.” She muttered over the roar of the bar. This was her first time back at a bar probably since she first met Parker at one… interesting choice for a date tonight but it made sense considering it was her 21st birthday anyways. He took her glass from her fingers and inspected it a little animatedly, making her brow furrow when he insisted it had to have been something around her she heard.

She took another little drink but wiggled her straw around the bottom of it, leaning over the bar to try and see the bottom if she could, pushing the slush aside to get a view. “I can feel my straw hitting something. What’d you guys take me to a place that doesn’t clean their glasses. I mean really this seems kind of hard to miss.” She grumbled to herself, much to the same manner that her father did when he trailed off in his own head.

Mari dug up the object and took a napkin from beneath her cup, wiping it down and about ready to throw it in both of their faces as well as the dumb bartender for trying to feed her something or other. She glanced down, seeing the sparkling diamond, the ivy etched into the white gold band of the ring she was apparently holding. Her blue eyes went wide as she looked up and over to her lover on the seat beside her, her emotions starting to well over as her mouth opened enough to try and say something.

Parker immediately got up, climbing down to one knee and the words he spoke barely registered in her mind. She blinked at him, her hand starting to shake as she passed off the ring when he asked for it, the broadest grin on his face likely for having caught her so off guard like he had. He took her hand, offering the ring up to her again and repeating his question. Her mouth hung open and she squealed at him, nodding insistently, “Yes, Parker of course I will!” She giggled, watching him slip the rather flashy ring up her finger.

She bit her lip and eyed it in the light of the room, the object looking entirely different on her finger now that she knew. It was sticky but she didn’t care, not at all, he must have saved up, helped at the garage with her father or something along the lines to get her something so special. “It’s amazing.” She cooed, tugging at him to get off the messy ground and he followed her guidance, leaning forward so she could feather affectionate kisses all across his lips until he was chuckling at her enthusiasm, requesting she ease up. She laughed and kissed him a final time, “I love you so much. It’s perfect. All of it.” She insisted, jolting suddenly as the bartender started clapping and her father joined in and soon the tender announced what had happened and those that heard over the roar started whooping and hollering.

“Like our first ‘date’ huh? Only… there aren’t half a dozen guys grabbing at my ass right now. Just one.” She teased with a little wink, pleased when her father leaned over to congratulate them both. She kissed his cheek and the bartender offered her a free drink for both occasions, her birthday and the engagement. She downed the rest of her first in one go like a champ and sighed, taking Parker’s beer and handing it to her father. “Hold this cuz I’m making him dance with me.” She instructed, smiling at her father who simply nodded and did just so.

 

Parker laughed as Mari informed her dad that she was making him dance with her, letting the petite brunette lead him out to the dance floor and waving off the many cheers they were getting from the other patrons with a pleased grin plastered across his face. He had been thinking about this night for a long time now, hoping that his girlfriend would approve of his choice of ring, choice of venue, of asking her in the first place to be his wife.

He found it fitting to begin this next stage of their life in the same sort of setting where they had begun everything that had led up to this point. Parker had never been one for pomp and circumstance and he knew Mari well enough to know she wasn't all about fancy formal things either so he figured a fun, more casual celebration was in order for them. The young hunter never would've believed that he'd ever get to this point with anyone, ever want to share the rest of his life with one special woman who stood above the rest of the other people in his life.

But here he was holding and twirling and dipping this beautiful, vibrant girl who meant everything to him and had completely changed his life. Parker never wanted to let her go, never wanted to get off this crazy thrill ride they'd stepped on unknowingly together. They danced a couple more songs and then Dean cut in, the elder hunter was just as pleased by their engagement it seemed and that to Parker was just as much of a relief as the fact that Mari had said yes.

They stayed out late, enjoying the time out and when they finally got home Dean hugged them both, congratulating them once more before going to find his bed. Parker and Mari stood alone in the living area, smiling at each other and holding hands.

"So... Do you think your dad is gonna rescind the whole 'bedroom off-limits' rule now that we're engaged?" Parker asked with a laugh, not waiting for her response before gripping her fingers tighter and pulling her against his frame. "Because I feel like something of a precedent has been set with your birthdays... I wanna try and put last year's performance to shame." He chuckled, bending his head to capture her lips and kiss her deeply.

Mari giggled against him but her sounds of amusement quickly melted into a moan of want as he kissed her, and without warning she jumped up against him, clinging to his frame with her arms and legs like a sloth wrapping itself around a trunk. Parker laughed and quickly caught her, easily holding her up and kissing her again. "I'm gonna guess I've got your vote of approval on this then." He surmised, walking back with her still wrapped around him to his bedroom.

They got inside and Finn seemed to realize he shouldn't jump up on their bed and took his place on his own cushion at the foot of it. Parker reached behind himself and shut his door, smirking at the way Mari was giggling in his arms and already starting to arch against him in anticipation. He turned their bodies and pressed her back up against the door, nuzzling into her neck and nipping at her sweet heated flesh.

"Happy Birthday future Mrs. Black..." He murmured, nipping and kissing up her throat and finding her lips again, plundering her mouth with his as he gripped her tighter and started grinding his growing arousal against her center, the friction between them even still clothed making both of the groan with need.

Mari was beyond giddy with the way her birthday had been turning out. She giggled at Parker tugging her forward and wondering himself if her father was going to forget about the whole, not sharing a bed thing since now they were engaged. “Oh?” She inquired simply at his comment about her usual birthday gift. She leaned up to return his deep kiss, mewling lightly into his mouth.

She leaped up into his arms and it was no surprise that he managed to adjust easily to the added weight. She smiled at his statement, her giggles perhaps being chalked up to the slight buzz she felt from the drinks she had previously. She kissed at him the entire ride back down the hall and into his room. He pushed the door closed once inside and she couldn’t help the fit she was having, laughing lightly and overly eager to know what he had in mind for this birthday of hers.

Her body arched against him, her fingers hooking into his shirt and drawing him near as her back hit the wall. Their lips crashed together and he ground against her center, making her soaked through with need. “What did you have planned for me, Tarzan?” She questioned through a huff of breath, her back and shoulders pressing into the door. He hummed in response, his mouth already beginning to roam over her body and she was almost certain he was thinking it was his birthday and not her’s.

The brunette giggled, watching him with lust darkened eyes as he kissed along her cleavage and his hands worked open the buttons of her plaid shirt. He slipped his arms behind her back and with one quick flick of his finger he popped open the clasp of her strapless bra, making it slip down her frame already. “Neat trick.” She complimented, gasping when his mouth closed around her pert nipple and laved over her soft flesh.

“Parker…” She sighed, his fingers unfastening her jeans and pulling them open enough to get his hand beneath the fabric, caressing her center through the fabric of her panties. Her fingers carded through his hair, scraping over his scalp and down his neck, arching into his touch. She knew all too well what just about any part of this man’s body could do to her. “Please.” She begged, the word catching as he dipped his fingers into her core and slowly started stroking her walls.

 

Parker braced Mari up against the door, supporting her slight weight and sampling her sweet flesh as he worked her jean shorts open. She still smelled slightly of the smoke and drink of the bar, but her own sweetness made her intoxicating to him. His own jeans were getting painfully constrictive as Mari begged him for more, and he slipped his hand beneath her soaked panties to dip his calloused fingers into her core.

He worked his fingers in a come-hither motion that hit her sweet spot, stroking her heated walls and grinding his palm against her clit for added stimulation. Mari groaned loudly with want and her hips shifted into his motions of their own accord, riding his hand up to the edge of her release but he didn't quite let her tip over the brink yet. 

"So tell me birthday girl... Do you wanna come now? Hmm? Is that what you want?" Parker asked in a husky voice, slowing the pace of his fingers to ensure she wouldn't unravel till he decided she was going to. He leaned in to nip at her neck and collarbone, listening to her breathless plea to make her come and grinning against her heated skin. He pumped slowly in and out of her body, stoking the fire he lit inside her but not letting it flare out of control despite her desperate request.

Parker leaned back and met her glassy gaze, he could tell her filters were down from the drinks she'd had because normally she was too stubborn to beg him quite this much for release but it turned him on to no end hearing her ask over and over for him to give her what she needed. He chuckled and captured her lips with his, speeding his pace and pressure inside her, growling against her lips as her muffled sounds of pleasure made him twitch with need.

Parker felt her walls flutter around his fingers and he worked her harder, drawing her orgasm out till she was a shuddering mess in his arms. He withdrew his hand that had a raw mark on the back of it now from her zipper but he hardly cared, shifting his grip on her now boneless form to carry her over to his bed. He tossed her lightly down onto the mattress, causing a stream of breathless giggles to bubble up from his girlfriend that made him smile.

Parker leaned over her and tugged her jeans and underwear off, discarding his own clothing and laughing at the way Mari was biting her lip as she ogled him up and down. "Sometimes I think you only want me for my body Tink." He teased as he climbed onto the mattress and settled between her legs. The brunette shrugged, asking him if he really cared what her reasons for keeping him around were as long as she kept him, and he had to laugh at that as well.

"That's a good point. But now that I've got this going for me," He countered, grabbing her hand and drawing it up to his face, "You're stuck for life. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me." He said with a smile, placing a light kiss on the finger that was now adorned with the engagement ring he'd gotten for her.

Mari fell into a fit of giggles as Parker tossed her onto his bed, a place she had been in more times than she could count on her fingers and toes and probably even his. She was always relaxed by their activities but not normally this vocal or giddy and perhaps that was because of the drinks as well as the fact that they were more than just boyfriend and girlfriend now. They were engaged, Parker was her fiancé.

She bit her lower lip and eyed him as he undressed above her, ogling his taut muscular frame she knew so well. He teased her about it, making her half roll her eyes as he settled between her legs. She absently ran her hand up his side and tugged him to settle more over her, shrugging in response. “Do you really care the reasoning I keep you, so long as I actually do?” She asked, making him laugh just the same.

He took her hand and drew her finger to his lips, kissing it lightly and she smiled at the gesture. “It’s pretty flashy.” She commented, wriggling her fingers towards him as if he didn’t already know. “I wouldn’t go so far as stuck… more… bribed into.” The brunette teased, winking up at him and he grinned, saying that whatever it was he was still there. She nodded as Parker’s fingers laced around hers and he drew her hands up to the sides of her head, pinning them against the mattress lightly. “Very true. I think I got cut a good deal too, y’know.” She informed him, arching up so their lips would meet.

“I love you, Parker. Always. Ring or no ring, I’d have stuck with you.” Mari stated between kisses, the contact stayed soft and sweet only for a moment or two until she knew he was too riled to keep the pace. He ground down against her still sensitive clit and she groaned at the stimulation. “You gonna screw around or get to it, Big Guy?” She half demanded, panting out a little laugh. Parker pulled back, arching a brow at her but instead he bent to capture her lips in a slow deep kiss as he entered her. She sighed into the brush of their lips, letting him swallow down her moan as his hips canted into her own.

Parker laughed at her impatience, meeting her in a deep slow kiss as he finally joined their bodies like he'd been aching to do practically all day and especially in the last few moments. He wormed his hands down beneath her on the bed and locked her against him as he let his body rotate to one side, dragging her along and pulling her atop him in one smooth motion, keeping their bodies connected.

Parker groaned as Mari settled above him, her tight heat totally enveloping him and the brunette's eyes fluttered shut as she sat up and began rocking her hips in time with her labored breathing. He gripped her hips and started thrusting up into her, the sound of their dewy skin slapping together getting more frenetic as he lost control of his pacing.

Mari's eyes flew open and her features contorted with pleasure as she leaned back and braced her hands on his thighs just above his knees, her body bowed with pleasure as he pounded up into her and she met his thrusts with equal force. A stream of curses fell from her lips and he could feel her tensing up around him, close to coming undone again. He wanted to follow her over the edge so he drove into her faster, watching her full chest bounce from their motions and getting lost in her scent and feel and sounds.

"Fuck... Come for me baby..." Parker panted, slipping his hand over her hip and finding her center, rapidly brushing his fingertips over her clit and pushing her over the edge. Mari's walls clenched around him in ecstasy and he succumbed to his own desire, exploding deep inside her and riding out their shared high. 

Parker slowed to a stop and gripped Mari's waist as she craned back over him, her breathing ragged and her whole body shaking from her pleasure. He grinned up at her and helped support her as he turned both of them onto their sides, slipping from her heat and sighing as they reclined in the tangled sheets. Mari began her typical habit whenever they lay naked together, tracing her fingertip along the lines of his many interlacing tattoos.

Her glazed blue eyes followed the path of her finger and Parker smiled at how fascinated she always seemed to be by his markings. Parker brushed his hand up the curve of her side and farther still to cup her flushed face, running his thumb over her cheek as he took in her every detail.

"How did I get so lucky, hmm? If I had seen this coming, I probably woulda lived my life a lot differently." Parker mused, scooting closer to Mari's body and feathering light kisses over her face. The brunette giggled and sighed, countering with the notion that if he had lived a different life, they might never have met in the first place.

"That is true. I suppose I'll just focus on being glad things have worked out the way they have." He replied, grinning ear to ear and planting another deep kiss. He pulled Mari flush against him and used his free hand to knead the muscles of her back, earning a pleased groan from her but it was more relaxed than the sounds he'd just been hearing from her.

Mari’s mouth fell open and she gripped tighter to her lover’s thighs, her nails digging into his skin and raking along the muscled flesh as she fell over the edge as per his commands. She felt him follow her not long after, his seed bursting inside her body only adding to her climax and she cried out to him. Her body arched and slumped forward, tossing her hair back over one shoulder and she grinned at him, offering a pleased little laugh.

Her hands braced on his chest but before she could completely fall onto him he gripped her waist and guided their weights until she was lying on her side. She groaned at the loss of him buried inside her body, her blue eyes glazed over with her pleasure and a satisfied grin smacked across her pretty face. He fingers traced along his inked chest and ribs, her smile growing even more as she recalled that she had every damn mark on his body to thank.

She was distracted until his own hand brushed up her side and took hold of her cheek, inching closer and his lips softly ran over her cheeks and forehead making her giggle at him and duck away not to say she didn’t like it. The brunette met his eyes when he rose back up to look at her squarely, “If you lived any differently you might not have made it to the bar when you did. You might never have seen me at all.” She mused, sighing and closing her eyes as he tugged her to him and muttered his agreement.

She hummed into his deep kiss and let him maneuver her close, curling into his frame like she often did. “I’m glad too, you know.” She informed him as if he might not have known that already. Parker’s large hands worked at her muscles and she purred, going slack in his arms as he absently kissed at her neck. “Shoulders.” She muttered, her body tight against his own but she managed to rotate in his arms, giving him her back so he could continue and he did just so, massaging at her shoulders and working out the tension.

“Your hands are very versatile.” She moaned, snorting with laughter when he made a grab at her ass and started kneading her flesh below. “You’re new at this aren’t you? Last guy didn’t do that.” She teased him. He asked her how she was feeling and she knew he meant with her added high from the drinks she had. “Well I’d say just fine, Tarzan. Or did you forget about me saying your name already?” She sighed, feeling his teeth graze along her shoulder and back and he rotated her again, keeping his weight off her mostly as her face buried into the pillow. “What’re you doing, Mr. Black?”

Mari giggled again as he worked over her flesh being as affectionate as ever and she took every second of it greedily accepting. She could tell he was holding himself together just barely, that their new angle was stirring his desire despite the twisted sheet between their frames. He worked on her lower back then slipped back up to her shoulders, wrapping around and fondling her breasts for his own amusement, asking if she carried any tension there. “Do you want your tip or not? I only pay the really good masseuses, Pal.” She mumbled over her shoulder slightly. 

 

A chuckle rumbled deep in Parker's chest and he nuzzled into the back of his lover's neck, keeping up his strong even movements kneading Mari's muscles but settling his weight more on her lower half to keep her pinned. "Well you better gimme a good tip missy, that is if you want your happy ending." He drawled, nipping at her flesh and dragging one hand down her side and beneath her hip, searching out her clit and massaging it in slow circles making her hum with want.

Mari giggled at him and pushed back against him, trying to shift beneath his weight but he wouldn't let her, holding her securely face-down on the mattress. He kept working her little button of nerves, feeling her pinned muscles twitching against him as he worked her back up. He alternated dipping his fingers inside her and teasing her clit, giving her just enough clearance to grind her hips down onto his hand, grinning devilishly as she drove herself higher and moaned his name loudly.

He was fully hard for her again and he couldn't help but start grinding his arousal against her firm backside, growling and huffing with want as they sped their synchronized pace. Parker dragged his straight white teeth up Mari's neck to nibble at her ear, his voice hot and rough when he spoke, "Tell me what you want beautiful..." He demanded, tensing to keep control of himself as the desperate sound of her pleading for him to take her riled him up nearly past his breaking point.

He pushed his hand down further from her mound and gripped her inner thigh, dragging her leg up enough to grant him better access to her and he began prodding at her slick folds with his tip, teasing her just a bit more because he knew the more he wound her up the greater her climax would be when it finally hit. Mari bucked back at him as much as she could with the limited movement he was allowing her, whimpering impatiently trying to drive herself fully onto his throbbing length.

Parker gripped her tight and bit down on the point where her neck met her shoulder, keeping her positioned just how he wanted and with an almost feral growl he sank into her tight heat. They cried out together as they joined, their bodies getting slick with sweat from the close contact and the burning level of their desire. The young hunter didn't often take his lover this way but when he did it awoke something wild in him. Parker slammed up into her at a rapid pace, reaching back down to tease Mari's clit again and the brunette bit down on her pillow to muffle her screams of pleasure as she came hard around his length, drawing him in deeper with her spasms of ecstasy.

Parker swore and bit the inside of his cheek trying to keep ahold of his own release, carrying her through another orgasm on top of the first and finally dropped over the edge with her on the crest of her third climax. He came deep inside her with a ragged groan, feeling her body trembling against him as the last wave of her pleasure washed over her. Mari turned her head back out of her pillow and gasped for breath, laughing airily and mewling softly when he pulled out of her body.

Parker flopped down beside her, his chest heaving from his own pleasure and he couldn't help but smirk at the way his lover was looking more intoxicated than ever despite having her last drink hours ago.

Mari cried out as Parker pushed into her heat, pushing her leg up and taking her somewhat roughly, just like she liked. She buried her face in her pillow, biting onto the fluffed fabric as he slammed up into her. “Ahh—Parker, don’t stop.” She pleaded, her back arching a bit off the mattress but she was restricted by his weight atop her. His fingers working over her clit did a number on her body, the mix of sensations sending her over the edge again and again and she snapped her teeth down onto the pillow once more to keep quiet, her hands balling into fists against the covers and sheets around her.

He was relentless, sending her over the edge a third time before coming deep inside her with a heavy groan against her skin. He rode out his pleasure until he was spent, slipping from her body and making her sigh at the loss of him. She giggled at the end of her high, turning her head so she could see him when he rested beside her on the bed. Her leg bent at the knee and she hummed happily, pressing herself into the mattress that smelt like her lover from having lived in this space for so long.

Her lips curled up at the corners as she felt Parker’s hand snake around her back once more, absently tracing over her dewy skin. She took his light cues and inched over to rest against his chest, nuzzling into his warmth and shuddering slightly at the cool air surrounding them. “You know what I’m thinkin’?” She asked, waiting for him hum in response. “That maybe we should share a room hmm? Seems easier, don’t you think?” She muttered, her eyes fluttering closed as he wrapped his arms around her.

The brunette took a deep breath in, her hand running over his warm abdomen and up his chest in an absent gesture as he claimed he agreed but wasn’t so sure that her father would so much. “I think he can be convinced. We’re engaged after all… Or perhaps that’ll be his wedding gift to us? Letting us move in together. That’s the proper way anyhow, isn’t it?” She laughed, jolting and her eyes flying open when she felt Finn’s weight pressing down the edge of the mattress and the dog hoisted himself up easily, settling in the crook of her knees, his back to her and he huffed with exhaustion.

“Sorry buddy. You can sleep now.” Mari giggled, reaching around her frame to pat his head. She hugged on her lover and he eventually managed to tug the blanket up from beneath his large companion to cover them both up. They drifted off in each other’s arms, touching absently and sleeping through the night.

\----

Mari bit her lower lip, standing in one of the churches Sunday school rooms, doing this ‘properly’ but when she wriggled into her dress and came to the realization that she was getting ready alone she broke down into tears. She scrubbed at her cheeks and tried her best to fix up her makeup quickly so no one would be stuck waiting for her any longer. A knock on the door made her jolt, about to tell them she wasn’t ready but when the door propped open and she saw her father standing there in his tuxedo looking as spiffy as ever, she smiled at him.

Dean grinned but it melted almost instantly when he realized she was crying or trying to stop crying, asking her what was wrong though she was pretty certain he knew the reason. “I just… I can’t lace up my dress.” She muttered, her voice breaking with a little sob near the end. He nodded and offered a hand to help her stand, nudging her to turn around so he could help her. His rough fingers brushed her hair aside and over her shoulder so he could see past her long waves, tugging at the silky strings woven through the back of her dress and pulling them tight for her. “A little tighter at the waist but… not so much in the chest.” She requested, watching him through the mirror as he focused on the task he was given.

He finished and tied it off, fixing her hair to flow down her back like it had been before and she turned around. “Some of the silliest things make me realize how much I miss her… and need her.” Mari whispered, her eyes welling as she looked at his hand holding hers now. He tugged her towards him and took the angel wing hair pins he had given her mother long before Mari was even a thought, twisting them into her dark hair and surprising her at how good he was at helping like this. He looked like he was about to cry too, wiping a smudge along the edge of her eye and looking her over, saying that she might not be here to help physically but Aleah was there in spirit always for every big and little step she needed her for. “I know. Thank you, Daddy.” She mumbled, giving him a smile and turning to swipe on a fresh coat of gloss over her lips, having never been one for makeup, getting dolled up like this was certainly different.

Dean asked if she was ready, telling her Parker was waiting and she nodded, sighing heavily and taking his arm. “So ready.” She admitted, having been counting the days until she finally got to marry Parker. She couldn’t remember another day she was as excited and nervous as she was. “You look nice. I don’t think I’ve seen you in anything but your coveralls in years.” She laughed, picking up her bouquet of plain white daisies wrapped in a deep purple ribbon as they headed to the door, taking a turn to the double doors of the small church and she could hear the sound of Parker’s voice on the other side, hearing the nervous tone to his voice and it made her heart race even faster but at the same time eased her mind.

Parker stood with his hands clasped in front of him at the head of the aisle by the pastor, clearing his throat and adjusting his deep purple necktie for about the hundredth time. He was not accustomed to feeling nervous, always sure of himself and his abilities, but for some reason he'd been anxious all day, unable to quiet his nerves no matter how many times he told himself he was being ridiculous for feeling like this.

The preacher gently cleared his throat and put his hand on Parker's shoulder, getting the young hunter's attention and offering a warm smile when their eyes met. "Nothing to be nervous about, son." He said in an encouraging tone and Parker nodded, chuckling a little sheepishly.

"Yeah..." Parker grinned. The man was right, Mari loved him, and ultimately that was all he needed and wanted. He stood a little straighter, smiled a little wider and took a deep centering breath when he saw the side door into the main chapel open. The preacher started his little cd player on the dais behind him and a simple string instrumental bridal march played, Dean and Mari walked hand in hand down the aisle and Parker didn't think he'd ever seen Mari look so excited.

The ceremony was short but intimate, with only the pastor, Dean, the married couple and Castiel in attendance. The normally sober dark haired angel watched the young couple exchange their vows with a little grin on his face, standing up when they were finished and coming to embrace his niece's daughter warmly.

Parker and Dean shared a short hug, the younger hunter grinning hugely at the elder and taking Mari's hand when Cas let go of her. "All right you crazy kids, better get going." Dean prompted, trying to usher them out of the church but Parker and Mari simply gave him a confused look.

"Going? Going where?" Parker asked, his dark brows quirking with curiosity when the elder Winchester chuckled conspiratorially. He put his arm around Mari and led her out of the church which left Parker no choice but to follow after quickly thanking the preacher.

The small group got outside and Dean basically ignored all of his daughter's excited questions until they got to his Baby, turning and and opening the passenger side door for her and helping her sit down in his car. Dean pointed at the driver's side and barked an order at Parker to get in, making the younger man smile as he realized the man had arranged for them to take his car to some honeymoon destination. He happily climbed in beside his new wife, expecting to hear where they were going when Dean leaned his head down thru Mari's window and kissed the brunette's cheek.

"All right. It'll be a little less obvious to do it in here. Have fun you two, I'll see you in a week." Dean told them, standing up and taking a step back from the car.

Parker was even more confused now than he had been when Dean first led them out of the church, but an instant later Castiel's voice sounded from the backseat of the car and the pair looked back at the angel just in time for him to put his hands on their shoulders and from one heartbeat to the next they were in an entirely different place.

Parker jolted and swore as he reeled from being transported unexpectedly, finding himself sitting on a bench next to Mari with the trenchcoated angel standing behind them. Mari recovered first, squealing with excitement and standing up, turning to and fro taking in their new surroundings. They were on the front porch of a small but nice condo that was a literal stone's throw away from a beautiful white sand beach. 

Parker could only guess this was their home for the week and that Dean had arranged everything for them, and he couldn't help the grin splitting his face when he saw how thrilled Mari was. He found it fitting that they were at the ocean, now they had a chance to simply enjoy the sea together without the threat of a deranged sea ghost trying to send them to a water grave.

"Wow. Tell Dean thanks for us would'ya? This is great. The only thing that would make it better would be-" Parker was cut off by Mari excitedly shouting their dog's name, and now seeing the huge black dog emerge from the condo made him feel this was truly going to be a perfect week.

Mari smiled and wriggled in her seat as she felt the other angel she considered family grip hold of her shoulder and they vanished to another place. They appeared elsewhere in an unfamiliar place when she opened her eyes but she was even more excited to be in a new place. They hadn’t been to the coast at all since their encounter with that not so friendly spirit in Maryland. She stood instantly as she heard Parker’s voice but gave him little time to speak when she spotted their furry friend coming barreling after them.

“Finn!!” She squealed, patting at her dress and leaving her bouquet on the bench with her husband. “Come here bud!” She called him, giggling when he raced towards her and made an excited circle around her instead of tackling her to the ground this time. He panted with excitement at his new surroundings, starting to jump up but she dropped down to kneel before him and scratched at his head, letting him lick at her like he always did. “Aww you get a vacation too.” She cooed at him, busily talking to the dog while Cas spoke to Parker.

“Would be your best friend.” Castiel finished simply. “Now they are both here.” He smiled slightly at the man, nodding his head before he could thank him as well. “The condo is warded inside and out, I have taken it upon myself to protect Mari and now you so the entirety of the small island has been marked. It is safe for travel should you choose.” He informed him. “I assure you the waters are clear aside from the usual marine life. I’ll return in exactly a week to bring you both home.”

With his final words and a single nod Castiel vanished just as Mari turned around, seeing only Parker sitting alone. Her brow furrowed but she knew he left and would come back for them, running back to her lover with their dog in tow close behind her and her hands clinging to the sides of her skirt to keep it from dragging as she went. “This is amazing. Finn’s here too.” She smiled, giggling as the dog leaped at his original owner and nearly could reach his face to lick at him.

Parker mentioned that he knew he was, clearly with the dog all over him. He pushed at him slightly and Finn got down instantly. She took the man’s hand and tugged at him to come with her, “I wanna see the inside.” She insisted, practically yanking him forward without any affect but he chuckled and followed after her in his own slow pace. His hand tightened on hers when they reached the door and she squeaked as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms and carried her inside making her laugh until he put her back on her feet in the center of the expansive living room.

She slipped from his hold and clung to his frame still, lingering near him as her blue eyes darted around the space. “Okay Dad must have had this up his sleeve for a long time. This is gorgeous.” She muttered, wanting him to come with her to explore and she took him over to the kitchen then to the breakfast nook and dining room, stepping out onto the opened back porch and admiring the view. “It’s really nice to think we can see into the water and won’t get dragged under. Can we go swimming? Are stuff is probably in the master bedroom.” She hummed, pulling at him again to the other room and hearing him laugh at being hauled around like he was.

 

Parker felt like he was being dragged around by a kid through a candy store, of course he was surprised and pleased as well with their surprise but he enjoyed watching Mari's happy response even more than his own personal enjoyment of this gift. Dean had truly outdone himself, he wondered how long he'd been saving or what he might've sold from the bunker's extensive collection to afford this place.

He nodded at Mari's request to go swimming, laughing at her mentioning the same line of thought he'd had about going out in the ocean without fear of some gnarly ghost waiting to drag them under. Parker followed her upstairs and into the small but beautiful master suite, seeing a couple suitcases at the foot of the king-size bed which Dean must've put together for them.

"Looks like your dad really thought of everything, huh?" Parker said with an amused chuckle as Mari immediately started rummaging through both cases, finding the one full of her things and grabbing a simple black halter top swimsuit Dean must've picked out for her. She laughed at her dad's choice since it wasn't exactly what she'd pick for herself, but she was just happy to have something to go swimming in that wasn't her street clothes or her wedding dress.

"I'm sure it'll look great on you Tink. You're dad probably had a hard enough time wrapping his head around packing for his daughter for her honeymoon, it's amazing he packed you a swimsuit and not a full body wet suit or something." Parker laughed, looking through his own case and finding his own suit Dean had gotten, a pair of plain black board shorts. 

Mari was practically bouncing where she stood, turning and prompting him to unlace her dress for her, sweeping her dark fall of hair over her shoulder to give him easy access to the satin lacing. He shook his head and thought about the typical circumstances in which a new husband would be removing his wife's wedding dress, knowing that right now the brunette was so giddy it was probably the furthest thing from her mind.

It wasn't however the furthest thing from his mind. Seeing her looking almost aglow with happiness, knowing she was his and he was hers, knowing they had only each other in this beautiful place for a whole week... He had a lot more on his mind than just going swimming and playing on the beach. He decided to share his train of thought with her.

Parker started unlacing her dress, stepping into her space and enveloping her smaller frame with his larger one. "You know... The ocean isn't going anywhere. I'm sure we could take a minute to just... Enjoy the master suite." He chuckled, craning his head down to nibble at Mari's exposed neck, trailing his lips and teeth up to the sensitive pulse point just below her ear. He wrapped one hand around her narrow waist and pulled her back against him, one hand still working on her dress as he continued to graze on her sweet flesh.

Mari turned abruptly, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as she indicated for Parker to take her dress off. So she knew this wasn’t the first activity that most married couples did on their honeymoon and it was no surprise when his lips found her throat as he worked on unlacing her gown. She hummed at his words, her hold on her swimsuit top slipping and she let it fall to the ground as he started pushing her dress down over her chest to expose more of her to his greedy and eager hands.

“Bedroom isn’t going anywhere either…” She pointed out though it was very clear with the tone in her voice she had no mind to stop him. His hands pushed into her bra cups to cup and fondle her full chest from behind, grumbling about how it very well could vanish by storm for all they knew. She laughed at him, her eyes fluttering closed and her hand reached around to hook at his corded neck along the side, keeping him drawn down and kissing at her flesh. “Mmm… Very good point, Mr. Black.”

The brunette purred as he dress managed to fall from around her curvy hips and hit the floor pooling at her feet still dressed in their bejeweled silver heels. He tugged her back against him and already within little under a few moments of simple contact she could feel his arousal forming, his body starting to rock forward against her firm rear and she chose to make a grab for his ass, force him against her harder and he growled at the bite of her nails in his skin through the layers of fabric. “What do husbands do to their wives? Do you think it varies?” She asked with a knowing grin, her weight suddenly leaving the floor and before she knew it he had her rotated and placed perfectly atop the freshly made bed.

She stretched out across the cloud like mattress, arching her back and tracing one hand up to grip the pillow just above her head, her leg bending at the knee and the other outstretched before her in a very open manner for her lover. Her free hand traced up her hip along her abdomen and to her chest, humming and shivering at her own touch and watching his eyes darken right before her. He yanked his tie off in a few quick and simple motions, shedding a layer or two until he managed in his popped open slacks and a simple white tank with his button up unfastened as he settled over her.

Her blue eyes darted down to him, watching him grab her leg closest to him, unbuckling her tiny silver heel and she purred like a pleased cat as his large hand hooked her calve and he kissed up from her ankle to her knee, doing the same with her opposite leg. “Are we not going swimming then?” She teased him, glancing at the very prevalent bulge in his slacks. He half glared at her and her breathing caught, biting her lower lip involuntarily when he closed his teeth around her inner thigh and muttered that he was thinking of diving into her first.

Mari laughed but the sound quickly morphed into something else as he mouthed at her center, her hand reaching down and threading through his thick blond hair. He mumbled sweet nothings to her about her scent, her taste, his eagerness to have his wife for the first time and while this was nowhere near their first time she understood what he meant. She parted her legs and lifted her hips without a word as his fingers hooked into the fabric, intoxicated by Parker completely as he pulled down the lace white fabric over her legs and off her body completely. He immediately lapped at her center and yanked her closer to the edge of the bed making her gasp at the feeling that occurred so suddenly as he sampled her, all of her, delving his tongue deep into her center until she was a mess, coming against his tongue and lips as he greedily ate her out like she was the most satisfying meal he had ever tasted.

 

Parker rose up off his wife's center, grinning wolfishly and licking her nectar off his lips with a satisfied groan. Mari was trembling violently from her pleasure, and she tugged at his hair she was still gripping, prompting him forward which he followed. He climbed up her now sweat dampened frame and settled over her, nuzzling into her neck and marking a trail of bites and kisses up to her full lips, making her moan to taste her lingering sweetness on him.

She giggled airily when they broke apart for air, her hands sweeping down to push at the open button down shirt he still wore and he sat back momentarily to shed it and his undershirt as well. He had to admit it was a bit of an ego boost every time Mari devoured him with her eyes, especially since he had never really thought of his body as something to be admired, it was merely a tool he kept in maximum condition in order to be the most effective in his often very physical line of work.

"So... Missing going swimming yet? I mean we could stop now if you want..." Parker proposed in a teasing tone, his hands poised on his belt but not moving to remove it. Mari groaned and thumped his hip with her ankle, insisting that she was perfectly fine going swimming later and that he needed to take his pants off before she tore them off. Parker laughed and complied, shedding his remaining clothing and freeing his throbbing length from the constriction of his briefs.

Parker settled over his wife once more, pressing his frame down onto hers and languidly grinding his length against her clit, riling them both up as they kissed and touched. Mari's hands glided down his muscled back to grip his firm ass and Parker smirked at the way she tugged at him, encouraging him to take her and he rose his head up to meet her darkened gaze.

"Can I help you with something Tinkerbell?" He asked in a husky tone, prodding at her slick folds with his tip and teasing them both just for the fun of it. Mari dug her nails into his ass and he made a mocking little yelp, bending his head down to kiss her hard, nipping at her lip a bit in retribution. Mari shivered against him at his forceful kiss and he finally merged their bodies, driving into her to the hilt and groaning loudly in pleasure.

"God you feel so good baby..." He growled, pumping slowly in and out of her holding her gaze beneath him. "I love you Mrs. Black." He added in a rough whisper as he increased his pace, angling his hips just the right way so he would hit the sweet spot deep inside her that made her come undone. Mari cried out to him, her eyes rolling back in her head and her grip on him tightened again as she neared her brink.

Parker palmed her full breast, pinching her hardened nipple and tugging it up to his mouth to sample as he pounded into her, his muscles flexing and bunching as he drove them both to the edge. Mari screamed his name as she came, and he didn't hold back, growling out his pleasure as he followed her. They rode out their shared high until they were both spent, Parker slumping against her and idly kissing her neck.

Mari gripped at Parker’s rear, forcing him towards her as he ground against her clit and made her groan. She wasn’t one for begging unless lightened up by mixed drinks here and there but she certainly wasn’t afraid of making demands should she need to. He teased her further, asking if he could help her with something and at a time like this she didn’t find him funny, not when she wanted him so damn bad. She dug her nails into his ass as he prodded at her slick folds.

He hunched over her and bit at her lip in response, kissing her languidly and she could still taste herself on his lips. She moaned as he pushed into her heat, burying himself to the hilt inside her body and she gasped at the feeling. Her heart raced and her body arched up into him, following his motions and driving them both to the hilt. His words made her grin but it contorted into a look of sheer pleasure, “Parker! Ahh—“ She cried out as she fell over the edge in nearly the same moment he did, coming around him hard and drawing him into her body.

He followed her over the edge, filling her up and riding out their high until he slumped against her body and gently kissed at her throat. Mari giggled at him breathlessly, her hand tracing up and around his back, holding him down against her and letting him linger inside her body. “Hot enough I think I could go for that swim for sure now.” She laughed, sighing as he pulled out of her and she felt the loss of him keenly. Her eyes fluttered, leaving them hooded as she looked up at him, completely intoxicated by her husband.

She stared up at him and saw a very similar satisfaction in his own blue gaze, her hands coming up to hook around his neck, brushing up the back of his head. “I love you too, Mr. Black.” She returned now that she could. Parker bent and kissed her softly, deepening it as he shifted off of her, breaking away to sit up and she smiled, arching a brow at his exposed frame. He scolded her for her staring and she merely shrugged at him, “I wonder if the island is empty enough that we could get away with running outside bare like this.” She suggested. “The only real reason I’m concerned is… well you’re quite a sight you know, could change a woman… or man after seeing that, turn them off from all others. You have that affect, Tarzan especially with those sexy tattoos of yours.” She hummed, sitting up as well and crawling over to his lap, hooking her legs around him and settling herself in on his thighs.

She gripped him, her arms hooking around his frame just the same and she kissed up along his shoulder to his sensitive pulse point beneath his ear. The brunette hummed as she took his ear between her teeth, worrying it lightly and making him groan even around his reminder of their swimming. “Oh I’m sorry. I thought you wanted to fool around all evening in case the place got flooded or something like that? I’d just be swimming laps around you anyhow.” She purred, tracing a nail along his throat and over his jaw with a smile curling up her lips. 

The week they spent on the ocean passed by like a dream, and Parker found himself getting caught off guard again and again by how much his life had changed and the realization that he actually was capable of being truly happy. It was a feeling he vowed never to take for granted, knowing with the sort of life he led that such happiness could be snatched away at any time.

Parker didn't have a single nightmare or vision all week, and that shocked him as well. He didn't remember a time in his life where he'd ever been so relaxed and well rested. The young couple and their faithful dog were transported back home by Castiel, but the angel didn't linger for long claiming he was needed elsewhere and they had learned not to ask him to elaborate further in celestial matters.

Things basically went back to their normal rhythm after that, Parker began taking Mari on more hunts, still taking on the brunt of the physical work but she was slowly developing into a good hunter in her own right. Dean still didn't like watching his baby girl leave on dangerous jobs but he held his peace, respecting the work Mari was putting in to increase her skill and her honest desire to 'get into the family business.'

Parker had gone on his most recent hunt solo however, neither he nor Dean were willing to let Mari go on hunts that were angel related, it was simply too great of a risk and while the young woman didn't like it she understood why they insisted on such a restriction and didn't give them a hard time about it.

He got in far later than he anticipated, sneaking in with Finn at nearly three in the morning. Parker found his wife snuggled up under an afghan on the couch, she had clearly been waiting up for him but the late hour had gotten the better of her. He crept over to her, keeping Finn at bay with a silent hand sign so as not to disturb her. He gently drew the blanket up under her chin and sat down on the floor, simply watching her sleep for awhile.

He was dead tired, normally he would rouse her and take her back to their bed but right now he was happy to shift and lean his back against the couch, letting his head loll back onto her legs and his eyes slip closed. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, merely wanting to rest a moment but before he knew it he was deep in slumber slumped awkwardly against the couch.

As with most nights of his life, Parker was caught up in a vivid psychic vision of the future in his sleep. He tended to see the most significant events in people's lives, and more often than not that meant he watched them die. But this time... This vision was different. He saw Mari standing in the field outside the bunker and at first his heart quailed, but then his scope expanded and it was like the sun breaking through the clouds after a relentless storm.

He watched his wife, a brilliant smile on her face, bend and crouch in the long grass with arms extended, beckoning a small dark-haired boy who couldn't have been more than five years old to run into her embrace. He had never met the boy before but he knew, deep in his gut that the child was his, theirs. Parker wanted to stay suspended in this picture of the future forever, he'd never felt so happy and proud as he did watching his son fall into Mari's arms, happy strong and flushed with laughter.

He woke suddenly as he always did, the vision faded and his heart ached to let it go, but now he was filled with the most incredible sense of hope and anticipation, wondering just how long he'd have to wait to meet his little boy in person. Parker groaned from the stiffness in his neck from how he'd slept as he turned to look at Mari still fast asleep on the couch, the first rays of morning setting a glow on her peaceful face and deep chocolate toned hair. He grinned and tucked away what he'd seen deep down, he'd learned long ago that revealing his visions before they happened had a way of changing their outcome, and there was no way he was going to risk losing that little piece of heaven.

Mari had taken to hunting just as her father before her, treated it like her life as well as her job while still maintaining a balance with her husband and father and their furry companion. Finn was the best to bring along with them on hunts and she loved every part of having him around. She had informed Parker this time that she wasn’t feeling so hot, in fact she was nearly completely out of commission if she was being completely honest with herself. The fatigue and nausea and vomiting she had the past week or two was wearing on her day after day.

She managed a good fight or two without much struggle but when she finally admitted to him that she couldn’t hold up for fear of what might come up from whatever ‘stomach flu’ she had most recently. He took a job on his own, then another but he said nothing in regards to her missing out on any of the action in fact he seemed rather content with leaving her in the safety of the bunker though she supposed her husband and her father had been that way since day one when she decided she was going to become a ‘real’ hunter as it were.

“Finn. Come on buddy I want you at my feet while we talk to daddy okay?” The young angel hummed happily to the dog beside her, hearing his tail thwap against the ground in response. He nestled his head in her hand when she scratched at his chin and the sides of his face, patting her side and indicating for him to follow her out. He happily did, trotting out and to the other room where Parker was currently working on fixing the coffee pot that still occasionally went on the fritz.

She smiled at him, watching his gaze flicker over to her as he greeted her quickly. She sidestepped towards him and he quickly did his usual and kissed her temple when she hugged at his side. “Hey big guy.” She sighed into him, moving around him when he seemed distracted by his task. She headed to the fridge, starting to make up a snack for them both, baby carrots as if she were extremely clever in her decision. “Want some?” She offered, dipping one in ranch for herself and offering him another. She chewed as he shook his head and claimed he didn’t for right now.

“You don’t want a baby carrot? Do you think they grow small or they pick them before they are adults or something? Probably why they call them babies. Don’t let them stir too long.” She muttered, looking over to him and seeing the rather amused grin on his face as she spoke, saying he wasn’t sure either way. He asked if it mattered really and she sighed, her face turning into something of thought. “I guess not.”

“Did you want a sandwich? Extra mustard? Ham perhaps? Baby spinach?” She prompted, wanting him to catch on more than anything. Parker’s eyes finally looked to her and he stopped fighting with the cord of the coffee pot to give her the attention she so clearly wanted from him. She simply smiled, “If you had a preference for repainting my old room… would you go pink or blue? I mean… I guess we’d have to know the plans with the space right?” The brunette kept up her little game until he had the stupidest grin on his face that told her he was holding something back just to the same manner she was.

But before she could ask him, he ask her what she wanted to really tell him, nodding his head and she darted to him, taking his hands and wriggling where she stood. “Parker… Maybe you should sit down or something? I don’t know the right way to do this for real.” She giggled, feeling him grab her face suddenly and tell her to tell him what she had to say now. She smiled, her cheeks squishing into his hands and making her face look somewhat of a fish as she spoke. “Okay. Look.” She mumbled, pulling his hand from her face and reaching around to her back jean pocket for the little plastic test she had carried for his evidence as if he might not believe her if she simply spoke the words.

She kept the cap on it for sanitation, handing it over to him and jumping on her feet and all he did was smile at her. Mari squealed but it faded when she caught that look in his eyes and the arch to his brow. He seemed excited but also started pretending he didn’t understand. “It’s positive. See. The little lines mean it’s positive and the single line on the other side means it worked I guess.” She told him, pointing to it. “Parker?” She prompted, wanting him to get excited. “Baby I’m pregnant.” She finally said like he might not comprehend.

The man chuckled and nodded, saying he knew, “Yea because I told you a million times.” She sighed but he shook his head, saying he knew before then, that it would happen. “What?” She questioned, “What do you mean you knew? How long have you known? You didn't tell me then? Mister smartypants! You owe me $20 for that test, jackass."

Parker picked up almost immediately on what his wife was getting at with her little food puns, when she had first come down with her mysterious stomach flu a few days ago he started to suspect if his vision was finally coming to fruition. Now it was being confirmed and he had to do his damndest to keep a straight face and let her 'surprise' him with the news.

His heart was filled with happiness as she finally said the words out loud, but he could tell she wasn't satisfied with his level of shock at the revelation so he decided he had better come clean. "Yeah. I know baby." He admitted, laughing when she didn't understand his meaning at first. "No, I knew before this. I've known." He said with more emphasis, raising his dark brows with amusement and laughing hard at her outburst. She thumped his chest and demanded that he reimburse her for her pregnancy test and he couldn't stop the flow of laughter, taking her hand and tugging her down to sit in his lap in one of the kitchen chairs.

Parker got his wife settled on his lap, looking her up and down and placing his large hand over her still flat belly and feathering kisses over her face. "I had a vision about it, maybe two, three weeks back? But I couldn't tell you about it, even hint at it or I might've risked changing the outcome. And I definitely didn't wanna do that. Besides, you know how I hardly ever get any context or notion of time in my visions, so it would've been kinda sucky to tell you about it and then not have it happen for another five years or something." He chuckled, explaining his silence on the matter and Mari begrudgingly agreed that he made the right choice.

"It really is incredible though babe. I'm really, really glad it came about sooner rather than later." Parker murmured, kissing her softly on the lips and caressing her belly affectionately. Mari put her hand over his on her abdomen, giggling and flushed with excitement. She asked him if he hoped it was a girl or a boy and he laughed loudly again, making her squirm in his grip and chastise him all over again, asking if he in fact knew the sex of their baby already.

"Well..." Parker mused, feigning innocence until she hit his shoulder and demanded that he tell her what it was. "I dunno, wouldn't you rather wait and be surprised?" He teased, flinching in mock pain when she all but yelled in his ear to tell her.

"Well it's not a guarantee because there's always a small chance what I saw was a second kid or something, but... Let's just say we might wanna paint your old room blue." He finally fessed up, waiting for Mari's reaction with an excited grin on his face.

Mari pouted at her lover, smacking at his chest as she often did to chastise him for being a pain which… happened more often than not. She squeaked at the sudden movement, Parker shifting away and dropping into one of the kitchen chairs, taking her hands and dragging her into his lap just as well. She didn’t object but she did make a face or two at him for having kept such a big secret from her especially. She used to see some of his visions, not always but most of the time if she wasn’t wearing her amulet to bed at night and he had an episode, she caught glimpses in her restful state.

His large hand covered most her abdomen and the feeling alone was enough to make her heart flutter in her chest, relaxing as he kissed along her face in the same sweet manner he often did when seeing her. Parker admitted to having a vision about the event, reminding her yet again that there was really nothing he could control about it nor could he guess what time or when and where it was going to occur exactly he simply had to wait and hope it came and anticipate that it might never be so for them but it was.

She supposed he was right, it would have completely sucked to think she was going to be a mother and have it happen so far in the future. The brunette giggled as he ran his hand over her belly and they kissed sweetly, her hand resting over his own and lacing their fingers together instantly. “Do you hope for a boy or a little girl?” She wondered aloud to him, sighing contently but then he laughed and her relaxed state slipped away.

Her hand pulled from his but he kept to squeezing her fingers and making her stay in his lap so she simply slapped at his chest from there. “Paaarkerrr.” She whined, “Do you know the sex of our baby already too? What did you see?!” She demanded, crossing her arms over her chest when she finally managed to free her hand from his. She thumped him again and he merely chuckled at her requesting that he tell her the secret too considering she was after all the carry of said baby.

Her dark brow arched and she waited for him impatiently. “Tell me! Parker I wanna know!!” She yelled at him, making him flinch at the sound of her loud voice that tended to carry if she so chose. He caved with the reminder that he could still possibly be wrong, telling her it was a boy in his own way. Mari wriggled in his lap, throwing her arms around him and her eyes welled with tears of joy and excitement. She had a scare before, the moment that made her realize she actually wanted children of her own and since then she and Parker had a few discussions about it and she stopped getting her birth control injection as per their agreement.

They promised they weren’t trying to have a child but if it happened then it happened, her hands cupped his face and she kissed him deeply in response. “We’re gonna have a little boy. Even if not now… someday.” She squealed at him, pressing her lips to his once more and gripping his hand. “Now… I’m going to tell my dad, the fun way so you keep your mouth shut, Tarzan.” She ordered, winking at him but she couldn’t help but shift to straddle him, wrapping her arms around him and falling into his frame to simply hug on his broad frame. “I love you so much, Parker.” She hummed, squeezing him and feeling him do the same with his face buried into her neck, returning the sentiment.

The clearing of another’s throat pulled her out of her little high but she smiled again when she looked over her lover’s shoulder and saw her father standing towards the ledge of the table, keeping his distance but informing them that whatever was going on needed to halt. Mari’s hands lingered on Parker’s shoulders and she didn’t move from his lap right away, “Daddy. Hi. We need to talk to you.” She told him happily, laughing when he said he could listen better if she wasn’t in her husband’s lap. She flushed red and swung her leg off him, turning and sitting on Parker’s knee still instead, watching Dean cross to the kitchen to get himself something to eat. “Can you sit with us!?” She called, practically bouncing on her husband’s knee with excitement to spread the news already.

Her blue gaze cast down to the man beneath her, “Is it okay if we tell him now?” She whispered, smiling when he did and gave her his nod of approval. Dean yelled back that he still couldn’t hear her when she wasn’t in a proper chair. Her eyes rolled and she got off Parker with a huff, heading into the kitchen and taking his wrist just as he grabbed himself a soda to have with his snack he quickly grabbed. “Come sit. Please?” She requested again, smiling and pulling him with her, seeing his brow arch at Parker when they came back out. Parker simply shrugged, pretending he had no idea what was going on.

She sat him down and took the chair beside him, “So I won’t be hunting.” Mari started simply, hoping that he might simply ask her why. “Seems for the best that Parker just goes and I stay here to hold down the fort while you’re both out working.” She sighed as if it killed her to say that but she couldn’t fight her smile none the less.

 

Dean toyed with one of his barbecue potato chips, looking from his daughter who was acting borderline manic to his son-in-law who was clearly trying not to laugh his ass off and his features cinched into a look of befuddlement. "Okay... Why the sudden one-eighty after fighting to be able to hunt for years?" He asked, popping a chip into his mouth and wondering if his daughter was about to explode with how agitated she was.

He looked to Parker but the younger hunter simply shrugged, looking at his wife who was bouncing in her seat. The elder Winchester looked at his daughter expectantly, leaning forward when she did as if they were about to share some sort of conspiracy. The young brunette bit her lip and reached for him across the table, he willingly gave her his hand though he didn't really understand why she was acting so oddly.

Finally Mari broke her news, informing him that he was going to be a grandfather. It took a few seconds for the information to process and suddenly her touch and go flu from the past several days made more sense. "Oh my god, Bug, that's great!" Dean laughed with joy and surprise, squeezing her hand and looking from Mari to Parker with a huge grin plastered across his face.

Mari squealed happily, but suddenly she turned and to Dean's further surprise she thwapped Parker on the arm, chastising her husband and telling him that her father's reaction had been the 'proper' one to her news. Dean's brow furrowed and then it dawned on him what the source of her annoyance must be.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Dean asked his son-in-law, still chuckling when Mari told him with exaggerated chagrin how Parker had already seen her with their son in one of his visions weeks ago and had been keeping a lid on things.

"Whoa whoa, your son? So you know it's a boy?" Dean asked happily, he was well familiar with Parker's powers now and held no grudge towards him for refraining from saying anything. Mari's eyes went wide and she realized she revealed the baby's sex perhaps before she wanted to, and finally Parker could hold back his laughter no longer at his wife's antics.

They stood up from the table so Mari could rush into her dad's arms for a hug, and once they broke apart the elder hunter hugged Parker as well, congratulating them both. It was bittersweet, hearing such incredible news but not being able to share the moment with his wife and brother who he knew would both be so happy and proud. Dean fought back his emotions, hugging his daughter again and kissing the top of her head. "I'm so, so happy for you baby girl." He murmured, stepping back and looking her over even though there were no visible signs of her pregnancy yet. "We gotta head out today, get you some prenatal vitamins... Um, let's see, when your mom was pregnant with you she liked uh... Peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Oh, and she liked me to rub her feet with this peppermint stuff when they got swollen. Are your feet swollen yet?" He asked, rambling as he searched his memory for anything notable from his wife's pregnancy.

Mari hugged on her father once more, cuddling into him and trying not to cry herself when she heard the little catch in his deep voice. She smiled as she pulled back to look at him, giggling despite herself as they held hands and Dean rambled on about what all they needed or what she might have wanted. She shook her head, “No. Not yet. I haven’t any idea how far along I am for certain and with the way I’ve felt most days I haven’t been on my feet anyhow.” She answered, reaching up to cup his cheek and tug him down so she could kiss his forehead just as he did hers normally. “That makes sense considering mama’s love of peanut butter. Perhaps we’ll share the cravings at least.” She sighed, starting to cry and he pulled her to him, hugging her tight again and telling her not to cry about it. He promised today was a good day, that Aleah would never want to see her crying sad tears at a time like this.

She nodded and pulled back, wiping her eyes with the bottom of her shirt. “I know. I know that. She would be so proud of me.” She muttered, her hands running over her tummy absently as she thought. Her blue eyes darted over to Parker, “And I think she would have taken to hugging you more than me.” She laughed, shaking her head at the thought and making Parker chuckle in return.

\-----

Mari was three weeks when she announced the news to her family, give or take a few days but her due date was guesstimated for May. She had a long ways to go considering it was only mid-December, about a week out from Christmas now and she was going a little crazy already. She wasn’t hugely pregnant but she did still have nausea and horrible aches started in her back. She was sitting on the couch with her feet tucked beneath her, a bowl at her side considering she still had bouts of feeling ill. She tore into the piece of licorice rope she was eating that her father brought home on his way from work, absently chewing on it more to give herself something to do than anything.

“Baby!” She hollered, arching her head back to see into the other room where Parker was researching a case. He called back that he knew and she rolled her eyes, putting the ultrasound image she had been holding the past hour or so and shifting to get up. Her petite size meant the added weight of their baby showed quite easily, her little belly that was growing starting to stick out like she had eaten far too much fatty foods. “What are you doing?” She asked him, knowing the answer already.

“I feel like you’re hiding from me.” She whined, her dark hair falling down around her face and over to his shoulder when she stepped up behind him at the desk and started kissing at his neck. “Parker…” The angel hummed out, feeling his hand blindly come up to brush her cheek as he kissed the other side of her face and asked her what she wanted. “I really want a burger, extra pickles and sauce and a milkshake to dip it in.” She requested sweetly, her face falling when he said he needed to focus but he would get her something made up soon.

Her shoulders slumped and he must have felt the change quickly back tracking and claiming he could do his work later. “No. You’re busy I get it. Where are the keys?” She asked, stepping away from him and heading to the door, her voice changing into something harsher. “It’s fine I’ll walk. Hitchhike from a trucker. It’s not too far.” She insisted when she couldn’t find his keys to the car nor to the Impala. “What are you guys locking me in here for?! Jesus friggin’ Christ I’m pregnant not bipolar! I’m not gonna go on a murderous rampage.” She informed him, hearing him sigh.

Mari’s blue eyes squinted, to the same fashion she learned from Castiel only more menacing and less confused. “Sorry we’re such an inconvenience. I’ll just put on about a million freakin’ coats and walk all by myself out there to get some food.” She huffed again, heading to the hallway and making her way to grab her jacket and scarf, pulling it on and getting frustrated when her usually perfectly snug fitting winter coat was far too small to zip over her belly. She darted back out and glared at Parker as if it were his fault, a look of semi-defeat on her face. “Can I borrow one of your stupid coats?” She snipped again, angrily tearing off her own jacket and getting caught in the arm until Parker came to her rescue and quite simply handed her another jacket that belonged to him.

He helped her into it, holding it out and open for her to slip into and she did, feeling guilty now with how well he was caring for her. She pouted and zipped it up over her frame, practically swimming in the jacket but she loved it anyways. “Will you drive me? I want to go with you.” She asked in a tiny voice, picking at the chipped polish of her finger nails and looking up at him through her lashes.

Parker rolled his eyes as he helped Mari into his jacket, smiling at her warmly when she turned to look up at him once more requesting that he take her to get her treat. The hunter had been working a particularly nasty case the past several days and he decided that he probably could use a break. "Lemme go grab my phone and I'll take you babe." He responded sweetly, bending to kiss Mari's brow and leaving her there in front of the closet.

He grabbed his phone off the table by his laptop and sighed at the articles he had pulled up on it, Parker had been right in the middle of some in depth research but in the end it was more important to him to make sure his wife was taken care of. He sighed and shut the machine, going back to find Mari again to take her for her craving run.

The brunette was standing in nearly the same spot he had left her, but she was crying and Parker's brow furrowed with concern. What could've possibly happened in the 45 seconds he was gone to make Mari cry? He hurried to her side and gently took her hands she was scrubbing at her eyes with, giving her a curious once over trying to see if she was hurt or something.

"What's the matter Tinkerbell?" He asked softly, reaching up to brush her tears from her cheeks. The young brunette told him she didn't want to go any more, that she was an idiot and shouldn't be allowed out in public. Parker's brows furrowed in further confusion and he tipped her chin up making her meet his gaze.

"Now you know that's not true beautiful. What's the matter? What can I do to make it better?" He asked with a smile, cupping her face and waiting patiently for her to come around. Finally she sighed and admitted that she had put her heavy snow boots on the wrong feet and now she had nearly pitched over trying to bend down to pull them off again.

Parker held in his chuckle as he looked down at her feet with the mismatched boots on, leaning in to kiss her cheek and bending immediately to help his wife. "Keep a hold of my shoulder, okay?" He prompted, letting her brace on him to keep her balance so he could gently lift her feet one at a time to swap her shoes out. He got her set to rights and stood, pulling her in for a hug. "There see? I'm good to keep around for something." He said with a little laugh.

Mari huffed, leaning against the wall a little with her feet at an awkward angle as she stared down at them. She sobbed to herself, feeling silly for crying, silly for asking Parker to drop work to take her out to eat, silly for putting her damn shoes on wrong. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of his jacket and the tips of her fingers, hearing him trot on back to the entryway as she tried to clean herself up as best she could before he made it to her side.

Her face crumpled again when he took her hand and pulled her to look at him, catching her when she stumbled off balance a bit, asking what was wrong. “I don’t wanna go anymore. I’m too stupid for the public eye and I just cry about everything anyways.” She answered her lover, her voice cracking as he responded in turn. He questioned what had happened in its entirety and she huffed out a shaky breath of air. “I… I put my snow boots on so we could go out and I got them on the wrong feet. Both of them!” She emphasized, indicating to her feet.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and onto her shirt peeking out of Parker’s jacket that was far too big for her but she liked the comfort of it always. “I tried to get them off but my feet are all huge and swollen and I can’t just kick them off and the laces are too tight and there’s nowhere to sit out here by the door! So I almost fell over trying to reach for my own foot so I could get them off again.” Mari admitted, expecting him to laugh at her and when he didn’t even crack a smile that indicated he was going to she broke down, appreciating his resistance.

Parker kissed her cheek and bent further until he was hunched before her, offering his shoulders as he worked on loosening the laces at her feet to get her out of them. Her feet weren’t horribly swollen mostly because the boys didn’t let her do much outside of the bunker anyhow without supervision so she mostly stayed home, read and researched for Parker when she had the focus to do so. He lifted each foot and swapped out her shoes in a matter of a couple minutes, tying them up for her before straightening out.

He tugged her for a hug and she all but fell into him wanting to keep his comfort surrounding her for the time being. “I’m sorry you have a stupid wife.” She mumbled into his chest, hearing him laugh again and promise she was only tired, not stupid. “If you say so. I’m sorry… I just really want something to eat.” She said again and he shifted away to put on his own shoes, whistling for Finn to join them and the dog came barreling to them, halting in his tracks just short of Mari and licking at her fingertips like he always did rather than jumping at her like he might have before she was pregnant. She was fairly certain that he knew something was different about her, scratching the dog’s head. “I think Finn should get a burger too. He kept me company all afternoon.”

Parker led her outside and helped her through the falling snow, taking their car and filing in Finn in the backseat like he always did. He drove them to the drive thru of the burger place in the next town over that Mari liked best and they opted for taking their food home to eat in the warmth and comfort of their own space. “I don’t want a milkshake from here. Raspberry ice tea. No just lemon water.” She corrected, practically leaning over Parker to talk into the little box outside his window rather than give him her order beforehand. It changed three or four times since they left the house but he was patient and made sure to confirm that was exactly what she wanted before they pulled up to pay at the window and get their meal.

He sighed as he pulled out his wallet and again she felt he might be mad at her, making the brunette’s eyes water up again. “You didn’t have to take me if you didn’t want to I could have drove just fine on my own.” She muttered, fidgeting with the sleeves that came around past her fingertips, rolling and unrolling them in an absent manner. “I’m nauseous like 90% of the time so what sounds good changes a lot.” Mari’s head turned at his prompting and he kissed her brow again promising that he understood and rather than keeping with the conversation he requested she let him know exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. “I want a milkshake from Superior. I know it’s far but it’s the only thing I’ve been wanting aaaallll day.” She smiled leaning on his shoulder and giving him a pleading look.

 

Parker took his wife out the extra distance to get her just the right milkshake she wanted, assuring her a couple times along the way that she didn't need to feel bad for requesting her treat. They got the raspberry chocolate shake she wanted, and when he was totally sure that she had everything that she wanted, they headed for home. Mari nipped into her food on the way back despite her earlier expressed desire to wait till they got home, feeding him a bite or two of her burger and giving him a taste of her ice cream.

They talked about nothing in particular, but the normally bubbly talkative brunette steadily got quieter as the drive went on. "Hey, everything okay over there Tink?" Parker asked after a few moments of uneasy silence, wondering if she was feeling bad again about making him make the trip out here. But the truth was something he hadn't thought of, Mari shook her head and informed him that her food wasn't sitting well and he better pull over right away.

Parker's eyes widened with alarm and he pulled off the highway as quick as was safe on the slippery road, the second he came to a stop Mari flung open the door and trudged a couple steps out into the snow, hunching forward and being sick in the ditch off the side of the road. The young hunter scrambled out of the car as quick as he could coming to stand by his wife and patting her back, gathering her long fall of dark hair with his free hand to keep it clean. He stood with her trying to block the worst of the wind with his body, bending once she was done and giving her some snow to wipe her chin with before helping her back up into the car.

Mari got settled in the passenger seat again but still looked a little green, making him hesitate to drive off again for the moment. "What do you think babe, wanna chill here a few more minutes or should we keep moving?" He asked quietly, reaching out to gently squeeze her thigh in a comforting gesture.

Mari sighed and informed him that she was good to travel, so he threw the car into drive and took her home. She made it the rest of the way without getting sick again but she was obviously distressed, apologizing to him for 'screwing up' by making him drive all this way to get her food only to throw it up again and now not even want it.

Parker reached over and rubbed the back of her neck for a few seconds, trying to soothe her and he spoke in a gentle but firm tone so she would listen to him over her sniffling, "Hey. You did nothing wrong. You can't control when you feel sick, it just worked out that way. I'm not mad. We'll put your food in the fridge, your ice cream in the freezer just in case you want it later. 'Kay?" He told her with a gentle smile. She seemed to accept what he said, letting him help her back inside the bunker so she didn't risk falling on the snowy ground.

Parker stored all her food just in case, putting his wife to bed with some sprite and her tablet while he went to get more work done on his case. This whole adventure had set him back a bit but it wasn't as if he hadn't pulled late nights before. He got set up at his own laptop in the library, working well into the night.

Near two o'clock in the morning he heard Finn's nails clicking on the hard flooring and the dog came romping into the kitchen, preceding Mari who was groggily waddling along in her fluffy pink bathrobe and matching slippers. Parker smiled at her as she passed him, her nails scratching affectionately through his close-cropped dirty blonde hair on her way towards the kitchen.

He returned his gaze to his work but couldn't help but snicker a bit as he heard his wife getting into the freezer, undoubtedly for her milkshake.

Mari was more than a little upset with herself for getting as sick as she had, knowing full well she had rid her stomach of most all its contents in little under a few seconds after having just begged Parker to drive the extra fifteen miles or so out to her favorite ice cream parlor. He rubbed at her neck and back and assured her that it was no big deal and she couldn’t control it anyways. “I know but I still made you go out of your way for me and I didn’t even keep down the food I wanted.” She whined again and he smiled, walking off to the kitchen and putting her food away.

He took her to their bedroom not long after he got everything put in the fridge and freezer, saying their good nights and she knew she couldn’t ask him to take the time off and lie with her instead. She simply accepted her tablet and the sprite he poured for her, requesting some saltines to keep at the bedside should see feel like she needed something in her stomach and he happily obliged to her demand, kissing her sweetly and leaving her in bed with her bowl and Finn on either side of her. 

She took to her tablet for the time being, staying up until she grew tired around eleven or so, drifting off where she lie curled up against Finn. The brunette had a few hour long nap before the rumbling in her stomach woke her up and she rolled onto her back, tracing her fingers over her belly and wondering if she could keep down the rest of her food. She bit her lower lip and sat up with her feet over the edge of the bed, getting up and tugging on her robe to pad out to the other room with Finn in tow instantly.

Her nails brushed through Parker’s hair and along his neck in an affectionate manner, smiling as she passed him with their furry friend, heading into the kitchen to retrieve what it was she wanted. The milkshake sounded best, something she could eat slow and was cool against her throat. She plucked her drink for the freezer and tore off the lid of the large cup, licking the top and humming at how good it tasted at least right now. Mari threw the lid on the counter and dug into one of the drawers for a longer spoon that would reach in deep so she could eat her treat.

“You’re not making this easy you know.” She cooed absently as she shoveled her spoon through the still frozen liquid, trying to force out a bit of it. She scrunched up her face and fought with the dairy treat a moment or two before opting for putting it in the microwave for a few quick seconds to soften it up. “You’re making your Daddy think that I’m nuts.” She mumbled around her spoon as she waited, tracing a finger from her belly button up the swell of her stomach, talking low enough that she figured her lover might not catch it.

The microwave beeped and she padded the few feet back to pull her cup out, squeezing it to test its consistency and once satisfied she drove her spoon into the ice cream, taking bite after bite while Finn stood at her feet the whole time, trying his best to behave himself. She walked to the pantry and stood in the middle of the closet like space, eyeing her options before picking plain potato chips and hauling them with her back out to the other room where Parker still was working. “Are you going to be up a while?” She asked him, waiting in the doorway for his answer and he claimed he might be another hour or so.

She nodded and headed back to their room as he said good night, grabbing her tablet and returning to him having a confused look on his face. “I’m going to be up eating anyways so may as well keep each other company at least.” Mari muttered, missing her lover considering his last hunt lasted a few days leaving her to fend for herself, not that she couldn’t she just… preferred him there with her every day she could manage. He nodded and she sat down on the lounge in the same room, watching him as she clicked on her tablet and started up the game she had been playing previously. She stuck to eating, scooping out some of her ice cream with a chip or two and not missing the smile on Parker’s face when he started watching her.

She licked her fingers and by now Finn had crowded up in the corner of the couch to sit with her. “Will you join me over here at least? You can have some of my milkshake.” She offered, wiggling the cup towards him and he lugged his stuff over to the sofa, dropping down with her and tugging her feet so her legs were slung across his lap and her back was leaning into their dog’s side. She fed her lover a bite and smiled as she took one for herself. “Do you need help? Maybe if we work together then you can come to bed with me tonight.” She mumbled, feeling a bubble in her stomach and she fidgeted, fearing everything she just shoveled into her mouth might pop right back out.

She sat stiffly and Parker ran his hand over her back asking if she was going to be okay. “Yeah just an air bubble I think. I’m okay just need to slow down a bit.” Mari answered quietly, sighing and slumping against him instead, watching him refocus on his work and she could see in his blue eyes that he was beyond tired, breaking her heart to see him work himself to exhaustion like this. “I know this is really important but can’t you cut your research short tonight and pick it back up after a good eight hours of sleep?” She asked him, sighing when he requested that if she stayed out here he needed to get this done no matter what. She nodded her understanding and put her nearly finished milkshake aside, eating chips while she lie there in silence again.

The brunette dropped her head back into Finn as she played on her tablet until her eyes fluttered closed and she started to drift, hearing Parker tell her to go to sleep in their room if she was tired. “I am.” She insisted, “I don’t want to. I’m comfy here because you’re here and so is ‘baby’.” She whispered with her eyes still shut, wanting to linger with him whether he was okay with it or not. She snatched his hand and gently coaxed it to rest over her belly like she liked it to be when he laid with her, feeling his thumb run back and forth over her tummy through the thin fabric of her shirt.

 

Parker smiled absently as he ran his thumb over the swell of his wife's pregnant abdomen, keeping his principle focus on his research but it was nice to have her presence near while he worked. Mari played on her tablet, trying to hold her peace but every once in awhile she would jump or twitch or make a quiet exclamation when her game got the better of her.

When Parker finally closed his laptop and glanced over at Mari to see if she was ready for bed, he found that fatigue had gotten the better of her. A crooked grin painted his features and he watched her fondly for a moment, his large hand still resting protectively over her belly with her far smaller hand over top of his. He carefully set his computer down on the floor and extracted himself from the plush sofa, spreading a throw blanket over her and lifting her tablet from where it had become wedged between her and the back cushions.

Normally he would scoop her up and carry her to bed, but since she'd gotten more pregnant and her back was hurting her, picking her up tended to make her more uncomfortable than it was worth to take her in to bed. He tucked her in snugly on the couch and turned off the light, pulling up the paint pad app on her tablet and scrawling a crude heart and a little message on the screen with his fingertip.

Parker grinned at his little digital note and propped it up so she would see it when she woke, retreating to their bed to get some badly needed sleep.

\---  
Parker loved watching the process of Mari's pregnancy though he sometimes felt a little guilty watching from the sidelines unable to help when the little guy gave her more grief than joy. Her petite form was nearly constantly off balance now and she still had a little less than half her pregnancy to go, he could only imagine how wobbly she'd be when the time came for their little boy to arrive.

The young hunter arrived home from an 'emergency' late night ice cream run Mari had sent him on, a full bag on each arm full of frozen goods. His wife had sent him out for a specific brand of mint chocolate chip, but he had learned over the course of her pregnancy to always come armed with a plan B, C and even D if possible. He was always patient with her finicky eating habits, but he had come up with a few tricks over the past months and variety was one of the most successful. He had gotten the prescribed mint, but also chocolate, strawberry, orange sorbet and a couple different kinds of popsicles.

Parker fixed a small bowl of the ice cream and put the rest in the nearly overflowing freezer, he was looking forward to not having to buy four times as many items at the grocery store again. He brought his offering back to their bedroom where Mari was lying in bed, her tablet balanced on her now far more swollen tummy. Her face lit up when he came in and she eagerly called him over, he could only laugh as she reached out emphatically for her treat. If there was one sure way to his wife's heart, it was through her stomach.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I had to go to two stores to get the right stuff." He smiled and winked as he flopped down back on his side of the bed, his face splitting open in a huge yawn. Mari's features fell a bit and she started to apologize for sending him out on the errand but he quickly cut her off, reaching out to gently rub her belly like he often did. "Hey. Totally worth it for my lady and this little guy." He responded with a crooked grin.

 

Mari happily accepted the bowl Parker had to offer, taking to the spoon immediately and settling further into the pillows behind her. She hummed at the sight of the dairy treat she had been craving even more frequently than normal though the range of her flavor tastes tended to vary by day and tonight she wanted mint more than she could even explain to her lover. Both men in her life had become equally helpful, when Parker wasn’t around and Dean was, he tended to her as required, getting all that she needed and ensuring she wasn’t left hungry. But when her husband was home it was all his job, Dean stayed out of the way almost entirely after the first couple months, training Parker in the ways of handling her every need or in this case want.

Her face crumpled before she could mouth her whole first bite, seeing the way her lover yawned like he hadn’t slept in weeks and with her at his side he probably hadn’t. “I’m sorry, Tarzan. I know you’re tired and all I’m thinking about is what I want when you need—“ She started, cut off by his voice and his soft touch along the swell of her belly. She sighed instantly at the sensation, something that always oddly soothed her was his affections towards their unborn child. He promised that it was worth it for them both and she smiled down at him in return, patting her folded leg for him to pillow his head against and he did.

She raked her nails over his scalp and through his short hair like she often did, scratching at his head softly while she ate with her free hand until the unbalanced bowl nearly tumbled off the top of her belly that she often used as shelving nowadays. Mari caught it and simply left Parker to rest, making pleased sounds in her throat as she devoured her treat he brought her. “What brand is this it taste minty-er?” She told him around another spoonful, “Ooh do we have chocolate syrup left? No. Strawberry. Do you think strawberry syrup would taste funny with mint? I kind of want strawberries now.” She muttered, hearing him simply chuckle at her and respond to not a single one of her questions.

The brunette sighed and decided that what she had was enough, knowing full well her lover had met his limit for the evening and likely wouldn’t make a run out even to the kitchen alone to get what she desired. She would be satisfied enough with the ice cream by itself. “How’d the wraith case go?” She asked, her mouth full of ice cream she had yet to swallow, half muffling her words but he must have grown used to the new language answering that he had no troubles and that was why he got to come home yesterday rather than any later. “I meant to ask you last night but you were quite distracting, Mr. Black.” She giggled, shifting awkwardly as Parker’s hand rested more firmly over her stomach in the same second.

She could hardly see him over her larger abdomen, huffing with effort as she made the attempt to see his face and what he was doing. “Don’t. That feels weird.” Mari requested, moving beneath his hand that lingered just over her bellybutton. Her eyes went wide and she nearly dropped the spoon in her hand, putting the bowl aside immediately and realizing why his hand had grown so stiff and motionless. He wasn’t the one poking at her belly from the outside, the movement was different, coming from within her body. “Oh. Oh my God.” She whispered, her eyes flickering to his own when he sat up and repositioned his hand to another location when another flutter of life occurred along her right side.

The brunette’s eyes welled and they simply stared at each other as they came to the same realization in the exact same moment. Parker said it first, that their little boy was moving around and clearly pleased with her intake of ice cream. She nodded and it took him grabbing her hand with his free one for her to understand his cues and join in on resting her palm over her belly to wait and feel it from his perspective. Her hand clasped over her mouth and a quiet giggle escaped her, keeping her voice low now as if she might frighten their child. “He is definitely excited about that ice cream you brought home. Did you feel that!” She whisper-yelled to her lover, her hand reaching to clasp over his bicep and coax him closer up towards her head and he helped her sit forward just a bit so they could keep to their little game.

“Say something. Parker, say something.” Mari mumbled, tears filling her eyes as she waited for him to speak but he seemed at a loss for words. “All the books say they’ll respond more to voices that they recognize. He knows your voice best, I know that he does.” She insisted, pressing his hand more firmly over her belly and nodding encouragingly and sure enough when he bent his head to murmur something at random to their child there was another kick against her belly as if in a form of a reply. She laughed again happily at the feeling, forgetting all about her hunger for the frozen treat now melting in the bowl on the nightstand. She clutched Parker’s wrist and he tilted forward until their foreheads pressed together and her free hand cupped his face, both of them in awe over the newest progression of her pregnancy and she was definitely pleased that her lover had been home for the first experience of it.

Parker's blue eyes were wide and bright with wonder as he felt the tiny flutters of life against his hand, leaning in close at Mari's prompting and clearing his throat to speak to his unborn son. "Hey there little guy, you givin' your mom your opinion of that ice cream? It's pretty good, huh?" He said absently, a huge smile stretching across his face as he felt the flutters intensify at the sound of his voice.

He wasn't really sure what he'd been expecting knowing that Mari might start feeling their son kick at any time, but this totally blew anything he ever imagined out of the water. Of course he knew in his mind that they were going to have a baby, the evidence only got clearer the more Mari's belly grew, but actually feeling the life inside his wife making his presence known hit him deep. 

It was so much more real now, so much more intense a feeling. Parker never imagined he could feel such strong emotions towards a person he hadn't even met yet, couldn't see, couldn't talk with, merely feel. But he knew down to his bones that he would do anything to protect his son, felt such a fierce devotion that he was sure he would never look at the world in the same way. It was the first time he really understood what it felt like to be a father.

The young hunter scooted further up the bed to press his brow against his wife's, smiling warmly at her trying not to laugh like an idiot out of sheer joy. "Baby, that's so amazing... Thank you." He babbled almost without thinking. Mari giggled and asked him what he was thanking her for and Parker leaned back to look her up and down before returning his gaze to hers.

"I just... Thank you for this. For nurturing our son, for wanting a family with me... For loving me. I love you so much Mari." He shrugged as he spoke, overwhelmed with simple happiness feeling like the luckiest man in the world. Mari's tear-filled eyes welled over and she cried happily at his words, nodding her head and gripping him tight as she tugged at him, drawing him back to her face to seal her lips to his in a loving kiss.

They broke apart after a blissful moment and Parker leaned down to Mari's belly once more, pushing up her thin t-shirt halfway over her bump so he could place a light kiss against her skin just to the right of her now protruding bellybutton. "I love you too kiddo." He murmured softly, resting his cheek against her warm skin and feeling his son's little movements against his hand and face. He let his eyes fall shut and sighed contentedly as he felt Mari's hand brush up his neck over his head, her nails scratching through his thick close-cropped hair. He didn't care if there was anything after this life or not, this moment was all the heaven he needed to see him through. 

After a few moments of bliss Parker hauled himself back up to his proper place on the bed, nuzzling his head into his pillows and leaving his hand resting against his wife's swollen stomach as he got more comfortable. He was just starting to drift off to sleep when Mari's voice tugged him back to consciousness, asking him a question but he didn't quite catch it.

"What? What do you need Tink?" He asked sleepily, groaning as he came back to full wakefulness and grinned at the way Mari was tittering at his drowsy manner. She repeated herself, asking him if he had any ideas for names, suddenly giving him a suspicious look and adding another question about if he already knew the baby's name from his vision.

Parker chuckled and made himself shift back into a semi-upright position despite his fatigue. "Well now that sounds like we're getting into some weird time-space paradox and I'm not awake enough for that. I didn't hear you call him by name or anything in my vision no." He assured her with a low chuckle. Honestly he hadn't really come up with any names on his own, he was fairly laid back anyway and he always sort of figured that would just work itself out somehow.

"Um... I'm happy with pretty much anything I suppose. I remember you saying you liked the idea of naming him after your uncle Sam and that's still fine with me. I like my father's name, Carson Michael. Maybe we could combine them- Carson Samuel?" He suggested, glancing up at his wife's face to get a read on her opinion.

Mari watched her husband with tear filled eyes as he affectionately kissed at her belly and spoke to their little one. She traced her fingers over his scalp and neck softly, acknowledging him gently. She smiled down at him, brushing her fingers through his hair while he lay along her stomach. He shifted upright and took to his pillows a moment or two later. It was definitely something that made the whole ordeal feel far more real now, she knew she was pregnant but it was different feeling their son move, knowing he was doing just fine in there.

Parker’s hand kept up a steady and soft motion along her swollen middle, making her sigh and relax beneath his touch. He draped his free arm around near her head, resting against her pillow and she watched his eyes flutter closed, worrying her full bottom lip as she contemplated what she wanted to discuss with him. “Have you thought about names?” She asked him in a quiet voice, itching to know but she also didn’t want to bug him when he was tired.

He responded with more questioning in his tired tone and she rolled just slightly to look at him, huffing lightly and putting either hand on his face to stroke his cheek and card her fingers through his short hair. “I was just wondering if you had ideas for names yet or if you’d even thought about it lately?” She repeated, her face falling suddenly and she stared at him suspiciously. Out of instinct her hand gently tapped the side of his head, making him chuckle as she asked, “Do you already know his name?! Did you get all of that in your vision?” She demanded.

He sat up and claimed that he didn’t, staring at her when she pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest as best she could, arching a brow at him and almost not believing that was true. But the look in his eyes told her he was being honest. She nodded and relaxed, listening to him give his own suggestion and she smiled, her eyes watering a little at the mention of her Uncle Sam. Her hand reached down, running over her belly as she contemplated the name. “Carson Samuel Black.” She repeated softly, “I like Carson. It’s a good way to honor your history too.” The brunette smiled up at him, settling again and promising she didn’t have anything else to say so he could sleep. He nodded and kissed her, lying back down so they could sleep together now.

\-----

Mari huffed, leaning forward on the sofa and practically rolling off to one side as she reached for her foot. She moved and made the attempt to tug her leg up towards her face instead, bending at the knee and fighting her belly. “Could you stop growing bud so I can do human things?” She whined, gasping for breath and groaning as she fell back against the back of the couch, giving up. She put her hands over her tummy just beneath her breasts and sighed, lolling to the side and resting at an awkward angle but she was far too tired from her fight to really fix that now.

She arched a brow and opened her eyes again, hearing the sound of Parker laughing at her. He took a few steps into the room and asked what it was she was doing besides pretending to be a rolly polly. “Shut up.” She grumbled though it lacked any venom behind her words. Her hand shot up and wriggled in the air in indication for him to help her up and he walked over, gripping her fingers and doing just that until she could manage to her feet. “I was trying to paint my toes but either my belly or my boobs get in the way the whole damn time.”

Parker asked her where she was going when she took off around the sofa and she shot him a glare, “I just spent like twenty minutes trying to see my own feet over this thing...” She pointed to her large belly that often put her off balance with her tiny stature. “You work up an appetite just trying to sit up.” She informed him, “So I’m making a sandwich.” Mari continued on to her walk to the kitchen, feeling her lover follow behind her and she wondered if he was actually seeking her attention.

She waddled and turned around to face him, her hands on her back to keep steady. “Can I help you, Mr. Black?” She questioned, rolling her eyes when he made a face to mimic her own towards him and shoved his belly out in the same manner. “I’m glad I amuse you. I bet you stood in the door watching me try to get to my stupid feet the whole time, didn’t you?” She muttered, heading back to the fridge to get started on making her meal. Parker laughed and said that he hadn’t witnessed but the last few moments of her rolling around when her limbs all over the place.

She elbowed his stomach when he came up to stand behind her, still feeling him pushing out the belly he really didn’t have. He chuckled and put his hands on her hips, bending and kissing her neck and shoulder. “You’re supposed to come help me when you witness things like that, not just watch, Tarzan. What happened to swooping in a being my hero, hmm?” She asked, fixing up her sandwich with him lingering in her space the whole time. When she was done he followed her back to the living room, sitting down on the ottoman that they had got special for her to have something more cushioned for her sore feet.

Mari questioned what he was doing and he told her just to keep eating and he would take care of her. She giggled as he searched through the little basket by the end of the couch and started sniffing the lotions she had housed in there, picking one with a vanilla scent to it that he knew wouldn’t sicken her by the smell. She propped her plate on her belly like she often did and he asked for one of her feet, gently pulling it to his lap and squeezing out some of the lotion, rubbing it into her skin and massaging the balls of her feet, making her purr around each bite of food.

Parker gave both of Mari's feet a thorough rub-down, it was a task he'd taken to performing often since her feet tended to be so swollen and painful most of the time. He eyed the little bottle of pastel mint green nail polish sitting out on the coffee table a couple times, an idea forming in his head but he wasn't sure if his wife would go for it or not.

He finished massaging her feet but instead of relinquishing the foot he'd been working on, he held it in his lap and while Mari didn't think much of him keeping her leg in his lap at first she made a curious face at him when he leaned over and snatched the bottle off the table. Parker eyed it like some kind of foreign specimen, twisting it open and pulling the brush out to look at the liquid itself. Mari asked him what he was doing and he met her gaze with a bright smile.

"Well since you can't reach your toes right now, I'll paint them for you. Probably won't be as good of a job but at least your feet will be green." He chuckled, propping her foot at the end of his thigh and leaning down close to carefully start applying the polish. He had never performed such a task before but he did have very fine motor skills so he actually managed to get her foot painted with hardly any of the polish bleeding over the edges of her nails onto her skin. He daubed the color on the last nail and gently blew on her toes for a minute or two, admiring his handiwork which he hoped would at least do by his wife's more practiced standards.

Parker propped her foot up enough for her to see it over her belly, "Good 'nuff?" He asked and she giggled happily, telling him it was perfect and he had to laugh. "Well it's hardly perfect but if that'll do then gimme that other foot lady." He instructed, letting her finished foot drop off his lap and positioning her other limb in the same way so he could give it similar treatment. He carefully painted the rest of her toes and blew on them again, turning his head to place a gentle kiss of affection on her shin just below her knee. He showed it to her in turn and grinned hugely when he got her approval, moving it off his lap as well and setting the bottle down on the table again.

"Damn, this stuff smells strong when it's fresh. It's harder than I thought to be a lady doing lady things." Parker teased, running his hand up Mari's thigh to brush over the round swell of her belly. He sighed contentedly when he felt the flutter of his son moving against his palm. "See? Carson agrees with me, he thinks it smells funny too." He laughed at Mari's look of mock annoyance. It didn't last however, she smiled and thanked him for doing such an odd task for her and he just shook his head in response.

"That's what I'm here for Tink. Any time you need help with something, anything, even if you think it might be silly, just let me know all right? I'm happy to do what I can." Parker assured her, taking her hand and holding it clasped with his atop her belly.

Mari smiled at his handy work and watched his hand brush up her leg to her belly, resting over the swell just beneath her bellybutton. She giggled at his comment about lady things, “I avoid doing my fingers now because of this little guy.” She responded, “Don’t want him catching much of the smell I guess. I don’t think it does anything but still I don’t want to risk it.” She sighed, thanking him for helping her like he had, a smile on her face.

He promised he would help in any way that he could with whatever task she gave him even if it was odd in anyway. She gripped his fingers a little tighter and her eyes welled over suddenly, her hormones getting harder and harder to control. She broke into tears and he chuckled, cooing at her and climbing onto the sofa beside her, taking her now empty plate away and putting it aside so she didn’t have to. He cupped her cheek with his free hand and kissed at her sweetly, knowing full well why she was crying. “You’re amazing Parker.” She muttered, holding him close to her, laughing when he simply claimed that he knew he was.

\-----

“Why?” Mari asked her husband for likely the hundredth time that afternoon, being nearly dragged lightly by the hand around the bunker to get her shoes and things. He laughed and helped her ease down to the sofa, keeping her balanced since she lacked most anything nowadays. “Parker?” She said again, giving him a look when he ignored her and she poked at his shoulder while he helped her into her flats.

He leaned up and kissed her, saying she would see soon enough and making her roll her eyes. He took her hand and helped her up to her feet again, heading to grab the keys to their car and saying they were going into town. They drove into town and the whole time she kept prodding at him to tell her where exactly they were going. He pulled up to a place that she had never been to, arching a brow at the almost yoga looking studio building. “Umm… I hate to have to tell you this but in case you have forgotten I’m not quite so bendy anymore. No pilates or yoga or zumbo… zumbi… whatever it’s called.” She muttered to him, her hand over her belly, barely managing upright to see out the side window and turn her head to get a good view of the building.

Parker laughed again and got out of the car, coming around to get her out as well, taking her to the building and promising it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. He led her inside despite her apprehension and when they got through the double doors and yet another door she eased. A room full of women… pregnant women in varying stages of their pregnancy. A thin woman approached her eagerly and stuck her hand out to both of them in turn, introducing herself as the instructor. “Umm… Mari Black….” She returned, shaking her hand delicately and leaning partly against her lover. “This is my husband Parker. Who… won’t tell me where I am?” She hinted, making the lady laugh, taking her elbow suddenly and leading her to the group of women.

She explained this was a motherhood class or pregnancy class… birthing class, a mix of it all to get women prepped for having a child. Most all of them were on their first pregnancy just like Mari. The brunette’s eyes darted around the room and she couldn’t help but smile as she was introduced to the group of women in similar states as her. The instructor claimed this was more of a gathering of new moms and old to share stories, help each other, telling Mari that she had four kids of her own so she was very well versed in all different sorts of pregnancies. “Four? So… Umm… I won’t be all flabby after this then?” She glanced at Parker, flushing red when the woman laughed and shook her head, knowing she was referring to her stature.

That was something Mari always kind of selfishly worried about, if she would still be thin and sexy in Parker’s eyes. He claimed it didn’t matter but she knew he preferred her being shapely like she was, curvy and fit, not quite so… round like she thought she might end up after the fact. “Good to know.” She mumbled, biting her lower lip and sitting with the other ladies.

 

Parker handed his wife off to the kind-hearted instructor, watching with a satisfied grin as Mari was ushered into the circle of women in various stages of their own pregnancies. He knew she'd fit right in here, and seeing the bright smile on her face he knew he'd made the right call finding this class and signing her up. 

He called her name a couple times to try and get her attention, but she was already so engrossed with a conversation with two other women that she had totally forgotten he was even there. He caught the instructor's eye and waved at her to let her know he was heading out, planning to come fetch his wife when class was over in a couple hours.

\---  
Mari had been attending her weekly class for a little over a month now, and in that time Parker had been putting the finishing touches on a surprise for her that was a long time in the making. He was getting it set up in her old room that they had redecorated in a jungle safari theme for Carson's nursery when he watched Finn's ears perk up and the dog ran out of the room to go greet Mari who must've just gotten home.

Parker grinned excitedly and backed away from his surprise, eyeing it's placement in the room to make sure he liked how it looked. He nodded to himself and backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him and going out to greet his wife.

Mari was putting her purse down on the table in the library area, huffing at the effort of simply lugging her extra girth around. Parker crossed the room in eager strides and took her hands, leaning in to kiss her sweetly. "Hey Tinkerbell. Have fun today?" He asked, listening to her tell him about the conversations she had had and the things she'd learned. He was interested in hearing about things that made her happy but he was so excited to give her his present that he cut her off after a few minutes and stopped her from sinking into the sofa like she wanted.

She complained a bit at him telling him she was sore from the drive and he hushed her, gently guiding her along back towards the nursery despite her protests and not answering her questions about what he was up to. "Don't worry babe, trust me everything will be clear in a second." Parker assured her, leading her down the hallway to the nursery door.

"You say you need a place to sit down? Well I've got a solution for that too." Parker told her as he swung the door open wide and gently ushered her into the nursery with his hand pressed to the small of her back. He watched the comprehension dawn on her face as she looked and saw his gift, and he couldn't help the huge pleased grin crossing his face at her surprise.

"You like it? I built it for you. Did all the carving too." Parker told her, hoping it would make her happy. His gift was a gleaming cherry wood rocking chair, he crafted it himself and spent weeks stealing time to carve nearly every inch of it with intricate designs much in the same flowing style as the tattoos that covered the majority of his skin. There were dozens of personal references worked into the art on the chair, pixie fairies flitting from flower to flower along the head rest, beautiful angels and flourishes of daisies and other plants, as well as winding ivy throughout mirroring the design on her wedding rings.

He had never built furniture before he got the idea that he wanted to make this chair for Mari, but Parker had always been good with his hands and artistically gifted so after a lot of work he came out the other side with something he at least was proud of. It was a hobby he never expected to fall in love with but now his head was full of projects he wanted to complete for his family. Parker held up a bag from the local home store, showing Mari the three or four different cushions he'd found to pad it with. "I wasn't sure what color you might want so I got a few for you to choose from." He explained, his dark brows rising as he waited for his wife to get over her shock enough to finally respond if she liked it or not. 

“I’m sore from driving Parker I just want to sit where are you taking me?” Mari whined at her lover, feeling his gentle pushing and prodding at her back. She sighed as he guided her back to the nursery, complaining about the fact that she had already seen the space thousands of times when they were discussing it and putting it together and decorating. He answered that she would find out what was going on soon enough but she didn’t really like this right now, far too tired from the added effort of going to class, getting up and down and driving a car in her very pregnant state.

“Yea I do and I was going to drop down on the sofa for the next five days but you pulled me back here to stare at the crib again.” The woman grumbled, resting a hand over her belly and the other against her back to keep herself balanced. She had learned all the techniques on how to do so without causing discomfort or exhaustion quite so much. He pushed the door open for her and nudged her into the nursery and she wasn’t even sure what she had been expecting, her eyes going wide at the sight.

A large wooden rocking chair sat in the corner of the room, far enough from the wall to give it space to move and close to the crib to easily shift and put Carson in his own space, close enough that she could watch him rest if she chose to. Mari gasped at the gift he had made her, telling her that he did it all himself, carved it, built it and moved it in here all behind her back so he could surprise her like this.

She moved forward and ran her finger tips over the wooden markings etched in deep, smiling when she found one of the fairies that had oddly similar features in her face as her own. “This is amazing, Tarzan. I had—“ She started, pausing when she made note of all of the other little marks that were indication towards their whole history, a story of their life together in a lot of senses, the daisies, the ivy, the lines that grew more intricate to resemble one or two of her lover’s many tattoos. “I had no idea you could do something like this, baby.”

Mari cooed, touching every inch of the chair that she could reach and hardly having caught that he said anything else to her. She turned and saw him standing there expectantly with cushions in his hands, repeating that he wanted her to pick the color and which was the most comfortable for her. “Can you come here so I can thank you first?” She requested, tugging at him by the edge of his long sleeve flannel shirt, something he seemed to have developed from being around her father she assumed, plaid grew on every hunter it seemed. He chuckled and put the cushions aside and stepped to her and she kissed him deeply in appreciation, keeping him there and trying not to cry.

“You should stick to this. It’s beautiful, Parker. Really. I love it.” She promised, her gaze flickering down to the bag of cushions. “I like the green. I think it’d look nice in here.” The brunette answered him finally, their hands both running over her large belly and he nodded, bending quickly to kiss her tummy before straightening to plop the cushions on the rocking chair so she could give it a try. He took her hands once set and helped her ease down onto the seat, pulling out the little ottoman he made and set aside to match. He lifted her feet for her and smiled at the little hum that escaped her.

“Perfect.” She muttered, bending her knees and pushing herself a bit so the chair rocked ever so slightly. She could feel movement frantically in her abdomen and she giggled, “Carson says he thinks so too.” Mari informed him, closing her eyes and relaxing in the chair. “Only a month and eight days left. Could be less you know. I think to be on the safe side maybe the couple days before hand you can stay home with me… I want to make sure that you’re there. I know Dad will be around but I need you.” She requested, taking his hand when he sat down on the floor beside the chair and put his hand in her lap. Her fingers traced up and down his open palm and along his fingertips, listening to him promise to be there no matter what.

“And maybe if you do take cases like that week or before they can… be more local if you can manage it. Just in case.” The woman mumbled, feeling silly but she was worrying more now as the date got closer that he might not manage to be around when she truly needed him to be. Sure she had needed him plenty before but that was more of a selfish thing than actually requiring his assistance if anything. “I’m sorry I just… I want you holding my hand the whole way and I want Carson to see his father first thing. He responds so well to your voice you know…” She muttered, her eyes locking onto his over the swell of her stomach.

Parker smiled softly at his wife, gripping her hands firmly and nodding his head. "Of course I'll stick around Tink. There's no where else more important for me to be right now. I wouldn't miss being around to meet this little guy for the first time for the world." He responded, running his thumbs over the backs of her hands. Mari smiled happily, and for a long while they sat together in the nursery, her in her new chair and he seated on the floor by her feet, simply looking at the crib and talking about idle things.

\---  
Parker took more to his new hobby of woodworking in the following weeks, making several projects and honing his budding skills. It was nice to have something to keep him busy since he pretty much wasn't taking hunting jobs now, wanting to make sure he was available for the arrival of his son. Mari's due date was fast approaching and even Dean had taken time off at the garage to be on hand just in case, spending most of his time trying to keep his best friend Castiel busy since he was pretty much insisting that he hang around too to help with the birth.

Parker was working on a cedar chest down in his converted 'work shop' area where he did most of his woodworking and carving when his keen senses suddenly triggered and he knew he wasn't alone in the room. He suppressed his urge to whip around brandishing the heavy chisel in his hand, opting to simply look over his shoulder and his brows rose when he saw that it was Castiel standing a few feet behind him. That explained the sudden presence with no warning, it still weirded Parker out a bit that he could just make himself appear anywhere at will.

Cas's sudden appearance made Parker's thoughts turn to Mari immediately. He set down his tool and faced the full angel, swiping the sawdust flecks from his hands. "What is it? Is it time?" He asked eagerly, knowing Castiel would know what he was referring to. The angle answered that his niece's water had broken and that she was requesting him now that things were really getting underway. Parker knew she'd been having pains for awhile now but she had insisted that she was fine and so he'd been trying to keep himself busy since.

Parker nodded and ran upstairs, of course Cas beat him to the punch simply poofing himself back to where Mari was. She was laying in their bed beneath stacks of fresh towels and her dad was offering her sips of water as she struggled through her pain that had already made her face flushed and her dark hair a little damp with sweat. The young couple had done a lot of research together about how they wanted their baby brought into the world and they all agreed they were more comfortable with a home birth considering their 'unique' bloodline. It wasn't likely but just in case Carson had uncontrollable angelic abilities Castiel needed to be free to use his powers to intervene.

Mari had also decided that she wanted to do a natural childbirth, and while Parker didn't like the idea of his wife being in so much pain he understood her reasoning and chose to support her. He had to wonder if she might be regretting her choice a little now though, her breathing strained and her hands white-knuckling the sheets at her sides as she worked her way through a contraction.

Out of all of them Castiel was by far the most calm, checking his great-niece's body for signs of her readiness to push and informing her that it wasn't time yet. Mari let out a huff, but then her eyes caught sight of Parker in the door and a bright if somewhat tight smile crossed her face. He hurried into their room and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to gently brush her damp tresses from her face. "Hey beautiful, how you feeling? Looks like the show's gettin' on the road, huh?" Parker asked, trying to keep his tone light and focus on helping her through this ordeal rather than dwelling on the myriad of things that could possibly go wrong. With Cas here he felt far more confident, but that didn't mean he could stop worrying for his wife and their unborn son completely.

Mari glanced up and spotted Parker in the door, forcing herself to smile at him despite her pain. The look in her eyes was a mix of things; fear, nervousness, pain but also giddiness to get their baby here. She gave a breathy laugh as she worked through the last of her more recent contraction, focusing on steadying her breathing before answering his question. “It would seem so. You know it’s a load of bullshit how they say contractions are like cramps?” She laughed out, swallowing down her tears for the time being now that her lover was here.

He must have caught the moisture gathering in her eyes, cooing to her that she was doing just fine. “It doesn’t really feel like fine is the right word. It hurts really bad, Tarzan.” She mumbled, sniffling when he squeezed her hand and bent to kiss the top of her head, saying he wished more than anything that he could take it all away somehow. “I know a guy who has already offered but I want to do this the right way and it scares me to expose Carson to… Cas’ angelic abilities… Ahh.” She groaned, arching a bit off the bed and fidgeting where she lay.

Parker looked at her worriedly, trying to talk her through her pain as much as he could. “I want to lie on my side. Parker… Oh God my back hurts. Help me on my side.” She panted out pleadingly, shifting to force herself on her side. He helped aid her as best he could, giving him her back and gripping tight to the body pillow at her side. She broke out into a fit of sobs, biting her lip almost hard enough to make it bleed while her lover rubbed at her lower back hoping it would help. She tugged her legs up a bit to her frame and pressing a hand over her belly lightly.

The tiny brunette fought her way through another contraction then another before she could even speak up, her face red and her eyes full of tears when Dean quietly told her she needed to sit up a bit. “I can’t. Daddy I can’t it hurts worse that way.” Her eyes shot over to Cas at the edge of the bed looking virtually unfazed and not at all concerned about her state. “Castiel I can’t do it. Please Cas.” She cried out again, gripping hard to Parker’s hand that hand been resting at her side. She put an iron grip on him and she was fairly certain that she might just bruise or break something but her mind wasn’t really there now, breathing heavy and slow to work through her pains.

Castiel shook his head, “You have made it this far Mari you will continue with your original wishes.” The angel reached out and helped her get situated, pushing aside the sheet over her lap so he could see all that he needed to. “You’re too far for me to assist you at your request. Mari you have to push.” He informed her, pushing her knees apart and forcing her to bend her legs up a bit, his brow furrowing and one never would have thought that he would become well versed in giving birth or at least being the doctor in the situation. Mari shook her head insistently starting to say that she couldn’t again, “Marilee Winchester do you wish to see your son?” He half snipped, catching her blue gaze with his own and she cried, saying that she did but this time when he asked her to push she complied, squeezing her lover’s free hand while his other helped to hitch her leg up to give her a better angle to complete her task.

The next few moments went by like a blur of energy, her screaming subsiding and she grew completely quiet as she gave one last final effort, her body was tired and worn and the pain was far more than she anticipated but she thought of her mother having done the same thing for her and that only convinced her to keep going like she was. She gave a squeak of some sort and her head fell back with effort, faintly hearing the sound of Castiel’s voice saying something or other about her son then Dean’s voice but she couldn’t keep focus, resisting her urge to puke or sleep or… both?

Then a loud cry broke her from her nearly trace like state, pulling her back and reminding her it was worth it. But then she came to the realization that… there was no more effort to put forth, her hand clasping over her mouth and her eyes darting to Parker who was staring down at Cas at the end of the bed, watching intently what the angel was doing and she could have sworn he jolted as if he might leap up to finish the job, to take their son and do it himself. He wanted so desperately to hold him just as she did, absently clasping his other hand over hers to enclose her smaller one in both of his own. Carson was gurgling as he started wailing at the low light of the room, the change in temperature and exposure entirely.

Their little one quieted while Cas called Parker over to do the honors and free their son completely. He did just so, wiping his eyes and chuckling when he came to Mari’s side again. She smiled at him, listening to the sound of her father and uncle quietly discuss cleaning the boy up. Castiel tugged the sheet back over her body for the time being, fixing up the mess for the most part while Dean got to be the first to hold the youngest Winchester. “Does he look like Parker? Does he have his ears?” She asked finally, sitting up a little bit and crying silently as she laughed around her question.

Dean smiled and wrapped up the quieted baby boy, handing him over to a rather eager Parker who couldn’t seem to stop fidgeting in his seat to ensure he could still see what was happen even though they weren’t far from him. “He’s beautiful. Hi baby Carson.” Mari cooed up to him, smiling widely when her lover sat just perfectly that she could see them both. She reached out for a turn at cradling their newborn, softly placing a kiss on his head and brushing her hand over the dark fuzz along her little one’s head. “Hi My Love. God you are perfect.” She continued adjusting the swaddled infant against her chest and close to her face. “I picked a good man to have a baby with. Look at him, Parker.” She muttered.

 

Dean and Cas quickly got the squalling little boy cleaned up, and the elder Winchester couldn't help but be brought right back to the day when he first held his little Mari in his arms brand new and full of life. He smiled fondly down at his grandson, marveling at the fact that after all the things he'd done and seen, they had all been leading up to this moment of pure joy. He only hoped that wherever his wife might be that she could see how beautiful their grandson was and how much his family loved him.

"Hey little man... Nice to meet you." Dean chuckled, holding his fingertip out for the infant's tiny grasping hand to take a hold of. Carson's eyes were the neutral slate shade of most newborns but they were bright and alert, not quite focusing on Dean's face but taking in as much as possible in his strange new world. He cried out and squirmed a bit, making Dean laugh and it was all he could do to tear his eyes away from the baby to acknowledge Parker who had come to take his turn holding him.

He handed the boy off gingerly to his father's arms, watching carefully and murmuring at the young hunter to watch the baby's head. Dean stepped back beside Cas and grinned from ear to ear as he watched Parker interacting with his son and seeing Mari's enthralled expression as she watched him do the same. He was so proud of his daughter but this moment wasn't about him, so he bit his tongue on the praise he wanted to give her for the moment, simply letting her focus all her attention on her husband and little boy she had brought into the world.

Parker had thought he knew what it meant to love his son, to want to protect him when he first felt him kicking in Mari's belly. But that was so far from the level of devotion he felt right now that Carson was here in his arms that he could hardly compare the two feelings. "Hey Carson... Do you know me? I'm your daddy." He held the boy up, taking in his every tiny feature and cooing at him in response to the little wails and gurgles he was emitting. Parker placed a light kiss on the boy's forehead and sat down next to Mari. Carson quieted, looking around and working the little muscles in his hands and feet wiggling a bit in his wrap.

Parker's blue eyes pricked with tears and he chuckled a bit in spite of himself. "Poor kid, looks like he did get my ears." He quipped, looking to his wife and smiling brilliantly as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He handed Carson off to Mari, turning in towards them on his chair unable to take his eyes off the amazing little being they had created. He knew people had babies every day, every moment really but when it was happening to him and his lover, he really understood why people called it a miracle. 

He watched Mari look her boy over and his heart overflowed, tears finally slipping over his lashes and he brushed them away with his fingers as he leaned closer to inspect his son in his mother's arms. It was the perfect picture, seeing his wife cradling their boy and doting on him like he was the most precious thing in the world. Because that's exactly what he was.

Parker reached out a hand to rest gently on Carson's little form, looking up at Mari and drawing closer to kiss her sweetly. "He's absolutely perfect Mari. I love you so much, you did great babe." He praised her, kissing her again and looking down at Carson who was nuzzling into Mari's chest instinctively. 

Cas commented in his more monotone way that the baby was attempting to acquire sustenance, stepping forward and offering to assist Mari in getting the boy to take her milk but Dean quickly gripped his friend's shoulders and kept him at bay, huffing and explaining that wasn't exactly the sort of thing he ought to help Mari with and to leave it to Parker if she needed any help. The angel didn't seem to see what the big deal was but he complied with Dean's directions, letting the elder Winchester all but herd him out of the room to give the couple some alone time with their new baby.

Dean left Cas at the door and quickly returned to bend over the bed and lightly kiss his daughter's sweaty brow. "I am so proud of you Bug, and I know your mom is too. You did great." He told her with a tender smile, giving Parker an approving look as well before leaving himself and shutting the door behind him and the angel. 

Mari smiled simply at her father, shifting her little boy in her arms. He was tiny, fragile but already he had a strong face much to the same as her father and Parker, his body was long which told her already he was going to be tall. She sniffled as her father and the angel she came to know as her uncle and friend departed to give them space alone in their room. “I want to see all of you Carson. I bet you have big feet too.” She cooed, gently reaching to tickle at the spot where his little legs were wrapped up comfortably. “He’s going to be tall like you I know it. Good I didn’t want to doom you to my barely five foot state as a male.” She kissed her son’s fingers softly, lingering just a bit longer than needed to be as close to him as she could ever be.

Parker asked if she needed help with her top or rather his top that she had borrowed to fit over her belly comfortably. She fidgeted uncertainly, feeling on the verge of tears but she knew that her hormones would still be up and down, making Parker question what was wrong. She shook her head, “Do I hand him to you and take my shirt off or help him beneath it? What if he doesn’t take and we can’t bond like this?” Suddenly the rush of fear was returning back to the front of her mind, remembering that she didn’t know any of these things, didn’t have anyone to ask for help except the women of her pregnancy group but that was different in a number of ways. “Because Danielle’s second child wouldn’t breast feed and she said she didn’t feel as connected to her while she was an infant and she thinks it’s because they never bonded like that. And Anna said she couldn’t produce enough milk for her twins. I know they’re twins but shouldn’t your body know?” She rattled on, making her lover laugh as she teared up again.

He gently reached over like he already was some sort of expert, taking their boy from her and she stared at him until he reached with one free hand while the other perfectly cradled Carson, tugging at the hem of her shirt in indication to just take it off. Parker muttered that they would have to try first before she was allowed to freak out like she was, waiting while she tugged her top over her head and sat fully upright against the pillows he was fluffing for her to lie back on. She sniffled once more and tugged at her bandeau that barely even covered her, letting it bunch up around her ribs just beneath her breasts and sticking her arms out for Carson to nest in once more.

She took her son from her husband and brought him over to her breast, guiding him forward and it took a moment of convincing but sure enough Carson took to her exposed chest and began feeding. Mari smiled, adjusting him on occasion without stirring him and knowing he was taking well and being quite eager about eating she was pleased, her mind eased to think she could provide for her baby like she wanted to. Parker came to the edge of the bed and very carefully sat down to put his arm around her shoulder, letting her head fall against his chest and she leaned, curling up with her family surrounding her. “You know someone’s missing right?” She pointed out.

Parker nodded and said Finn would have plenty of time to see their newborn once they got adjusted, seeming to trust the dog but also being weary of what he might react with, a bark, a howl, anything that might frighten their little one. She agreed to wait and by the time Mari was done feeding Carson she was nodding off a bit, hearing the sound of someone scratching at the door. They both exchanged a look and he got up to let in their furry companion just as Dean pushed open the door and peeked in, holding him by the collar and Mari laughed at the way Finn was whimpering to see his family, his tail whacking against the frame of the door and in turn Dean himself. He asked if he was okay to come in and they nodded but as Finn took of Parker whistled as quietly as he could, catching his attention and making him skid to a stop and trot off back to his original master, panting and wagging his tail while he listened to him telling him to be easy.

Mari was almost certain that Finn and Parker could talk to each other, no matter what happened or what was said, they both seemed to have an understanding. “Come on.” She called to him quietly, patting the bed beside her and Finn turned around on his heel again, racing back to the mattress but he paused just short of it, setting his head on the edge and sitting himself down on the floor. He whined softly, blinking up at her with those pleading puppy eyes of his and she laughed, shifting Carson once more to let him see the baby a little more closely. Finn sighed and his tail started up again, far lighter and more quiet and she could tell he was struggling with keeping control of himself.

“He can sit up here. Parker will you pick him up? Then he won’t move the mattress so much.” Mari whispered to her husband, making him roll his eyes but he complied and hefted up their furry family member so he could settle at her side. Finn did just so, immediately lying down with his head near her now smaller tummy, sniffing at her arm and seeming to want attention himself but more so from Carson than her exactly. She reached over and scratched at his ears, causing him to stop and rest his eyes once more, “He’s too little to play with you now, Finn but someday. You’ll be his puppy too, hmm?” She cooed and he blink as if in response.

 

Parker hadn't been away from Mari and Carson for more than a few minutes all week, not wanting to miss a second of his son growing and interacting with Mari or himself or Finn. They still kept his faithful canine from getting too much in Carson's space, but he was almost always to be found lying on the bed against Mari's side or sitting at her feet, watching over her and the baby like they were his own.

The following Sunday was the first day the hunter had felt all right about heading even just downstairs for an hour or two to work out, the hunter normally was very strict about his activity bordering on obsessive behavior thanks to his guardian Ryder, so it was extremely strange for the man to have gone almost a whole week without any kind of test of his physical limits. 

Parker put his body through the paces, getting short on breath and sticky with sweat far sooner than he liked even after just a week of inactivity his ridiculously high standards were not being met in his mind and so he pushed himself doubly as hard till sweat was pouring off of him and he felt the familiar burn of exertion in muscles he had forgotten he had.

It felt good to really work his body like this, sinking to the mat covered floor where he'd been going through a series of acrobatic capoeira routines till he thought his heart was going to pound out of his chest and he could barely breathe. Parker laid back, sprawled spread eagle on the mat, his chest heaving and a breathless chuckle escaping him just from the sheer rush of pushing himself past his limits.

Parker lay there longer than he planned, drifting off to sleep unexpectedly. He had hardly slept the week before or after his son arrived, and working out like he had seemed to only further push him to give in to his fatigue. The young hunter slept soundly for awhile, drifting in and out of snippets of unrelated dreams until he fell into that all too familiar state that meant one of his psychic visions was about to envelop his mind.

Parker found himself in a vast darkened library, standing among the rows of immense shelves stacked high with books. He wandered up towards the reference desk since he didn't really know what else to do, wondering why he was here or what he might see. It was rare for his visions not to be tumultuous, but maybe this was one of those rare times when he'd simply wander lost in some empty space and time until he awoke. 

He reached the desk and curiously enough he saw a little wire basket displaying newspapers, The Cloverfield Gazette in 'happy valley Cloverfield Pennsylvania. Even more intriguing was the date on the papers was three days from now, May 20th 2014. It was one of the handful of times in his life that Parker actually had any sort of context for where or when he was at in his vision, it almost made him hope for something to happen, because with this knowledge he might actually stand a chance of righting a wrong.

Parker woke up suddenly, every nerve ablaze and every muscle tight, Finn was pawing and whining at him frantically and as his other senses flicked back on he heard Mari's voice calling out to him, and her free hand not clutching Carson to her front gently shaking his shoulder. He blinked a few times to clear the lingering shadows from his vision, sitting up and groaning at the stiffness that permeated his muscles from lying tense on the floor for who knew how long.

Mari was asking him repeatedly if he was okay and he nodded, trying to soothe her while still collecting his scattered thoughts. Parker took her hand and squeezed her fingers, a spark of urgency in his voice when was finally able to speak. 

"Mari, I've gotta go. Something awful is gonna happen in a small town in Pennsylvania in three days. I saw these kids... They snuck into a library to perform some kind of summoning ritual, they... They had no idea what they were calling forth and it... Tore them apart, I..." Parker's voice cracked as he looked from Mari's worried face down to his son slumbering against her chest, oblivious to the distress happening around him. The kids he'd watched die were barely junior high age, and it affected him far more now to think of children in danger with his own son at the front of his mind.

Mari held Carson firmly against her shoulder, finding it odd that Parker had been taking as long as he had down in the gym they set up mostly for him than anyone else. She figured he would take longer but not quite as long as he was right now, maybe an extra hour or two at most but when it grew into the third or fourth he still hadn’t come up to see her and their son again. She worried suddenly if he got hurt, it had been a long while since he ever took a break from working out, hell even when they hunted together and were on the road he was constantly adding something into his step or routine to make up for lost time.

“Parker?” She called down the steps, moving slower with their little one in her arms as to not stir him and make him cranky like he had been on and off that day. Carson almost always had a look about him, one of wonder and curiosity that made her believe since day one that her baby was far more aware than others, she always told her lover that Carson was more aware of his surroundings, could tell the difference between his bed and the play pin they sometimes tried to get him to nap in but it was rare that he would. “Hey Tarzan I know you think you’re getting flabby but this is ridiculous it’s been almost four hours, baby!” She shouted down to him as she got to level ground.

The tiny brunet in her arms wriggled and grasped at the air, not able to offer a full on smile but he often flashed his gums at her in a faint attempt to do so. “Where’s your daddy, Bud?” She hummed to her boy, offering her finger for him to grip and suck on like he often did. They pair padded further into the space and she spotted him lying out on the floor, picking up her pace to get to him and thinking maybe he hurt himself, passed out from exhaustion or dehydration considering it had been nearly over a week since he had worked out in his normal regimen.

“Parker--- Parker!” The brunette yelped out, worried about him now that she saw the state he was in. Carson looked but seemed uninterested, his eyes darting up to the high ceilings and then over her shoulder as best he could without much movement of his head yet that was still a bit heavy for his small body. He lolled forward with her and his wide eyes fluttered closed once more, drifting off in her arms like he had been on and off when she got down to her knees to kneel before her husband, reaching out with her free hand to gently shake his shoulder to rouse him. “Are you okay?” She asked frantically when he started to come to.

She repeated the words again and again to try and get him to respond to her quicker, hardly giving him a chance to even process each one. He slowly sat up and stretched out the muscles in his frame. “Baby, are you okay?” She whispered more softly this time and he finally managed to respond at all even if at first it was only to take her hand and promise he was alive, awake. His tone changed into something far more real and urgent, telling her about a vision he had and she knew that she might have caught glimpses of it had she not been wearing the talisman that her Uncle made for her long ago. “O-okay.” She muttered, keeping quiet while their son drifted off to sleep, oblivious to them and the rest of the wakeful world.

She watched Parker’s eyes travel down to Carson and she knew his reasoning for being so adamant about the entire situation. Kids were involved and having their own made it a far touchier subject now than it might have ever been before. She squeezed his fingers and her eyes welled up, nodding her head in understanding as she looked down to their nearly full slumbering boy. “Are you sure? I mean did you get enough to go off of? Parker what if it’s a wild goose chase or someone’s like gotten inside your head somehow? Like Crowley. He’s been up and down since Dad let him go. I don’t know what he can or can’t do but he’s been in this place before all over the bunker. He knows where it is and—“ She ranted, getting cut off by him shaking his head and saying it didn’t matter, he needed to see for himself then.

Her eyes watered and in a lot of ways her words were selfishly meant to try and force him to stay behind with her. “You—You can’t just leave us already. If this turns into something else and—and you… and something happens…” Mari sobbed, wiping her nose with her loose fitting beach sweater sleeve. Parker gripped her face and drew her to him to kiss her sweetly, feathering little assurances along her lips and cheeks to her temple saying that he simply knew that this was real, that he needed to go because if it were his own child he would hope someone might try to do the same. It could be dangerous but he was skilled and smart and she knew that deep down but on the surface all she could consider was that he might be gone for a long time. It was selfish and stupid on her part but he vowed he wouldn’t leave just this minute and vowed that he would come back in far less time, so soon she wouldn’t even know he had left.

“You know you can’t promise that. Parker you know that there are no guarantee in this life. Don’t feed me lines like that. Please.” The new mother pleaded with him, her eyes serious and her tone matching but it wavered slightly at the end. He asked what she wanted him to do and she shrugged, “I want you to be here but I know… I know I can’t ask for that. Not when you’ve seen as much as you have.” She mumbled even quieter, handing him their son when he reached for him and they all straightened back out. He pulled her over and kissed each of them in turn, taking her hand once more and indicating to Carson saying he was the reason he needed to do this, driving in his words further and she finally nodded, “I know. I’m sorry.”

 

"No, no don't be sorry sweetheart. You're right I know there aren't any guarantees, but I can't miss the chance to change this... Those kids will die if I don't help them." Parker responded, his eyes tracking back down to his sleeping son and he lovingly brushed his knuckles over Carson's chubby cheek. They headed out of the gym and Parker got changed and packed up, taking everything he thought he'd need according to the vision he'd seen. He almost never got opportunities like this, so as much as it tore his heart apart to leave his wife and brand new baby, he knew he had to make this right if he could.


	6. Chapter 6

Everything played out just how he'd seen it, only this time he'd had the power to intervene and now four kids in over their heads were alive and there was one less demon kicking to cause trouble again. He hadn't come out of it unscathed, he'd been thrown into a couple shelves and taken a pretty good beating, so when he stumbled out to his car all he could do for the moment was simply sit in the driver's seat and try to catch his breath.

Parker checked his phone that now had a picture of Mari holding Carson as his background, figuring even with the late hour Mari was probably up waiting for him to check in. He dialed his wife and sure enough it barely rang once before she answered, the worry evident in her voice when she greeted him and asked if he was all right.

"Yeah, I'm okay Tink. Got a little beat up but nothing I can't handle. The kids are safe." He assured her, a crooked little smile adorning his face as he reported in to her. She sounded relieved as well and he told her he didn't think it was a good idea for him to drive back without getting some rest so he checked into a motel for the rest of the night. She had him say good night to Carson and he was happy to hear his little gurgles on the other end of the line, not realizing how much it would actually effect him to be away from his family for the first time.

Parker got up early and drove all day to get home, arriving late but again Mari was waiting for him when he got inside. Carson must've been put to bed already because she was alone, rushing up the stairs into his arms almost the second he came in the door. He hugged her warmly despite his soreness from his injuries, relief that his family really had been safe and sound while he was away washing over him.

Mari drew back and gave him a cursory glance, asking where he was hurt and Parker chuckled, shaking his head as he cupped her face. "That doesn't matter right now. I'm just glad to be home. C'mere." He murmured, bending his head and sealing his lips to hers in a tender kiss. The brunette melted into his touch and draped her arms about his shoulders as they kissed. He held her tight and his heart started beating harder from the contact, it had been quite awhile for them having their attention pretty much taken over by Mari being in the last weeks of her pregnancy and then tending to a newborn.

She must've felt affected by it too, breathing hard when they broke apart for breath. "Baby... Are you, I mean... I know it can take a few weeks after birth before a woman's body is ready again..." Parker murmured, wanting his wife but also not wanting to hurt her.

Mari nearly jumped into Parkers arms when he arrived at the door, hardly giving him a chance to get inside before she pounced on him. She wrapped her arms tight around him and breathed in his scent, sighing at the fact that he was home and with her again. She pulled back, "Where are hurting baby?" She coped, gripping his forearms and looking him over.

He laughed and shook his head tugging her back to him and claiming it didnt matter right now. Parker coaxed her in for a kiss and it quickly grew more heated with each brush of skin. She pressed up tight against him, feeling his kiss in every corner of her body, making her shiver and moan.

They broke apart for air and it was clear how much they had both been affected by the contact, their breathing ragged and his eyes were dark. "I think I'm okay. It's been a couple weeks... I mean they say it's different after too..." She flushed, feeling her nerves kick in for the first time in a long time.

Parker smiled slightly and cupped her face, drawing her up for another kiss and asking how she felt, if she thought she could handle or not, promising that he could wait. She balled her hands into his shirt and nodded, pressing into him again and her breathing picked up once more. "I miss you." She admitted, leaning up to kiss him and he must have understood what her answer was.

"I'll be okay, Tarzan. Take me." Mari encouraged, hitching her leg around his hip and drawing him forward to grind against her. She moaned and he gripped her lightly lifting her into his grasp completely and holding her up right against his taut frame.

 

Parker chuckled at his wife's eager response, easily supporting her weight against him and capturing her lips in an eager kiss. He carried her down the steps and set her abruptly down on one of the long tables in the open library space, groaning with want as the brunette's nails skidded down his tattooed arms when she yanked his button down flannel open and off.

In the back of his mind a little voice was warning Parker that they should retreat to their room before going any further, but it was late so it was unlikely they'd be interrupted and he wanted Mari so badly the larger portion of him simply didn't want to wait. He tugged her own shirt off, craning his head down to nip at her neck as his hands slipped around her back to unclasp her bra.

Parker cupped and fondled his wife's full breasts, pausing when she mewled in a breathless voice to be gentle and he realized that she was probably tender from having to feed Carson so he very lightly caressed her, making her hum with want as his hands traveled further down her body.

He tugged her closer and slipped one hand beneath the soft fabric of the yoga pants she was wearing, stroking her center firmly through her panties till he could feel her wetness soaking them through. Parker grinned and backed up just enough to tug her bottoms off leaving his wife completely bare for him on the smooth surface of the table.

Parker devoured her with his eyes, he had missed her body and she blushed at the way he was looking at her. He smiled, leaning back into her space and nuzzled at her throat. He knew she'd been self-conscious about her body while she was pregnant and he could only guess she was still a bit worried about it, she had lost a lot of the weight breastfeeding but her curves were still more generous than they had been.

"You are the most sexy, gorgeous woman in the whole world, in case you didn't know." Parker murmured playfully against her skin, chuckling at her pleased giggle and raising his head up again to meet her eyes so she'd know for sure that he meant his words. "I love you Mari. I want you." He murmured in a husky tone, pulling her closer to the edge of the table and kissing her hard and deep.

He unfastened his jeans and freed his throbbing length, gripping Mari's legs as she wrapped them around his hips and grinding his bare sex against hers. They both moaned loudly at the contact, and Mari gripped him tight pleading with him to take her. Parker was only too eager to comply with her request, pressing his brow to hers and holding her gaze as he pushed inside her slick heat.

Mari arched against his hand caressing her soaking center, desperate for more contact and he grinned at her before pulling away to help her out of her bottoms, leaving her naked and prone on top of the long table. She bit her lip, flushing at his gaze as he devoured her with his eyes, watching his pupils darken with his own want. Parker shifted forward and into her space again, nuzzling at her neck and making her giggle at the feeling of his nose brushing her skin and his breath tickling her lightly. She drew her hands around his back and sighed as he spoke to her.

She giggled at his words, appreciating him saying the things he was to her. She had been worried he might think otherwise considering the changes in her body and while she had lost a considerable amount of weight since having Carson but she wasn’t near as petite as she was before she got pregnant. Still she hoped to get back down to size but for now and maybe for good, he didn’t seem to mind her more than generous curves.

He tugged her forward along the edge of the table and instinctively she wrapped her legs around him, groaning into his kiss along her lips as he worked off his jeans. They wouldn’t normally risk having each other outside of their room when they knew full well her father was home but she needed him and badly. It had been far too long in her eyes and she was healed enough that they finally could manage being together again. He ground against her, making them both gasp at the feeling they both knew and missed just the same, her hands hooking at his shoulders, watching him intently.

Her nails bit into his skin lightly, “Please, Parker. I need you to take me… I need you so much.” She begged him in a manner she wouldn’t normally. He took it as encouragement, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers and their eyes met, her mouth falling open as he pushed into her body for the first time in little over a month. She cried out when he buried himself to the hilt inside her body, stretching and filling her up completely and the sound she made seemed to worry him, pausing and asking her if she was okay just like he had their very first time together.

Mari nodded, wiggling her hips to start to ride him as she hitched up higher on his waist, making him moan and forget his questioning. “Fine. I almost forgot what you felt like.” She sighed, her eyes fluttering closed as she held onto him, focusing on the motion of their bodies, still rolling her hips to follow his motions when he started up again. He stroked her walls just perfectly, angling him hips and hers to line up just right to hit that sweet spot deep inside her that made her vision blur and her heart race. He bent over and kissed her along the lips and she lazily returned it, her mouth still parted slightly in her daze with him buried deep inside her body like she had been wanting and needing for a long while now.

She let him make love to her, let him have the control over their bodies and their movements, his motions deliberate and it wasn’t long before she was crying his name into his skin. “Ahh… Oh God baby… Yes, Parker.” The brunette panted out, driving him up and he increased his pace, making her gasp and giving her that extra push she needed. She clenched tight around him, trying to keep quiet but her voice caught into a high pitched gasp as she came hard around his thick length. He didn’t let up, refused to pull out of her body or even succumb to his own pleasure, bringing her through to one orgasm after another until she was trembling from the intensity of her climaxes.

Parker carried her through three climaxes before he finally met his limit, growling low in his chest and nuzzling into her neck, coming deep inside her body. Mari mewled as they rode out the last waves of their pleasure together, her body shaking and her breathing stilted in the wake of their shared high.

Parker slid out of her heat and craned his head up to meet her glassy gaze, smiling with satisfaction at her almost intoxicated expression. "You ok babe?" He asked, holding his arm out to steady her as she slumped back from him on the table, swaying a bit where she sat. Mari giggled and answered in the affirmative, watching him with a coy grin as he fastened his jeans back up.

He stooped and handed over her discarded pants and shirt, grinning when she asked him to give her her underwear as well. "You won't be needing it." He chuckled, stepping back so she could tug her clothes back on holding her bra and panties loosely in his fingertips.

The couple retreated down the hall and Parker tossed his wife's clothing articles in their open door before continuing on to the nursery, wanting to get a look at his son before finding his own bed. Mari followed him and they slipped quietly into their son's room, Finn lifted his head and his heavy tail started thumping against the rug when he saw them.

"Hey, there you are buddy." Parker whispered, bending to scratch his furry friend's ears and he smiled when Mari informed him that Finn hardly left the crib whenever Carson was asleep in it while he was gone. "Good boy Finn. Good." Parker praised, straightening back out and peering over the crib railing to look at his son sleeping swaddled in a blue wrap. Carson still woke up every few hours to eat, but according to the things they had read and Mari heard in her class the little guy was a champion sleeper.

Parker didn't want to risk disturbing his son so he made no move to touch him, simply watching him fondly and gripping Mari's shoulders when she came to stand beside him. "He's perfect." The young hunter commented with a fond grin, turning and craning his head down to place a kiss on top of his wife's head. 

After a few more quiet moments the pair left their son and his faithful watchdog remained at his post on the rug, his tail wagging again when Parker praised him once more. Parker entwined his fingers with Mari's and led her into their bedroom, turning to face her after shutting their door. "He gonna be out awhile longer you think?" Parker asked with a sly grin, stepping into her space and slipping his hands around her waist to pull her flush against him.

Mari smiled at Parker’s words about their son, taking to his side and lacing her fingers with his, watching him praise their furriest family member quietly and Finn kept to his position on the floor by the crib, happy to guard the littlest Winchester on his own for the night. Parker led her out and sure enough when they got into their room he pushed the door closed for privacy, something they wouldn’t do normally now that they had their son sleeping just down the hall that needed monitoring throughout the night.

She arched a brow at his question, humming as if in deep thought as she considered their baby’s typical sleep patterns. Her lover stepped into her space and put his hands on her waist, tugging her to him and she smiled. “Well I put him down around seven and he slept until nine-thirty or so, ate a bit and put him down again just before you came home so… I think you have me a few more hours, Mr. Black.” She purred, running her hands along his chest and down to his jeans, tugging him with her by the belt loops of his bottoms and pulling him with her in the direction of their bathroom. “Just enough time for a shower… only to get a little sweaty again.” She smirked.

The brunette grinned wider when they passed the nightstand by their bed and Parker reached out for the baby monitor to take with them and place on the counter, just in case their boy should wake and need them instantly. By now they knew his cries, knew the difference between him being lonely, hungry, distressed or if he simply had a full diaper. She giggled when his free arm hooked around her back and squished her to him, lifting her up with one hand into the bathroom. He set her back on her feet once they arrived the few feet it took, making her giggle as she bumped into the counter.

Parker mentioned how panties were a waste of time, that she should forget about them entirely because it made things so much easier. “Is that so?” She asked, laughing as he kissed at her neck and down her chest, his hands working her yoga pants off her hips again, seeming even more eager than before to get her undressed immediately. He dropped to his knees on the floor with her bottoms pooled at her feet, helping her step out of them completely but rather than straightening back out he bit at her thigh, trailing kisses up towards her center and making her moan in anticipation.

He hovered just near her core, her legs parting enough to give him better access but he didn’t follow forward, smirking at her and telling her to admit he was right. “What about?” Mari inquired, mewling when his lips brushed her inner thigh again and she knew he meant about the panty thing. “Panties are for the patient… and those who don’t have damn sexy husbands that make them completely not worth wearing them.” She answered in return, reaching down to drag her fingers through her lover’s close cropped hair, pulling him up to her center where she wanted him and he complied.

His mouth found her button of nerves, his hands reaching around to grip at her ass and guide her forward to him as well. She gasped at the feeling of his tongue flickering up along her entrance, making her head fall back and her body buck against his face. “Shit.” She cursed, overly sensitive from before and the lack of attention to her body the past couple months.

 

Parker laved his tongue over her swollen clit, grinning against her when he heard her curse harshly and gripping her tightly to keep her movements more under control as he began devouring her in earnest. He delved his tongue into her slick folds, making her mewl and shake and her atypically strong response to his ministrations were driving him crazy with want.

He drew his tongue back up to her clit, buzzing his lips around the little bud of nerves and using his tongue to swirl rapid patterns over it until Mari shattered, crying out loudly and bracing her hands on the counter behind her to keep from buckling. He glanced up her body and lapped up her juices greedily, not slowing down the pace of his tongue almost out of curiosity to see how many times he could make her come before she was in real danger of collapsing.

Mari's voice cracked and she shook wildly as he carried her through another orgasm and then another till she actually started to slide down the cabinet under the sink and he had to raise his head and catch her in his strong grip to keep her from falling. He helped guide the brunette down to her knees before him, letting her slump against his frame and he couldn't help the pleased chuckle that rumbled up from his chest at how well and truly he had unraveled his lover.

"You sure you're up for a shower Tink? I don't wanna make you pass out or something." Parker teased, gripping her face in his hand and kissing her deeply. He reached between their bodies to dip his fingers into her dripping wet center, making her moan breathlessly and she told him she was all his as long as he kept making her come like that. The young hunter chuckled, withdrawing his hand from her and making her mewl entreatingly but she allowed him to help her up again anyway.

She leaned against the counter once more trying to catch her breath while Parker undressed and got the water going, holding his hand in the stream of water getting it to a temperature they both liked before turning to face her again. Mari was looking him up and down, her full lower lip pulled between her teeth and Parker shook his head, stepping into her space and aligning as much of their bare skin together as possible. "So you really did miss me, hmm?" He asked in a low whisper, starting a line of searing kisses at the sensitive pulse point beneath her ear and down her throat to her shoulder. 

Mari eyed her lover openly, trying not to tip over again, her legs were still wobbling from her earlier repeated pleasure. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and couldn’t help but be eager to truly have all of him again even though she just had him buried deep not but a little over an hour or two ago. She kept herself braced against the counter’s edge, watching him intently until he turned around to face her again.

He looped his arms around her and pressed into her own frame asking if she really had missed him. She couldn’t even form words to answer, shivering as he started to kiss at her bare skin. She nodded slightly, her nails scratching up his back to his shoulders and he lifted her to help her into the shower with him, setting her back on her feet but she whimpered at him. He laughed and mentioned her eagerness towards going at it like they were, that he hadn’t seen her on him like this in… probably a couple years. The last time being when she was trying so desperately to get him to take her at only seventeen.

She leaned into the wall beside them and arched into his hardened frame, pulling back to watch his eyes. “I really, reallymissed you.” Mari informed him finally, her eyes getting a little watery as she looked up at him, her foot propping against the wall and pressing into his hip lightly. Her fingers traced along one of his tattoos blindly, having memorized most all of his marks she managed to perfectly follow the outline without looking at it, keeping his gaze. He leaned forward and she met his lips in a kiss, “Today… All weekend… Last Monday… Three months ago…” She muttered, kissing him between every point of time she listed.

She didn’t mean when he was on hunts alone, she meant throughout her pregnancy, her recovery time and the time he was away as well. “I sometimes miss you when you’re standing right beside me, Parker. And I want to drag your arm around my shoulders and press into your side and rest there always because it’s my favorite place.” The brunette continued, her breathing still a little ragged but she managed it enough to express herself, wanting him to know how much she loved him. “And this of course. This… is tied for first place.” She giggled, biting at his lip when she arched up to kiss him.

Parker grinned, groaning lightly at her tugging his lower lip when she pulled back and he barely managed a few words himself, getting hard against her belly and making her grin at the effect she had on him. “Did you miss me?” She teased as if she didn’t know, changing the angle of her hips so he could grind against her dripping sex. She moaned at the feeling, guiding him to her in the same moment he grabbed at her leg to push into her body. Her smile morphed into something of pleasure entirely, watching him until he buried himself deep inside her body. “Is that a yes?” She asked him with a huff of breath as he started moving at a more rapid pace than before, her full breasts bouncing with each connection of their hips.

 

"Yes." Parker groaned roughly, grabbing her opposite leg and holding her pinned up against the shower wall as he began driving into her in earnest. Mari clawed at him to keep upright and he hissed as the edge of pain from her nails increased his pleasure, nuzzling into her neck and sucking and nipping at her wet skin.

He had been craving her for a long time too, and every sound and expression she made was intoxicating. Parker thrusted wildly up iinto her, making them both cry out and Mari told him she was close, making him eager to fall off the edge with her but with how sensitive she was right now it was catching even him off guard.

"I'm almost there baby... Ahh... Almost there..." Parker panted, letting her down and standing her on her shaky legs again, slipping from her body and gently prompting her to turn around. He hooked his arm around her middle, basically holding her up as she braced her upper half against the shower wall, her hips bucking back against him in anticipation of him taking her once more.

Parker guided his throbbing length back into her heat, burying himself to the hilt and sighing roughly at how good she felt. He covered one of her upraised hands against the shower wall with his own, threading their fingers and tightening his grip on her with his opposite arm to keep her in place as he pounded into her like mad.

Mari began crying out harshly with every thrust he made, her voice going up an octave as she found her peak and he cursed as her walls clamped and fluttered around him in her ecstasy. Parker joined her a heartbeat later, biting down on her neck and coming deep within her, riding out their shared climax until they were both completely spent. 

He slid out of her, kissing the spot he had just bit hard enough to leave a mark to soothe it. He chuckled, it had been a long while since he'd gotten rambunctious enough to make a mark that would last on his wife, but he had a feeling she wasn't going to mind. Parker helped her turn to face him again and she leaned heavily on the wall for support, her face flushed and her chest heaving from her pleasure.

"Well at least now if you miss me again, you'll have a memorable night to look back on." Parker winked at the little brunette, a cocky grin on his lips and he pretended to wince at her playful thump on his chest.

Mari’s cheek and upper body pressed into the shower wall, panting heavily as Parker withdrew from her body and she tried to gather herself. The spot on her neck ached but in an oh-so-good way… It had been a long time since he got wound up enough to mark her body. He kissed the spot lightly and turned her around to face him once more. She leaned back against the wall, staring at him with glassy eyes as he spoke.

She smacked his chest at his words, catching her breath still but managing a laugh at his teasing. She smiled when he grabbed her wrist as she pulled her arm away, tugging it back to his chest to rest over his heart and she could feel his pulse racing under her fingers, knowing he was still recovering just the same. He bent and kissed her and she sighed lightly into the contact, not moving from off the wall, her legs still shaky, making Parker laugh at how stiffly she was holding herself up.

“Well to be fair you had a lot of making up to do, Mr. Black.” The brunette reminded him, pushing off the wall finally but still holding onto Parker for a bit of support. She ducked her head into the stream of water and he followed her forward, keeping close and reaching around her to grab the shampoo, aiding her in cleaning up thoroughly. They spent the rest of their time actually showering as promised, rinsing off together and never once did they pull away from the other, constantly having to remain in contact even as they dried off together.

Her husband plucked the baby monitor off of the counter in their bathroom, carrying it back to its proper place on the nightstand while Mari got dressed or started to. He followed her, his arms wrapping around her from behind and he pushed at the towel tucked around her frame and she giggled, letting it fall to the floor as he kissed at her neck. Her arm reached up, her fingers threading through his hair on the side of his head, craning her head to the side to allow him better access to her flesh.

Just as his large hand slipped down over her belly and closer to her center, the baby monitor crackled and Carson was stirring on the other end of the speaker. Mari’s eyes fluttered back open and she turned to grab her robe instead, breaking away from her lover as she threw the garment around her shoulders and slipped her arms in, tying it at the waist. “Sorry Daddy but there’s another man in my life who needs me.” She muttered, patting at his still damp chest and standing on her toes to kiss his cheek, squeezing his fingers when she stepped towards the door.

The brunette left her husband to get himself dressed and ready for bed, oddly enough she never really minded when she heard their little one over the monitor or anything. She liked the excuse to check on him, to cuddle him, to keep his company any chance that she could. Carson wasn’t really the most vocal baby which was both good and bad, but he did tend to gurgle and grunt just not always full on cry when he wanted something. “Hi Finn.” She whispered, stepping lightly around the dog that was now standing and looking up at Carson’s crib as if he might be able to fix the situation. “Hi baby boy.” She cooed sweetly, seeing her infant’s eyes wide open and he arched, his little hands and feet moving around as he fidgeted to find comfort.

She reached down and brushed her fingers along his front, tugging the blanket he hand at his waist up more but he almost instantly kicked it off. “What’s the matter? Can’t sleep or is it because you know you Daddy’s home?” Mari questioned, reaching in the crib and lifting her son up, kissing his cheek as she settled him into her arms. She carried him with her to the rocking chair that Parker made her special, her favorite place to be nowadays and it was no surprise when Finn followed to put his head on the ottoman in front of her legs, watching them both intently. She nursed her son but he hardly seemed that hungry, perhaps just uncomfortable for now so instead she took to carrying him out with her to the other room, pacing the living space and bouncing on her feet but his eyes never fluttered, never told her that he was tired enough to be put down again.

Parker trotted out in his sleep pants probably hearing that they were no longer in the nursery on the baby monitor and coming out to check on them. “He doesn’t need to be changed or anything he just doesn’t seem to want to sleep at the moment.” She told her husband, handing Carson over when he reached out for him, lifting the boy up to his level to ask him what was going on and he stared at his father, his little hands fisting at the air trying to grab at his face. Mari giggled and Parker lowered the boy down to nest against his bare chest and muttering to their son absently. “I’m sure that’s all he wanted was for his favorite parent to cradle him. See… He missed you too.” She smiled.

Parker smiled warmly down at his son who was grasping for his face, his blue eyes round and alert in the dark. "You don't play favorites do ya, buddy? Nah you just know you've gotta keep a close eye on me, keep me in line." He chuckled as he watched Carson watching his mouth move as he talked. He carefully propped Carson against his tattooed chest, his large hand covering the boy's whole back as he gently patted him.

"Hey little man. I missed you so much." He murmured softly, placing a loving kiss on the baby's dark fuzzy head. Carson let out a full-bodied sigh, nuzzling his small face into the hollow of Parker's neck and fell almost immediately asleep now that everything was apparently right in his infantile world. The young hunter smiled and kept softly patting his son's back, looking back at his wife who was watching them with a fond expression. 

It was still surreal to him at times that this was his life, that he had a wife who cared so deeply for him and that they had brought this beautiful little boy into the world together. After so much blood and darkness, there wasn't a moment of happiness and peace like that that went by that he took for granted.

She came to lean on Parker's arm and got a better look at Carson's slumbering face, softly brushing her fingertips over the boy's chubby cheek. They took him back to the nursery and Parker gently laid him him down in his crib, patting the boy's head and leaning back up to tug his wife into a tight side-hug.

"Do you think... Do you think he's still gonna like me when he gets older?" Parker asked, feeling a little sheepish for asking but it was a seed of doubt he'd been carrying around since Carson started becoming more aware of his surroundings and the people who interacted with him. Sure their son took to him now, but what if he ended up not being a very good father to him? It wasn't like he exactly had the best example to model himself after.

All he knew for sure was that he wanted to protect Carson, to teach him everything he knew so he could one day in turn keep himself and others safe. Parker wanted to be the sort of man his son might like, even look up to, but in the end what mattered most to him was just that, keeping any harm from coming to him.

Mari took to Parker’s side at his prompting, hugging him around the middle from where she stood. She sighed contently, rather pleased with her life how it was today with Parker and Carson and even her father around for comfort. She loved them all, loved coming home and knowing someone was there and more importantly she loved having someone to care for even though she never expected to. She supposed it forced her to grow up a bit more, rely on Parker and Dean less and realize that she needed to pull her own weight around here more especially if she couldn’t hunt for a long while.

“Of course. I think that he’ll be Daddy’s little man.” She answered softly, knowing her lover was truly worried, not just wanting the reminder for no good reason. He needed to have the reassurance. “You don’t have to worry. I’m sure like any kid he’ll have his days where you drive him crazy or he drives you crazy but… He’ll love you. He does love you, Parker.”

“C’mon. Let’s get some sleep too okay?” The brunette encouraged, turning their frames in an attempt to guide him out of the nursery and back to their bedroom. “If it helps… I’ll always like you.” She smiled up at him, taking his hand instead and undressing from her robe to change into proper pajamas. She tugged on a shirt of her own that was a little tight fitting considering her curvier figure, pulling up a pair of pink lace trimmed panties and heading back over to their bed where Parker was waiting for her.

He climbed in first and pushed down the blanket for her as well, grinning at her in the darkness of their room. Mari slipped in beside him and instantly scooted towards his frame, pressing a kiss to his forehead and then his nose and trailing down his cheek until she met his lips and lingered in a deeper kiss. She pressed a few lighter kisses to his full lips before finally pulling away to meet his eyes. “He has the most extraordinary man to look up to, someone who has been through so much on his own and with others… fought his way through, saved probably hundreds of people just in the last decade or so and has the kindest heart out there.” She muttered, running her thumbs over his cheeks in a soothing gesture. “I love you. Both of us do and always will. Don’t worry.”

Parker loved every day of watching his son grow, but they seemed like they came and went all too quickly. It seemed like just the other day he'd barely been able to support his own head, and now the boy was just shy of a year old and cruising around the edges of furniture, leaning on things to keep steady but it was apparent that he'd be walking on his own any day now.

He was just starting to say real words now as well, his still limited vocabulary included the most important things in his small world, 'dada' for himself, 'mama' for Mari, 'papa' for Dean and for some reason he'd taken to calling Finn 'Roro' but the faithful canine responded to it just as well as his actual name. The dog who had been glued to Parker's side his whole life now spent almost every moment with the little boy, even letting Carson grip onto the thick black fur on his side to hold himself up as he waddled from one piece of furniture to the next.

Parker and Mari were sitting in the living room playing with Carson, and the young hunter got up to go and get his son a refill of juice in his sippy cup. He just opened the fridge when he heard Mari call his name urgently telling him to come quick and his heart clenched wondering what could've possibly gone wrong in the sixty seconds he was out of sight of his family. 

The cup hit the floor with a clatter and he ran back out into the living room area, his eyes widening and his heart finally starting to beat again when he saw that the expression on Mari's face was a happy one and his gaze tracked over to Carson who had just taken a halting step away from the couch, his still top-heavy body wobbling perilously where he stood on the thick shaggy rug.

The small dark haired boy seemed hesitant to progress, looking over at his mother who was crouched a couple feet away with her arms extended, cooing at him encouragingly and calling his name trying to get him to walk to her. Parker laughed out of relief and joy, hurrying over to drop to his knees between Carson and Mari, far enough away that the boy would still have to depend on his own two chubby legs to advance but close enough that he could stretch out and keep him from taking a hard fall.

"Come on. Come on Car, go to mama! Go to mama! That'sa boy!" Parker encouraged, pointing at Mari and scooting back ever so slightly to keep a fixed distance from his son just in case he tried to veer off toward him and use him for support rather than making the trek on his own.

Mari was giggling with excitement, watching Carson try to take his first steps. Parker came over, running into the room but she looked at him and indicated to their little one to show him what was happening. Carson was wearily trying to move forward, his little arms propped up a bit at his sides to keep his balance and his feet were turned in just slightly, wobbling a little as he contemplated taking another step.

“Come on, love.” She cooed, opening her arms from where she was on the other side of the rug, “You can do it, just a couple steps. Come see mama, baby.” She continued, wriggling her fingers towards him to get him to move. Parker came over and dropped down to join them, encouraging their little one and pointing back at her to get him to follow his lead.

Carson giggled, his face breaking into a wide toothless smile seeming to enjoy the attention he was getting at the moment. He lifted one foot and stumbled slightly but he didn’t fall over, catching his weight on his opposite foot and managing to keep upright. His bright eyes darted over to Finn who was watching too from the recliner he liked to sit at, “Roro. Roro?” He half gurgled and Finn took to his call immediately, jumping down and trying to get to his tiny companion as if he worried he was in trouble too.

“No Finn. Come here.” Mari instructed, grabbing the dogs scruff and gently running her free hand over his backside to ease him into sitting down. The dog whined but knew he needed to follow his orders as she told him to sit and stay and he did just so but his eyes never left from where Carson stood. “Come see Finn, bud. Look Roro wants to play too.” She mentioned, grinning beside herself and Carson took a couple more wavering steps away from the sofa, his hand only once bracing against his father’s outstretched arm, tugging at his sleeve when he almost tipped to the side. Parker braced his other hand out to catch him should he really drop down but he didn’t, he kept on trucking and sure enough his pace picked up to get to the furry friend at his mother’s side.

His blue eyes came back over to Mari and he laughed again at her own giggling and his focus once again changed, finally reaching her fingers and she pulled them towards her just a little so he would keep coming towards her. Carson made it into the enclosure of her arms and she picked him up finally, laughing happily and falling back as she lifted him into the air above her and brought him down to her face, kissing his cheeks and belly every time she lowered him. “Good job, Car! You’re such a good boy, picking your mama over Finn, hmm?” She hummed, sitting up again to set him on his butt in front of her after letting him pet at the dog a bit.

Sure enough Carson seemed to catch on working himself up to standing again and he was quicker this time, waddling over to his father who was now calling him and Parker did the same Mari had, kissed at him and loved on him until he was squealing at the top of his lungs from the attentions. Her eyes watered, watching her boy grow was amazing in and of itself but seeing him truly develop was completely different, watching him become capable of only walking was a huge step. She wiped away her tears and Parker chuckled lightly, cooing at Carson to love on his mama and he happily handed their son over so he could do so.

Carson was smart, leaning forward to her face, his lips weren’t puckered like anyone older might do but he understood the concept that kisses were praise and comfort, a form of affection he often got. She closed the space and pressed a light kiss to his lips, sniffling and holding him close, “Thank you, Car.” She muttered, feeling him sigh and wrap his arm around her neck, his free hand was reaching over her shoulder to pet the dog that was sitting behind her now.

 

Parker had just returned from one of the first hunts he'd gone on since Carson was born that took him away from home for more than one night, it had been a particularly nasty angel-related job. He hated those hunts, it hit him closer to home with Mari and now their son at the front of his mind. Carson hadn't shown any hints of angelic powers but he still had that blood in his veins and it was always gonna be an added risk no matter how small.

According to Cas things seemed to be stabilizing in Heaven but there were still several smaller factions causing trouble on earth. Maybe they sensed that seizing power up there was impossible so they elected to simply wreak havoc on the lower plains instead, little better than gangs of hard-hitting bullies with a chip on their winged shoulders.

Parker's arm got hit by an angel blade, he'd wrapped it up as best he could but he knew Mari was going to be beside herself when she saw the huge bloodstain on his ruined sleeve. He went into the bunker and sure enough, despite the late hour his wife was curled up on the couch waiting for him. The lamp was still on and her tablet was resting on her chest, one arm hanging off the couch and her lips parted from the deep breathing she was doing.

Parker smirked and quietly crossed the room, going to peek in on Carson before disturbing her. He slipped into the nursery and to his amusement his boy wasn't asleep, standing up in his crib playing with the activity board hung over the side of his crib, trilling his lips and bouncing in his footed pajamas content to entertain himself.

"Hey Car, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Parker asked in a teasing tone, smiling wide at his son when he looked up at the sound of his voice.

"Dada-dada-dada-dada-dada." Carson babbled excitedly, reaching up his short arms and stomping excitedly on his mattress. "Dada up? Dada up?" He asked, his hands grasping at the air. Parker chuckled and scooped his son up, hugging him tight and bouncing him in his good arm, wincing at the way he had to move his injured arm to keep the wiggly boy steady but he didn't let his pain show.

Parker could see the boy wasn't going to settle back down anytime soon so he carried him back out into the living room area, carrying on a nonsensical conversation with Carson who was basically saying 'Dada' and 'monsa-truck' over and over and the young hunter got the sense that the little boy had discovered a new love for huge loud trucks in the four days he'd been gone, a man after his own heart.

"Come on bud, let's go find Mama." Parker told him, going to sit on the end of the couch next to Mari's feet and helping Carson walk up the unsteady surface of the couch cushions to stand in the crook of his mom's legs. The little boy braced against the brunette's rear and bounced excitedly, trying in his own babbly way to inform his mom that his dad was home, squealing happily when Mari groaned as she started to wake.

Mari groaned at the sound of her son’s voice babbling near her backside along with Parker doing nothing to surpress his laughter. She rolled over, opening her eyes to see Carson just as he gripped at her bottoms with one hand to keep on his feet and the other hand whacked her butt. “And just what are you doing up, Little Man?” She questioned in a somewhat groggy tone, laughing when he fell forward intentionally to lay over her side and across her hip, trying to climb towards her upper body.

The boy mumbled about his father until she reached around and helped her son over her side and into her lap when she rolled. “Oh so Daddy’s to blame is he?” She asked, tugging her little boy so she could kiss at his chubby cheeks, making him giggle and squeal at her. Parker waited patiently but not without blatantly getting her attention by roughly clearing his throat as if she hadn’t seen him. She raised a dark brow to him and got up on her feet, watching Carson’s hand shoot out to point to his father for her to understand him.

The brunette smiled widely, “Hi stranger.” She greeted, standing on her toes and stepping into his space and he quickly closed the distance, cupping her face in one hand to pull her face up to his, kissing her sweetly. “Did you just get home?” She asked him when they broke apart but she lingered at his side, handing Carson over when he grabbed at Parker’s shirt in an attempt to get to him instead. He nodded and took their son from her, saying he saw her sleeping and then found their son doing exactly the opposite in his crib.

She laughed and shook her head, “Not sure why that is lately.” She stated softly, letting Parker lead her into the kitchen so they were further away from the hallway that led to Dean’s room and also so he could get himself a snack of some sort. The man grabbed some cereal, knowing full well that their son would take to it rather than sit there babbling to him about wanting his father’s food. He got the boy settled into his highchair and the couple talked while he moved around the kitchen to make a meal for himself, clearly having rushed home without making many unneccessary stops when he simply wanted to get to his own bed.

They spent an hour or two sitting all three of them at the kitchen table, talking quietly and snacking together. It grew late into the evening or rather early in the morning by the time Carson settled down enough for them to put him in his room, making sure his father was the one to do so since he seemed quite adamant for such tonight.

\----

Carson wailed at the top of his lungs in a way he never used to do unless in pain and no matter what Mari or Parker seemed to do, he didn’t stop at least not for very long. “Babe! Have you seen his binkey?” She called over the sobbing of her son in her arms, trying to bounce him to get him to calm down a bit. “Parker!?” She yelled again, resisting her urge to get irate when he didn’t answer her right away like she wanted.

She hadn’t been sleeping well, if at all when Parker wasn’t at home with them and while she knew it was getting better as they went, the older their son got, she still missed him. Dean rounded the corner from the library, nursing a beer, his hair greying and he looked tired himself yet still just as handsome. He offered her a smile but she didn’t return it, “Have you seen Carson’s binkie? It’s the only thing that calms him down lately.” She muttered to her father, feeling a little defeated.

The man shook his head, setting his beer down on the coffee table as he passed it and rounded the edge of the sofa to get to her. He took the infant from her hands and bounced him, cooing at his grandson and not missing how Mari was on the verge of tears for not being able to comfort her son like she needed to. Dean inspected the boys gums with his finger gently pushing up his upper lip and Carson sniffled, breathing harshly and his little body wracking with his crying. His grandfather used his sleeve to wipe the worst of the snot coming from Carson’s nose even as the boy flinched away from his touch.

Dean looked at Mari and wiped off his sleeve on his jeans, seeming hardly to mind for now and claiming he would change later. He put his free hand on her back and guided her to the kitchen with him, going to the freezer and popping it open with a now intrigued Carson in his arms. He pulled out a frozen piece of fruit, some melon or another that was meant for making smoothies, holding it between two fingers and guiding it to Carson’s mouth for him to take. The bit was big enough that he couldn’t choke or swallow it whole but small enough to use as something to suck on.

Mari watched him and it clicked, rubbing her temple and feeling stupid for not thinking about it herself. Carson was teething, no wonder he took to his binkie so much lately and hardly seemed to want to eat solid foods like he used to.

 

Dean smiled softly at his daughter, feeling a pang of sympathy as he saw that she was on the verge of tears though at least it now more out of relief than the frustration and helplessness she'd been feeling seconds ago. He had never exactly considered himself father of the year, but even someone like him picked up a thing or two along the way so he tried to help his daughter as much as he could.

He looked down fondly at his grandson as he sucked on his cold melon hunk, smirking at the way his little body was starting to relax now that he was getting at least some numbing relief on his sore gums. "I tell you what Bug, tomorrow we'll go out and buy the little guy a few of those teething rings you can throw in the freezer. 'Kay?" He suggested, handing Carson back to her now that he was calmer and gently squeezing his daughter's shoulder.

The young brunette nodded, the tension visibly draining from her and Dean leaned forward to place a quick kiss on her brow. "You're doing great sweetheart. Babies cry sometimes even when you're doing all y'can. That's one of the hardest parts of being a parent, sometimes you just have to watch your child hurting, knowing there's not a thing you can do about it." He told her, putting his hand in the small of her back to guide her back out of the kitchen.

\---  
There was a marked improvement in the sleep and peace of mind everyone in the bunker was getting the next few nights after Mari and her father went out to get Carson a teething ring. The little guy was still uncomfortable at times but he was actually getting some decent rest again which in turn let his exhausted parents get some sleep as well.

Parker even felt like he could get away down to his little shop he'd set up in the basement to work on a project he was carving for Carson, a set of smooth carved wooden alphabet blocks. He had them all cut out and the basic look down but now he was going through them block by block to cover the sides in as many things starting with the particular letter on the block as he could think of. It was turning out to be a longer task than he anticipated but he enjoyed the detail work involved.

The young hunter came up from working on his project and headed back to his and Mari's room, ready to get some sleep in before he had to head out on a long drive for a case early in the morning. At least this one was actually going to pay well, there was an eccentric old woman offering a substantial reward to exorcise her mansion of a violent poltergeist and a few pretenders had already tried to cash in... And were now dead. Parker felt confident that he could handle the job, and it wasn't exactly often that a hunting job was a big payout.

He shut the door behind him, a little surprised that their room was doused in darkness. Parker checked his watch, it was late but not that late. "Tink?" Parker whispered, not wanting to wake her if she was already asleep but he needed to turn the light on to get to his side of the bed without tripping since more often than not there were toys of Carson's strewn over their floor nowadays. He didn't wanna blast her with the light without a little warning at least.

Mari spoke his name softly and it was him not her who was blinking rapidly at the sudden burst of light from the bedside table she had flipped on. What met Parker's eyes was a sight that made his brows raise and his jaw go a little slack with shock: His beautiful wife was kneeling on their bed, dressed in little more than a few scraps of black lace. Parker cleared his throat, trying to recover from this totally unexpected turn of events and he couldn't help but let his eyes wander over her voluptuous breasts that were practically bursting out of her skimpy black bra and every inch of her creamy skin on display.

"Um. Hi..." He finally uttered, his voice a little hoarse with the sudden desire he felt surging through his body as he took the sight of his wife in.

Mari positioned herself on her and Parker’s bed, her feet tucked neatly beneath her and her hands resting deliately between her knees. She knew her lover was coming back up from the workshop soon enough so she waited with the lights flicked off, poised in the darkness with the tiniest hint of a smile on her lips. She knew he would be leaving again tomorrow so tonight she decided was going to be a memorable send off for them both.

The door opened and she shifted on the bed, hearing him move around himself as he spoke her name, testing to see if she was awake. “Tarazan.” She uttered in little above a whisper, reaching over and propping herself further on her knees to reach the bedside lamp. She flipped it on and sat back on her heels, looking up at him in an almost tracelike state, her gaze and posture obedient, waiting his further instruction, waiting for his response.

His gaze wandered over the entirety of her body so she moved her hands, tracing them up and down her legs to the very top of her thighs. She had done herself up perhaps a little more than she might, wearing make up which for her was more of a rare occasion than it used to be before Carson, her hair blow out into thick volumonous waves that dropped around her shoulders and over her breasts. “Hi.” She greeted in response, fixing the lacy stocking along her right thigh, not missing the stiff way he was watching her every move.

Parker liked his lips and asked her what she was doing just as she deliberately slipped one strap of her bra off her shoulder, the rest of the garment barely managing to stay on with the way her breasts were nearly popping out of the small cups. “Waiting for my husband who works far too hard… Even when he’s not working he’s working.” The brunette answered, patting one corner of the mattress and he wandered over to sit down like she silently requested of him.

She got up and crawled on her knees to reach his lap, swinging one leg over his hip and positioning herself to straddle him but she kept her distance for now despite feeling the growing bulge in his pants. Her hands skimmed down his chest to his abdomen, pushing at the hem of his shirt and scraping her nails lightly over his taut tattooed skin, pushing the fabric up until he raised his arms to allow her to remove the garment. His breathing picked up, starting to try to say something in regards to what she was doing but she shook her head and hooked her hands along his thick neck and shoulder, “Shh. I’ve given myself a job and that is to take care of you so sit back and enjoy the ride, Tarzan.”

Mari pushed at his chest so he would lie back, pressing kisses against his chest and up his neck until their lips met. She rolled her hips into his body, purring at his excitement mixed with the darkened way he was looking at her. He was more the type to take control but maybe with how soft and sweet she was being she was coaxing him into letting her have her way… if it lasted. She reached between them, slipping down his body just a bit to unfasten his jeans, getting up to tug off the fabric from around his hips. She tossed his pants aside, licking her lips at the way he was already fully hard for her.

“I remembered that I didn’t repay you for my first weekend back at it… I owe you one.” The brunette said in a sultry voice, hearing it dripping with want. She leaned over him, coaxing him with gentle touches to take to the head of the mattress and once settled she tracked her hands over his abdomen, working on the muscles just near where she knew for certain he wanted her to touch. He groaned when she moved do his thighs, propped between his legs and teasing him until she watched his precum seep from his slit and drip down his body.

Mari’s path followed to fondle his sack, gently massaging his flesh with one hand while the other worked up the base of his shaft, taking him in her hand and pumping him lightly. “Do you like my outfit, Parker?” She asked him in an innocent tone as if she were actually worried he would say no but a slight smirk adorned her lips, knowing full well he wouldn’t argue that he didn’t. His body gave away his thoughts.

Parker hissed through his teeth as Mari pumped his hard length, smiling when she asked him if he liked what he saw as if there would be any doubt. "I'm not sure if 'like' is the right word..." He panted, his blue eyes almost completely black with his want for her. 

She feigned a pout at him, leaning back and looking herself over as if searching for a flaw, running her hands up and down her curves knowing he'd be unable to avoid tracking the movement with his eyes and sighing in mock disappointment. Mari scooted a little further down between his legs and asked him what the right word was, trying to keep up her sad expression but a pleased little smile was taking over her features the more she watched him watching her.

"Uh... Love? I definitely love that outfit on you babe... You're the sexiest woman I've ever seen." Parker answered, liking the fact that even though they were simply playing a little game her cheeks still flushed a bit to hear him say sweet things to her. He leaned up from his reclining position and cupped her face in his hands, tugging her forward and kissing her ravenously to bring his point home.

Mari hummed into the contact and he started to draw her back over top of him but the brunette halted, pulling back and bracing her hands on his muscled thighs. Parker cocked his head at her just as pleased that she was stalling against him taking the lead as he would've been if she'd allowed it. The brunette swept her hand up his leg and abs to splay over his chest, pushing at him encouraging him to lie back which he did.

She reminded him of her words from a moment ago that she wanted him to simply enjoy the ride and Parker groaned as his wife began pumping his length again with her opposite hand, sinking further down into the pillows and she seemed satisfied that he'd stay where she placed him taking her hand off his chest and gripping his thigh again.

The young hunter's taut body twitched as she worked him, his breathing getting more ragged the more she riled him up. She increased her speed and pressure and his hips started tipping up into her motions instinctively, a breathy curse falling from his lips as he felt his pleasure building. Mari's own breathing was getting rougher and the hungry look she had as she looked over his body just pushed him closer to the brink.

She craned over his lap and began licking him like a popsicle, it was all Parker could do to lie still and let her do whatever she wanted to him. His hands clenched at his sides when she finally took him in her mouth, sinking down as far as she could and using her hand to make up the difference as she began bobbing up and down his length.

"Oh fuck baby... Yes..." Parker exclaimed harshly, bringing one hand up to tangle in her espresso locks sweeping it back so he could still see her soft lips wrapped around him as she moved. She sucked him hard, pulling back to swirl around his tip before swallowing him down again and he rapidly felt his climax building.

"Ahh... I'm gonna come babe." He warned, knowing she wanted him to but still he felt like it was the nice thing to do to warn her. Mari hummed around him and Parker's fingers tightened in her hair as he came hard against the back of her throat. Parker sighed harshly as she swallowed down every last drop and pulled off of him, chuckling breathlessly as she licked her full lips.

Mari eyed Parker’s hard bare frame before her, enjoying the control she was earning, normally if he fought back she caved, let him take the lead because for the most part she liked it that way. He lay back when she instructed him to with a push of her hand on his chest, refusing to relinquish her control or let him finish what it was she started herself. “I want you to lie here and enjoy the ride baby, remember? Let me take care of you.” She purred, pumping his thick length in her soft hand until he started thrusting up into her grasp.

He cursed and panted and her own breathing sped as she watched him for a moment or two, simply enjoying himself and what it was she was doing to his body. She bent over his front and licked up his shaft repeatedly, his hands twitching at his sides in anticipation as she hovered over him. The brunette’s tongue flickered over his tip, taking him in her mouth to the best of her abilities, accommodating what she could and stroking what she couldn’t with her hand. She closed her lips tight around him, bobbing up and down his hardness, pulling back up to catch his gaze with her own as she swirled her tongue around his tip once more before taking him in her mouth again.

Her free hand gripped his thigh, her nails biting into his muscle as she brought him closer to the edge until he warned her he was going to lose it. She hummed around him, feeling the gentle tug of his fingers tightening in her hair to keep his own control in check, knowing he was resisting thrusting up into her mouth by now. Parker came hard against the back of her throat but nowadays she was far more accustomed to the feeling, she supposed she had good practice that was to say when he would actually let her up long enough to do something for him in return anyways.

Mari pulled off him with a wet popping sound, her gaze hungry and her hands lingering on his thighs as she sat up on her knees again. She swallowed down every bit of his seed, licking her lips to ensure she hadn’t missed any and also partly for show. He panted heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly with his ragged breathing as he tried to gather himself. She watched the way his mouth hung open, the look in his eyes, knowing he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him.

She offered another innocent little smile, sitting back on her rear and stretching out her legs between his, her feet not quite reaching his crotch and she wiggled her toes playfully, watching him from afar and giving a slow sigh as she contemplated what she wanted to do. “What should I do with you now, Tarzan?” The woman inquired, flushing when he said it didn’t matter because everything she did drove him crazy. “It’s about you Parker… Tonight is because I want you to remember how much I’ll miss you and keep focus on who you’ll be coming home to. Maybe a bit of inspiration in the back of your mind.” She told him in a soft smooth tone of voice.

The hunter reached out, grabbing her feet and yanking her forward in his strong arms, tucking either leg on each side of his waist to bring their bodies closer together. She immediately pushed her weight into him and snatched his wrists from off her hips, pushing at his thumb in a hold she learned that urged people to stop fighting. He groaned and his grip let up, his hand putting up no resistance against her hold as she guided it back to the side of his head, reaching for the other to do the same. “Do you remember what I do… without you around?”

Parker laid back with her straddling his waist once more, sitting on his abs she dragged his hand with hers, letting go of his fingers but still he followed her movements as she reached down between her legs, caressing her center through the fabric of her lacy panties. He knew she wasn’t going to give him full control quite yet so instead his large hand guided hers along her mound, leading it up to tuck back beneath her panties. His fingers twitched slightly when he felt the warmth of her body, knowing full well he was resisting the urge to touch her like he wanted. She followed his lead though, her opposite hand coming up to trace over her full cleavage, pushing aside the cup of her bra to take to massaging her hardened nipple while the fingers of her other hand found her clit, swirling over the button of nerves and letting her eyes flutter closed, muttering his name just like she had the last time she teased him like this.

 

Parker's eyes darkened dangerously as he watched his wife touching herself, slowly starting to rock into the motion of her fingers atop his lap. He wanted to push her hand aside and take over for her, but it was so hot watching her rile herself up that he made himself extract his hand from over top of hers and settled for holding her stretchy lace panties down so he could see her hand working her wet center.

Mari's eyes fell shut and she mewled his name, making his breathing catch and his body respond, getting harder for her by the second as she drove her own pleasure up. Her hand slid over to her other breast and Parker watched with rapt attention as she teased her rosy peak to a stiff point, getting fed up with her little scrap of a bra and yanking it down freeing her full chest from it's minimal constraints.

Parker licked his lips unconsciously as he watched her breasts rise and fall with her labored breathing, his whole form tensing up as Mari's face cinched with pleasure and she rose up off of him to better be able to plunge her middle and ring fingers into her core. She started riding her hand, moaning desperately on every exhalation, her hand getting soaked with her pleasure and it took all of Parker's will not to snatch her hand up and taste her.

The brunette drew her fingers up to flick rapidly over her clit, her lips forming a silent 'o' shape as she neared her brink. Parker growled with want, fully hard for her again and he made himself lace his hands behind his head to keep from reaching down and giving himself some relief with how much her show was turning him on.

Mari's blue eyes suddenly flew open and her petite form started shaking above him, Parker groaned and shifted beneath her trying to maintain but it was nearly impossible for him not to buck his hips up at her out of instinct. "Yes beautiful, make yourself come..." Parker urged, his own arousal dripping precum on his chiseled abs as he watched her fall over the edge. 

Mari jolted and gasped, crying out his name as her orgasm claimed her, her face contorting with pleasure as she drew it out and Parker shot his hands out to hold her steady as she shuddered above him. His hands lingered on her hips and she sighed as she drew her hand up away from her center. He couldn't resist the temptation any longer, grabbing her wrist and tugging it to his mouth to clean up her digits of her nectar, growling with need as he tasted her sweetness.

"I'm glad you find ways to keep busy while I'm away Tink, just sorry I'll miss the other show... Or shows?" He said in a teasing tone, pulling her down atop him and grinding his thick arousal against her soaked center, making both of them groan with want.

Mari cried Parker’s name as she finally found her peak by her own hand, her fingers alternating between dipping deep inside her body and swirling around her swollen button of nerves at the top of her entrance. She trembled above him on her knees, palming at her breast with her opposite hand as her body clenched around her fingers, coming against them hard and she rode out her pleasure above Parker’s lap.

She withdrew her hand from her heat, drenched in her slickness and he very quickly grabbed at her wrist, drawing it back to his mouth and eating and sucking off all that he could get from her. She panted heavily, letting her other hand come off her chest to brace against his own instead, watching him intently. She always loved seeing him get worked up like this, it wasn’t often she dragged him to this point but she remembered the first time when she offered him a show of her body and all that she could do for it back in that hotel together. He kept her steady in his lap to keep her from slumping to one side like she felt she wanted to.

She gasped as he spoke and pulled her to his body, their lower halves brushing together and she was still sensitive from her previous pleasure. “I guess I’ll have to remember to give you tickets to the next one when you’re home again.” The brunette offered, giving him a sideways smile as she followed the same motion he started with her hips. She shifted above him, managing out of her panties one leg at a time, her stockings still lingered but she found she liked the accessory for the time being.

Mari bit her lower lip and settled over him fully, tugging his face up to meet her lips in a slow deep kiss. He lifted up off the bed just slightly, pushing up into her heat with ease from how wet she was for him, her body stretching to accommodate him completely, sinking down onto his lap and burying him deep inside her body with a ragged sigh. “Aren’t you going to remind me that the real thing is better?” She asked, giggling when he growled a little up at her and asked if he was allowed.

“I don’t know… I think I’m pretty good at leading in this dance.” She hummed, riding his length a little harder, her hips rocking up and down his body and distracting him from taking over like he very clearly had the intentions on doing. She swiveled her hips, crying out as he pushed up into her from a different angle, hitting that sweet spot deep inside her body as he thrust up into her heat in time with her motions. “You like the view from down there better anyhow, don’t you?” She questioned, arching a brow and starting to knead at her breasts with one hand as she slid up and down his length, nearly coming completely off of him only to slam back down and engulf him completely again.

She trailed her opposite hand down her front to her center, finding her clit and arching back a little, offering him a bit more of a view of what she was doing to them both with her body. Her fingers swirled over her clit rapidly, heightening her pleasure and making them both moan, from both watching as well as receiving. “Oh God… Oh Fuck, Parker… I love having you inside me baby. You feel so good… Ahh!” She cried out, fluttering around him and teetering on the edge of her second peak already.

 

Parker slammed up into her slick heat, watching with a predatory gaze as she teased her clit while she rode him hard already on the cusp of her pleasure. He gripped her hips tight and forced her pace to slow, keeping her hovering on the edge of release for a few moments of blissful agony for them both. He held out as long as he could, till his wife was a shuddering mess above him and crying out to him to let her come and finally he gave in after he was sure he had reminded her that he liked taking the upper hand as well.

They came together with a ragged moan, Parker exploding deep in her body and it was all he could do to keep his wife from falling forward onto him as her body seemingly snapped like a spring wound too tight in the wake of her pleasure. She slid off of his length and he helped her settle against his tattooed chest, for awhile they simply just lay there not speaking simply trying to gather their breath.

After awhile Parker gently cleared his throat and tipped Mari's chin up with his finger so he could meet her gaze. "Well maybe I should go out on long hunts more often if this is the send off I get." He teased, feigning injury when she lightly thumped his chest in retaliation. The pair lay entwined skin to skin for the rest of the night until he had to extract himself early in the morning for his job.

\---  
Dean was home for lunch from his job at the garage, not bothering to change out of his coveralls as usual and sitting at the table tearing into a sandwich piled high with cold cuts and cheese, a few token leaves of lettuce here and there for texture but nothing more.

He was contemplating getting up and getting some barbecue chips when the pitter-patter of little bare feet caught his attention and the elder Winchester looked up to see his grandson, giggling and naked as a jaybird except for the hooded Captain America bath towel he wore over his dark wet hair. The boy saw his grandfather and squealed, pointing a small fist at him and spouting excited gibberish about 'Cap'n merca.' The boy was coming up on the half way mark between two and three and had become quite the little scamp, recently his favorite thing was the Star-spangled superhero and he wanted everything that had either the captain himself or at least an american flag on it.

"Hey there Cap. Did you uh, escape from the Hydra bathtub buddy?" Dean asked with an amused smile, laughing when Carson made a growling noise at the word 'hydra.' The grandfather figured his daughter was looking for her fresh from the bath son, but he was too amused by the boy's antics to scoop him up and bring him back to her at the moment.

"Hurry Papa! Red skull is hiding!" Carson called, running all around the kitchen table in his ungainly way. Dean continued to eat his sandwich, not nearly as concerned by the situation as his grandson seemed to be.

"Oh is he? Where's he hiding bud?" Dean asked around a mouthful of food, watching as the boy tried to open all the kitchen cabinets at his level that unfortunately for just this reason had all gotten child locks affixed to them. Carson yanked at several of the doors, then when he was thwarted he ran under the table and tugged at Dean's legs, trying to spur the older man to action since in his small world a global crisis was on the verge of occurring.

Mari came in the next moment and as if on cue Carson went completely quiet, and it was all Dean could do to keep a straight face when she asked him if he'd seen the kid. Dean shrugged, "Nope, 'fraid Carson isn't in here." He told her, holding his arm above the table top and pointing downwards to indicate where his grandson was hiding.

"I think I saw Captain America come through here awhile ago but he's busy looking for Red Skull." Dean explained, laughing when Carson couldn't resist yelling 'cap'n merca' again from beneath the table at the sound of his idol's name.

 

Mari rolled her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh when she turned to talk to her son and found him missing in action. Of course. This whole Captain America love he just discovered was… making him a little stir crazy rather easily. He always talked about missions he could be doing instead of taking baths like the non-super humans do. Captain America doesn’t take baths, he’d claim and she would always argue that he did too they just never showed it because he liked his privacy of course.

“Carson Samuel!” She called, folding up the towel she was using to mop up the mess of murky water he splashed all over the bathroom floor. The young mother set the towel in the laundry as she passed, leaving her little boys clean clothes in the other room while she ventured out to find him. The bunker was huge and sometimes when he escaped from her grasp it took her a good bit to find where he was hiding. “Carson?” She said in a little bit softer tone, hoping that might get him to respond. “Come on sweetie we gotta get you dressed.”

She rounded the corner of the couch, glancing along the bottom half of the coffee table and ducking to look into the linen closet just before she made it to the kitchen. Dean was sitting at the table on his own enjoying his lunch with a slightly amused grin on his face and she knew her son had to be somewhere within reach. “Hi Daddy. Have you seen Carson anywhere by chance?” She asked him, arching a brow and hoping he would help her perhaps.

The man didn’t fail her, pointing down to the table to indicate that their little mini Cap was hiding out beneath it. “Looking for Red Skull huh? Well I caught wind from Falcon… Said he found clues in a certain little boys room. He needs Cap’s help.” She continued, playing into the little game and bursting out laughing when Carson yelled the name of his idol again. She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, unable to ever be irate with her son with how silly he could be most days. “Well Mister America don’t you want—“ She started but Carson cut her off with a correction that it was ‘Captain’ not Mister.

“Oh sorry, Captain. Don’t you want to put your umm—‘civies’ on? Hard to fight crime without any pants right?” Mari offered, seeing him dart out from under the table and take off in his towel again, bearing it all and she glanced to Dean who only laughed when Carson yelled back that without pants he ‘was freedom’. “Someday I’ll get him to at least let me put on his undies first before he takes off to fight the bad guys of the bunker.” She mentioned to her father, walking over to him and hugging him from behind where he sat, placing a kiss to his temple and greeting him again. “I’ll come join you after I round up the first Avenger.”

She pattered away once more, finding Carson standing on the arm of the sofa, flinging the couch cushions one at a time like they were the Captain’s shield. “Hey. Carson we’re not making a mess now okay. Come on, kiddo.” She caught him around the waist, wrapping his towel that was barely hanging onto his head anymore back around his naked body. He didn’t fight her, simply placed a hand in the air and requested she walk faster. She giggled and did just so, letting him pretend he was flying at least until they got back to his bedroom.

His outfit for the day was laid out, tiny undies with Shield and Avenger emblems on them and beside those a pull-up. She set him down on the floor and he darted over to the bed, “Pull up or big boy undies today bud?” She asked considering he was only just getting truly potty trained. He still had an accident or two and some nights he requested a pull up instead for the most part they let him pick which he was feeling because his motivation to become potty trained like a big kid tended to vary by day. He jammed his little index finger into the Avenger underwear, saying that Cap was a big boy so he wanted to be big too. “You are big, sweetie. You know Captain America had to learn too. He wore diapers and pull ups at some point or another, just like everybody else.”

Mari knelt down on the ground in front of her son, taking his towel from him and kissing him when he leaned forward in request for one. She took the pair off the bed and unfolded them, offering her shoulders for him to hold onto her while he stepped into the leg holes. “You remember the drill right? You call Mama when you need to go, any accidents and you’ll have to wear the pull up today, deal?” She muttered, pulling up the waist band of the underwear and tickling his tiny tummy before grabbing his shorts and the little plaid shirt off of the bed to dress him.

 

Parker had been going through a kind of dry-spell with hunts the past couple months and so he'd been putting in hours at Dean's garage. The elder Winchester didn't own the shop but he was the employee with the longest tenure and a natural leader so the owner pretty much left the running of the place to him.

The young hunter got home and waved hello to Mari and Carson where they were playing with his building blocks, warning his wife that he was covered with engine grease but she was too slow to keep her son from dashing over to greet his dad. 

"Hey hey buddy!" Parker called, scooping his son up and lifting him above his head, partly because Carson loved it and also to keep the kid from snuggling into his filthy coveralls. He spun the boy around and by then Mari had joined them so he handed him off to her, promising to come play with him after he got cleaned up.

Parker hurried through a shower and came out far more fresh, dressed in a comfy pair of track pants and a tank top after his long day of work. He went back to the living room and settled down on the floor to play with his son, but even though he was mostly distracted by the boy who's energy seemed boundless nowadays, he kept catching Mari eyeing him up and down.

It wasn't exactly unusual for his wife to be checking him out, she told him time and time again how much she appreciated his 'physical presence' as it were and even if he hadn't ever really considered himself especially attractive he was glad that she seemed to. But when he really thought about it, even for her she was being really... Rambunctious lately. She basically lie in wait to pounce on him every chance she got, early in the morning before the kiddo was awake, during his naps, sneaking quick heated sessions while he was playing with Dean and not to mention the way they'd been passing most nights doing less sleeping than anything else.

He didn't exactly mind it, he was happy to have his wife as often as he could but Parker couldn't help but feel like she was acting a little odd lately and he couldn't figure it out. Was it possible she'd been feeling neglected when he was away on hunts more often? He hadn't thought they had any problems but then again Parker would be the first to admit he didn't always understand what was going on in his wife's head.

They spent the evening running as much energy out of Carson as they could, the little boy was always so ecstatic to get to play with both of them and Dean that it was hard to finally make him go to bed. Parker tucked the little boy in, complete with the only other kind of pajama he was willing to wear lately besides his Captain America ones, his star wars zip ups.

"Good night little man. Sweet dreams." Parker told his son with all sincerity. There was no way of knowing if he could pass his 'gift' on to the next generation, but the fear of it lingered in the back of his mind every single night. He hoped his sweet little boy never had to experience what he lived with.

The hunter left Carson's room and went back into the kitchen to start doing dishes, bidding his father in law goodnight as he passed him on his way to his room for the evening. Parker started one sink filling and got started on the few pots and plates from dinner, his sharp hearing picking up on Mari's light footfalls coming into the kitchen as well.

"Hey Tink, what say I wash and you dry hmm?" He suggested, not looking up from the sink but suddenly jolting a bit when his wife goosed his ass and turned to look back at her keeping his dripping hands held over the sink so he didn't make a mess of the floor.

Mari bit her lower lip and tugged at his hips, telling him the dishes could wait when she'd been thinking of him all day. Parker chuckled, on one hand pleased that she was eager but also starting to feel like this was getting a little over the top. Spontaneity was one thing, but he was up to his elbows in water and suds with his task nearly done, surely they could just spend a little time chatting about their days together while they cleaned up a bit, right?

"Um, baby..." Parker stammered, not really sure how to approach this topic delicately. "Is there... I mean not that I'm complaining here but... Is there something we need to talk about? It feels like all you wanna do is jump me anymore, but if you feel like I haven't been giving you enough attention lately you don't have to use sex to get me to spend time with you. okay? I like just... Talking and hanging out with you too." He told her gently, hoping she wouldn't be upset with him but this was honestly the only reasoning he could think of for her being so overly amorous lately.

Mari snuck up behind her husband, pinching his rear and smirking to herself. She had been thinking a lot about things and jumped into action every Chance she got. His hands were soapy and wet but she didn't think anything of going after him like she was now. She grabbed his hips and hummed up to him about forgetting the dishes and remembering her.

She was about to tug him down when he stammered out his questioning wondering why it was she had been coming after him like she was. She worried her lower lip with her teeth as he spoke about her missing him but that was only partly true. "Well we do spend time together... maybe I just like this best." She offered, taking a step back so she was pressed up against him.

Her hands lingered on his waist, running along his sides absently. She shifted and smiled up at him, "I want another baby, Tarzan. I want another little you or little me..." the brunette admitted softly to her lover. "So that requires a little work on both our parts. You can take me here I don't care." She told him.

Parker stared at her and wiped his hands off, shaking his head when he found out her reason for jumping his bones everytime he was around. "What?" Sje asked and he gently gripped her shoulders pointing out how that might have been something to discus between each other. "I just want Carson to have someone." She defended as if that would fix it.

Mari stared up at him and he started on about him agreeing but they both should be in on something like that. He seemed a little offended she didnt ask him first, bringing up how he thought she was on birth control this whole time. "I just... well I was until like a month ago... I didnt mean to... I guess I didnt think about that maybe you didnt want another?"

 

Parker's eyes went wide with shock and he had to pause and make himself take a deep breath. If he followed his gut reaction and spoke out of anger, it would end up taking twice as long to resolve this. He leaned back against the counter, fixing his wife with a serious look. 

"Babe, it isn't important right now if I want to have another baby or not. That isn't the real issue here." He said in an even tone of voice, even still she was looking at him like she felt two inches tall. "The issue is, having a baby is huge responsibility, a choice we ought to make together, as a couple. And you decided for me." He laid it out and he could see in her now dewy eyes that she knew he was right.

They stood in tense silence for a moment and Parker started to feel bad for making his wife upset, but he didn't offer her any soothing or comfort, not yet at least. She needed to start thinking about these things more seriously if they were going to be a team in this life.

"Now, it's not something that's really crossed my mind but when I think about it, yes I do think having another baby is a wonderful idea, I do, but-" Parker raised his hand to cut her off from interrupting him, "You really need to think more about how your choices and actions affect more than just yourself. Another kid would change our lives completely, and I really,really need to be let in on those life-altering decisions, okay?" He reached out and gently gripped her shoulder, waiting for her to mumble out an affirmative response before letting the corner of his mouth tug up in a crooked grin.

"I do think it'd be great for Carson to have a playmate. The kid needs a pal to burn off some of that crazy energy with god knows." He chuckled lightly, trying to let his wife see that he wasn't going to stay mad at her. She sniffled and smiled back, apologizing for not considering everything before make the choice to go off of birth control and he nodded, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"Thank you Tink. At least now your um, enthusiasm makes more sense. I mean I didn't think it was possible for me to become even more irresistible than I already am." Parker teased, grinning brightly down at his wife when she scoffed at his words. He craned his head down and brushed his lips against hers, but she kept the contact light, perhaps hesitant to really get into it still after he put a stall on her advance earlier.

"Hey. Kiss me beautiful." He murmured, almost giving her permission in a way to relax and letting her know that everything between them was all right.

Mari cried silently to herself, hugging her arms around herself and nodding at his words. She no longer tried to cut him off, understanding completely now where he was coming from. She looked at her feet and kept closed off a bit while he talked to her. He wasn’t being harsh, not really but she knew she had upset him. She hadn’t thought of it that way, that this was going to change their lives and she didn’t even include him on any part of the decision making process.

She sniffled slightly up at him, “I’m sorry I didn’t see it that way… That I didn’t consider how it might affect us and that I shouldn’t go off birth control without telling you that.” She muttered, letting him tug her to him and hugging his middle. She sighed, scoffing at his final statement and pulling back to look up at him. Parker bent to press their lips together and she lightly returned it, her eyes still watering.

She felt bad now considering the stupid move she pulled but when he gently coaxed her to kiss him, really kiss him like she normally would she slowly worked up the courage. The brunette smiled and put her hands on his neck, tugging him down to her level and kissing him a little deeper. “I am really sorry Parker. I mean if you want to wait I can go back on birth control and we can… talk about it more because I—“ She stammered, breaking their contact for a moment to speak.

Parker shook his head and reached out for her, telling her to stop. “O-okay.” She muttered, melting into him as he pulled her to him and kissed her again, ravishing her mouth with his own and she mewled. He asked her if she was still open to the idea of him taking her right here in the kitchen. She giggled and shrugged, tracing her fingers over his abdomen and down to the front of his pants. “Everyone else is asleep?” She inquired, humming out the words against his lips.

His hands clasped around either side of her waist, lifting her up into his strong arms and making her giggle. Mari wrapped around him instinctively, figuring she got her answer. She hoisted herself up a bit to press fully against his front, grinding against his front. “Does this mean you don’t wanna hear about my day then?” She teased, giggling at the look he gave her.

He turned with her in his arms, propping her on the counter and aligning their bodies once more and dragging his hands along her exposed thighs on either side of his frame. “For the record… My enthusiasm hasn’t been just about another baby. You’ve been… particularly tempting. Coming home all sweaty and greasy most days…” Mari told him, tugging him to her again and palming at his excited front with a little smirk tugging up her lips. “Plus I know you’ve been enjoying yourself anyhow. Haven’t you?” She purred, kissing his neck up to his ear and worrying it with her teeth.

Parker chuckled at her comment, his laughter melting into a low groan as the brunette nibbled at his ear, making his blood pump faster and his breathing accelerate being touched by her and touching in return. He dipped his head down to sample her soft neck, tugging her forward to the edge of the counter so he could grind his growing arousal against her center. Mari mewled and wrapped her arms and legs around him, rocking into his movements till they were both panting with need.

Parker pushed his hand beneath her soft yoga pants, grinning devilishly when he felt how soaked her panties were and he quickly tugged them aside to dip first one then two calloused digits into her center. He pulled back enough to watch his wife's face as he started working her in earnest, drawing her slickness up to swirl rapidly around her clit and making her moan brokenly.

They had had a few near misses over the course of their relationship getting frisky outside their room, so whenever they decided to take the party elsewhere they tended to make it short but no less sweet. Parker palmed her full chest through her thin t-shirt and sports bra, not letting up on her clit and alternating pumping his fingers deep inside her just how she liked. Mari's nails bit into his shoulders and she hissed that she was almost there.

Parker drove into her faster and her head tipped back to bonk against the upper cabinets but she hardly seemed to care, crying out brokenly as she came, her walls clenching around his digits and soaking his hand. The hunter grinned and before she even had time to recover from her first high he was pushing his sweats down enough to free his length, gripping her pants and yanking them down over her knees letting them fall to the linoleum.

Mari gasped as Parker guided his throbbing length into her heat, tipping her head back to face him and he gripped her jaw, holding her in place and kissing her ravenously as he began pounding into her. The brunette moaned into his mouth and started scratching at his waist getting a grip on his tank top, but he didn't break contact with her he just yanked her tighter against him and made her forget about removing his shirt pushing her over the edge into another orgasm.

Mari's grip on his sides tightened and her whole frame shuddered as she came, it took all Parker had in him not to follow her over the edge and he finally leaned back enough to pull his own shirt off, doing the same with his wife's and immediately bending to sample her full cleavage.

Mari moaned and leaned back, changing the angle of their hips to keep riding his length, her eyes rolling back in her head as she stayed on the crest of her pleasure and begged him to make her come again. Parker growled with feral need at her words, pushing her sports bra up to latch onto her sensitive rosy peaks each in turn. He slipped his hands down between them to flick his fingertips over her clit, thrusting into her furiously till she shattered a final time, finally taking him over the edge with her. 

Parker exploded deep inside her, riding out their shared high with a ragged groan until he was utterly spent. He slipped from her body and leaned forward to gather Mari's upper half against him, listening to her struggle to regain her breath and grinning at the way she was trembling against him.

 

Mari cried out as Parker slammed up into her heat, her rear nearly sliding off the edge of the counter she was sitting. She ordered for him to make her come again like only he knew how, following her demands he growled and latched onto her stiffened peak, his fingers working expertly over her clit to heighten her pleasure further. She arched suddenly, crying out and coming hard around him a final time in nearly the same moment her lover lost his control, following her over the edge with a deep groan.

He rode out their shared pleasure, pulling out of her heat and gathering her up against his chest. She shook in his arms, barely managing to hold onto him any longer as she struggled to regain her breathing. “You know I’m not opposed to next time we just do this… instead of talking things out.” She teased, pulling back to look up at him, her hands hanging loosely on his shoulders and the look he gave her told her he didn’t find that too funny. “I’m teasing, of course. I wouldn’t—avoid talking to you.” She muttered, her gaze flickering away from him until he caught her chin and his lips crashed together with hers.

She hummed until he pulled away from her, bending to pull his pants back up over his hips before grabbing her clothes and handing them over to her but not before demanding another kiss for his actions. The brunette giggled and gently eased herself down from the counter, pulling her clothes back on piece by piece and eyeing her lover’s bare chest. She wandered forward and pressed her lips to the first tattoo he had gotten with Ryder and his men, the one she always told him made the man he was today, a man she wouldn’t change or trade for anything in the world.

“Come to bed, Tarzan we still have to talk about our days.” She hummed up to him, tugging at the front of his pants to get him to walk forward with her. He chuckled behind her and mentioned the dishes but she shook her head as she kept walking towards their room down the hall, tsking at him for trying to pull away even if he was only teasing. He chuckled and scooped her up from behind, making her squeak as he hauled her up in his arms back to their bedroom.

Parker closed the door behind them and flicked on the light, setting her down on the mattress and making her smile when he fell in bed with her, his arms wrapped around her. She instinctively shifted so he was spooned up against her back, letting them both simply relax before they opted for getting ready for bed. “Do you miss hunting?” Mari asked him quietly, kissing his fingers of the hand that draped behind her head for support. He claimed he did miss feeling like he was doing something more but he couldn’t force there to be hunts within his reach. She nodded, “Well for now it’s really nice to have you home for dinner all the time… and being able to send you off to work with your sack lunch.” She smiled.

“It’s good practice for when Carson is in school someday…” The mother muttered, sighing through her nose and enjoying the company of her husband for the time being. “And like I said I like you coming home all sweaty and dirty like you do. You’ll get back to hunting soon enough and then I’ll get back to missing you.” She mumbled, not trying to guilt him into staying with her all the time but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel sad when he was away. She knew he loved the work but being gone wasn’t really his favorite thing anymore.

Parker’s lips and teeth lightly grazed over her neck as he brushed her hair aside to expose her flesh, kissing at her sweetly and muttering reassurances that his family was the reasoning he didn’t take things more than a certain distance away. She craned her head, allowing him better access to her slim throat and absently her hand reached up to card her fingers through his hair that had gotten a little longer more recently. She pushed back into him, groaning as she felt evidence of his returning arousal against her rear. She couldn’t help but laugh, here she was feeding into them simply chatting like he mentioned and he was getting overly excited.

 

Parker and Mari spent more time together over the next month, the hunter still went out for hunting jobs regularly but they both agreed it was better for their family if he spent more time working a more 'typical' job like logging in hours at the garage. 

He liked when Mari brought Carson over and they all had lunch together with Dean. The brunette had stopped on her way in at the local diner and gotten burgers, fries and shakes to go, bringing them all over for a bit of a picnic at the break table outside the garage. Parker and his wife got all the food laid out while Dean held Carson against him while the small boy stood on the bench beside him.

"Hey little man, check this out." Dean prompted pointing to the edge of the picnic table and showing his grandson a small set of initials carved into the weathered wood surface. He had the boy help him identify the letters, D.W., A.W. and M.W. It was something the elder Winchester had carved into the table years ago when he first started working at this place and his wife Aleah had brought Mari to visit him every great once in awhile since it was more risky for her to leave the bunker than it was for their daughter.

Carson peered at the letters with interest and Dean walked him through what each one standed for, making the boy hop up and down with excitement hearing about people he loved. Dean extracted his small but sharp pocket knife from his pocket, telling Carson to be careful and not get his fingers close while he started carving away just to the right of the old initials.

Mari leaned over to see what he was up to and Parker watched from the other side of the table, wondering what his father in law was up to. Dean carved in P.B., M.B., and C.B., grinning happily at his handiwork once he was finished. "There we go, now who are these letters for buddy?" Dean asked, walking him through the exact same process with Carson making him even more excited that they were for his parents and himself.

Parker watched his wife with a fond smile as she reached out to gently brush her fingertips over the markings, watching his family interact and feeling pretty lucky. The brunette leaned back and smiled at her father then him in turn, her eyes dewy with emotion. "Tink? You okay sweetheart?" Parker asked as he tore into his burger.

Mari smiled as she sat with her boys eating lunch all together. She was happy that Parker had opted for more hours at the garage considering their talk of her missing when he was away too long. He agreed it seemed the right thing to do and with Garth still taking the lead on another group of hunters even as he aged himself that left plenty of others to take the farther away cases. That left them with far less worry lately.

They ate up their meal and it was no surprise that Carson had developed Mari’s eating habits, loved all things food, some more than others but he always did quite well with eating. The boy was sucking on the straw of his milkshake, his cheeks caved in as he tried his damnedest to get some of the dairy treat out until he opted for taking the lid off and scooping it out with his fingers and the tip of the straw, making a bit of a mess of himself and the others laughed as Mari got the rest of the food set out for everyone else.

Dean gently tugged the sticky boy over to him, pointing at the edge of the picnic style table and showing him the little initials that were carved in there from decades ago. It was something she couldn’t even remember him doing so it must have been when she was really small but she did recall every time they came out here, her mom carrying her and holding her back until Dean was cleaned of most his grease and grime from the day, letting her book it towards him and they would eat together just like they were today. It was a bi monthly tradition, sometimes a little less often just depended on the conditions of Heaven, strange to think…

But now she could come all the time, every day if she so chose to do with her son and the option was nice, knowing that she had no fear of taking him out and about like they did with her from time to time. She didn’t have abilities like Aleah but the mix of the two caused a bit more of an angelic uproar if ever sensed in the same location. The woman was far easier to track than Mari considering her being more angelic than herself.

Mari smiled fondly as Dean gently told Carson to keep his hands back while he worked, tugging out his pocket knife and her eyes watered, knowing he was likely adding the boy’s name. It made her heart race and fill with warmth at the same time while she watched Parker trying to get a good look himself. Dean added the whole family, asking Carson to read the letters and he did such, making the boy wriggle to know that the ‘C’ stood for Carson and the others stood for his parents.

She reached over and brushed her fingers over the freshly etched in letters, leaning back to look up at her father and she smiled then once in turn at her other boys. The brunette nodded at Parker’s question, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and getting up to sit closer to her father and son, taking the knife from his hands and flicking it open. Dean stared at her but didn’t question what she was doing as she poked the blade into the table, taking a moment to etch out another ‘B’ in the wood before handing the knife back to her father. “You just forgot one that’s all.” She stated finally.

Parker’s chewing stopped and he loosely hung onto his burger in his hands, asking her what that meant. She smiled and put a hand over her flat belly, “Well I just figured with a second on the way they deserved a reserved spot too.” She told them quietly and Carson was the only one of the men around her that didn’t seem to catch on at all to what was happening. Parker stood up, wiping his hands on his coveralls to clear them as best he could and coming to Mari’s side of the table, kneeling down and asking her in all seriousness if she was pregnant.

The brunette bit her lip, giggling despite herself and nodding her head in response. “Only a couple weeks. Castiel checked to be certain for me.” She answered, letting him take her hands and kissing him when he bent. “At least this time I won’t be quite so largely pregnant by Christmas. Fighting the cold with a belly is not my greatest strength.” She laughed, squeaking when he pulled her to her feet and practically lifted her off the ground, kissing and hugging her until Carson screamed then started laughing, clearly wanting to gain their attention just as well.

Mari turned to face the table where Carson was jumping up and down on the seat with his grandpa gripping firmly to the back of his shirt, keeping him in place or at least keeping him from tipping over completely. Parker reached out when he prompted him to, giggling and hugging on his father without knowing exactly what the uproar was about all the sudden but he didn’t seem to mind at all. Dean stood and congratulated her softly, kissing her cheek when she did his and asking her how she was feeling so far, knowing her first pregnancy had been a rather long and rough bout of morning sickness all through the day. “I’m fine so far. Holding up okay, just had some dizziness but I’m good. Really I am.” She insisted, her eyes filling with tears again as she squeezed his fingers.

 

Dean embraced his daughter again, happy to hear that so far at least this pregnancy was going easier for his daughter compared to her first one. He turned and took Carson from his son in law so he could wish him goodbye and get back to work. 

Parker kissed Mari and watched fondly as she took their son back from Dean again. He couldn't believe that someday soon it wouldn't be Mari with just one kiddo in tow, but two on these little lunch dates. "Wow, this is gonna be amazing babe, I'm so happy it happened so quick!" Parker chuckled excitedly, his brows raising when Mari suddenly gave him a questionable look.

She stepped forward and poked a finger into his chest, asking him in a warning tone if he already knew about her being pregnant and that's why he was glad it 'happened quick.' Parker had gotten a vision of her and Carson together before the fact, so he couldn't exactly blame her for being suspicious but all he could do was laugh harder.

"No, no Tink. I didn't know." He assured her, holding up his hands in a helpless gesture when she drilled him again, "Mari I swear! I really didn't know!" He said through his chuckles, wrapping his arms around her and Carson on her hip together and squeezing his family tight. "It was a total surprise, I promise. And I couldn't be happier." He said in a softer tone, turning his head in to kiss her cheek then moving to kiss Carson's soft dark hair as well.

"Nothing is more important to me than my family, every single one of you." He added, glancing down at Mari's still flat abdomen and gently patting her middle with his calloused hand. Mari smiled at him when their eyes met again and she nodded, finally accepting that he was telling her the truth. She prompted Carson to wave goodbye to him and he answered in kind.

"See you at home little man! Take care of Mama for me!" He told his son, waving at him till Mari had him strapped in his car seat in the back of their vehicle and pulled out of the lot.

That night when Parker and Dean got home, they had an extra little something to celebrate the good news. Mari was cutting up hot dogs and cutting corn off the cob for Carson in the kitchen while he bounced excitedly in his booster seat. Dean entered the kitchen first with a plastic sack over one wrist, holding it up for his daughter to see.

"Hey Bug, we got ice cream! Strawberry chocolate chip!" He announced, making Mari smile and Carson exclaim happily that he wanted some of the frozen treat. Dean leaned down to kiss Carson's head, assuring him he could have some after he finished his dinner.

"And what good is ice cream unless it's being served as the 'a la mode' portion of pie a la mode?" Parker added as he entered the kitchen as well, holding up a large white paper box. He opened the lid to reveal a fresh strawberry pie and laughing at his wife's exuberant reaction that rivaled her son's.

Mari turned at the sound of her father and lover coming in through the front door, smiling at them both. Dean announced that he had ice cream, something she craved more when she was pregnant the last go around. She laughed lightly, appreciating the gesture especially from her father and lover, to know they made a special stop for her just because they wanted to.

“Ice cream is simply no good without pie to tag along.” She laughed, shaking her head at her family and glancing into the box that housed a quite tempting pie, making her hum with want. She knew exactly where he went, the place just around the corner from the garage that made by far her favorite strawberry pie. It wasn’t the most common of things, strawberry pie and more or less was a cheese cake mix of sorts but it passed her test, made her mouth drool and her stomach rumble with hunger with how much she wanted to tear into the delicious treat.

“Well I waaass going to say that you guys didn’t need to go to all the trouble when I’m not even having cravings buuuut…” She grinned, walking over to take the pie from her lover, wanting nothing more than to just drag it back to the table with her, fork in hand and simply chow down like there was no tomorrow. Carson wriggled in his chair begging to see it again and he cooed at it, asking in his cutest little voice Mari had become accustomed to but was starting to learn to say not… mostly. “After dinner, like Papa said, hmm? You can have a little pie and a scoop of ice cream. We all can.” She told him, taking the treat back to store in the fridge for now.

Dean handed off the ice cream, mentioning he was going to go change out of his sweaty clothes quick. She leaned up to kiss his cheek when he bent to do so for her in turn. “Perfect then Parker can linger and feed his son, can’t you baby?” She smiled at him, patting his rear when he wandered on into the kitchen completely and took one of Carson’s little hot dog bites off the plate she had placed them and popped it into his mouth.

Carson yelled at him with a little laugh to follow about how that was his and Dada’s was in the pot. “You tell him, bud! Don’t let him pick on you and eat your food!” Mari laughed, nudging her husband’s chest with her shoulder and grabbing their little one’s food to take over to him. She handed it off and Carson happily picked at the contents, chewing in an exaggerated fashion to show he was enjoying what his mother made. She smiled and shook her head, patting his hair and heading back to the kitchen to pull out the rest of the hotdogs.

Parker came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, his hands immediately resting over her middling just like they used to and she couldn’t help but smile. “You’re not going to feel anything for a while, Tarzan.” She told him, running her fingers over the top of his hand and slowly lacing their fingers. He kissed at her shoulder and claimed that he knew, he wasn’t expecting to but he liked just knowing that someone was housed in there. “I bet it really is a girl this time.” She muttered absently, glancing down and watching his hand run in light circles over her stomach just above her belly button.

She paused, grabbing his wrist and looking at him over her shoulder, “You’re sure you haven’t seen anything?” Mari asked again, her tone suspicious considering he guess the sex of their first child though it was still very much possible that the kid he saw was their second and not even Carson at all. There was no way of knowing and no way of making it happen. He shook his head down at her, kissing her little nose and promising yet again that so far he had seen nothing. He swore he would keep his mouth shut about whatever he found out so she could have the fun of being surprised.

“No!... No. Now that’s not very fair for you to know and me to be left hanging.” She whined at him, turning in his arms and looking up at him with a pout. “We’re making a pact. If you seeanything with a baby involved that looks remotely like you or me you come tell me. I don’t care what’s happening at the time, you find me a.s.a.p. Deal?” She requested, sticking up her pinky at him and making the man laugh. He rolled his eyes at her at first but she stared him down until he caved, taking his pinky to wrap around hers and he didn’t let go until she followed him forward and met his lips in a kiss.

She smiled and kissed him again, ducking around his arms and grabbing plate for the rest of them. “Sit down, I’ll get you a plate.” The brunette told him, patting his tummy affectionately, rolling her eyes when he looked right at her and puffed out his belly to make it big and tight, slouching his shoulders and teasing her. “Or I could feed my father and you can sleep outside.” She offered, arching her brow and pushing at him when he followed after her with his stomach still sticking out, clearly not taking her threat seriously. “You’re not funny, Parker Black!” She said, unable to stifle a laugh.

Parker was ecstatic to have another baby on the way, and for the first time in a long time he actually felt a little hopeful going to sleep each night on the off chance that he'd have another vision that would give him an insight into what their newest member of the family would be like. A few months passed and he got no indications, he was a little disappointed but at the same time he was also excited because he and his wife got to do something that any 'normal' couple would do, go to the doctor and find out the sex of the baby the conventional way.

Parker drove himself and his wife into town to the hospital, since they didn't have a family doctor owing to having a full-fledged angel on call so to speak they just made her an appointment there. Mari didn't think this was something they needed to bother Castiel over when it wasn't an actual injury or sickness so now here they were, walking hand in hand through the double doors.

Mari was far more confident this go around, probably owing to the fact that she'd been through the process before and new a lot of what to expect. Still, Parker could feel her hand trembling slightly in his as they waited for her name to be called. Parker leaned over and kissed her temple, speaking softly in her ear, "Hey. Everything's gonna be fine, okay?" He soothed her, smiling warmly when his wife looked up at him.

She answered with her own question, asking once again if he was sure he hadn't seen their second child already and he chuckled, shaking his head and squeezing her hand more firmly. "I'm sure. This is gonna be great, you see. Carson doesn't have any outward angel mojo or anything so I'm sure this baby will show up as just a perfect little human guy or gal too." He assured her, figuring that was the main source of her apprehension.

Mari sighed shakily and nodded, calming down somewhat and then a nurse came into the waiting room and called for her. Parker stood and helped her stand, her belly wasn't showing much yet but he still liked to give her boost up when he could. They walked back to the exam room and greeted the doctor waiting for them, Parker helped Mari up onto the padded table and she tugged her cotton t-shirt up.

The doctor walked them through what he'd be doing and what they'd be looking for, taking out the little squeeze bottle of gel and squirting it on the brunette's small baby bump making her gasp and he laughingly apologized for it being cold. Parker sat on the opposite edge of the bed, taking Mari's hand and leaning forward eagerly to watch the monitor the doctor pointed at.

 

Mari curled her fingers around Parker’s knowing she was shaking but hoping that the tighter she held onto him the less it showed through how nervous she actually was. The doctor squeezed the gel over her small belly still lined with faded stretch marks from her previous pregnancy and she gasped at the cool feeling. The doctor apologized and she could barely manage a real smile but forced something along the lines as best she could, trying not to break down herself as she thought about yet again that… maybe this child would have more of her in it than she wanted.

The doctor asked her if this was her first child and she shook her head, uncertain if she should watch the screen, the man’s hand moving the wand over her stomach or meet his gaze. She couldn’t do any of them right now, feeling uncomfortable in the small space considering she never really did the doctor thing even not pregnant. The last time she was even in a hospital was for Parker and the time before that was to see her mom a final time before they took her body away. “It’s our second actually. We—we have a little boy at home with his grandfather. He’s still… grasping the concept of the fact that I’m pregnant, y’know?” She answered, shifting on the exam bed and feeling her lover’s hand run up and down her forearm in a comforting manner.

He asked if she had gone elsewhere for care with her last pregnancy, trying to keep her relaxed clearly but his questions only worried her further. “Umm—“ The brunette started, “I have a friend who really… knows his stuff so he kind of helped me and then I had a home birth so I’m uhh—leaning towards doing the same with this little one.” She answered, smiling crookedly and looking at Parker who smiled up at her from where he sat beside her.

It was silent for a good few minutes until the doctor started pointing out features of their little one, explaining the baby’s growth and development and promising that it was doing just fine on where it was now and likely would stay that way. Parker fidgeted and finally broke, eagerly asking for the verdict on their newest addition before Mari could even open her mouth to do the same. The man beside them on the opposite side near her feet, rolled closer in his chair to reach the screen moving the wand around on Mari’s belly and pressing more firmly against her. He smiled and pointed instantly to the ultrasound on the monitor, pointing between the baby’s legs and assuring them they were having another boy.

Mari’s eyes welled up and she squeezed Parker’s fingers, “You’re sure? You can actually tell all of that just with that little wand thing and some machine?” She asked for confirmation and the doctor nodded, explaining that boys were a little more difficult to completely confirm sometimes depending on the angle because sometimes it was harder with the fluids around her belly to know what they were and weren’t seeing but he had a good angle and their boy was sitting right for him to be able to give her assurance that they could keep the nursery blue.

She laughed happily and looked at Parker who was beside himself simply to have another baby. “Another little boy. Carson will certainly be happy for a brother to play with.” She muttered, leaning her head up to kiss her husband sweetly, cleaning up when the doctor told her to and Parker hoisted her to sit up, pulling her shirt down for her and making her giggle when he openly kissed her covered belly. The doctor printed off a few sets of the ultra sound images so they could take them home and there was a part of her that didn’t like that she never got to do this with Carson, never got to see him before he arrived.

Mari stared down at the pictures as they walked, her lover pushing at her back slightly to keep her moving so they could get home now. “Another little boy can you believe it? He and Carson can do everything together. Carson can help him learn all he’s learned and help him grow like he is. I bet they’ll be really good friends… I hope they are. Like my dad and Uncle Sammy…” She rattled on, letting him guide her to the car but he stopped to make her look up at him, bending and pressing their lips together repeatedly until she fell into a fit of giggles and he broke away to tell her to not worry so much about everything, let it play out. “I am… I’m just thinking that’s all. We’ll have to talk to dad about which room he wants us to take over for the newest. At least we know what to shop for now… too bad we hadn’t kept more of Carson’s stuff.” She laughed, wrapping her arms around Parker and sighing heavily. “I love you, Tarzan. I’m so happy to have a family with you.” She muttered into his chest, holding him tight against her.

The pair got home from their appointment and Mari hurried to find Dean. The elder Winchester was watching Carson for them so they could be anywhere, playing hide and seek, racing toy cars in one of the long hallways in the basement level, even outside in one of the vast fields surrounding the bunker playing one of Carson's recent favorite games, wiffle ball golf.

Parker watched Mari head down the hall calling for her dad and son, a little smirk on his face imagining his father in law reacting to the good news when he heard. He put his keys down on the counter and sighed, wondering if his canine companion was keeping Dean and Carson company, or if he was where he spent a lot of his afternoons now. He hoped for the former but went to check anyway because his gut told him it was the latter.

Parker walked down to Carson's room, it still had a jungle theme but a few changes had been made: the kid had a 'big boy' bed now and so the crib and changing table had been taken out and stored, replaced with a couple huge trunks Parker had built and carved to hold his son's toys and bigger dresser he'd also built for his clothes. 

Sure enough, the huge black newfoundland was curled on the end of Carson's bed, snoring softly but his tail started thumping and he rose his head up to greet his master when Parker got closer. The hunter smiled and crouched down at the end of the bed, reaching out to scratch his fingers through Finn's scruff and rub his ears how he liked. The dog sighed and leaned into the scratches, his tail whacking the sheets faster at the attention he was getting.

"Hey buddy. Takin' an old man nap, hmm? Good boy." Parker talked to his friend, the dog's black muzzle had gone mostly gray and his eyes were getting the glassy look to them that came with age, but he still had the same loving devotion in his gaze that made Parker's heart twist because he knew his friend was coming to the end of his trail. Finn had taken to napping more and his arthritis was slowing him down more and more all the time it seemed. He still wanted to run and play with him and Carson, but the old boy just didn't have it in him anymore. 

All dogs got old and creaky, Parker had stopped taking him on hunts over a year ago because it just was an unnecessary risk but now he could tell there was something more going on with his furry friend that was slowing him down, sapping his energy.

Parker knew he could probably take the dog in to the vet, get him some meds or something to put off the inevitable but that would likely only make him even more lethargic than he was now. His chest tightened with emotion, this dog had been his best and only friend for years, saved his life a dozen times or more, and Mari's too. He didn't want to lose Finn, but he also knew it was starting to get to that point where it wasn't fair to the dog to keep him here.

Parker cleared his throat and got a lid on his remorse when he heard Mari's gentle voice behind him, turning and offering a smile still petting Finn's head beside him.  
"Hey, any luck finding the troublemakers?" He asked, trying to keep the strain out of his voice and at least mostly succeeding.

Mari giggled as she rounded the corner down the hall trying to find her lover again. Her laughter subsided when she came into Carson’s room, seeing the man sitting very still on the edge of the bed gently petting Finn’s head and trying not to disturb him too much. She had known for quite some time now, maybe the last few months or so that they would have to help him somehow. The dog was slowing down and they both knew without saying that there would decisions that would need to be made about what to do for their furry family member.

“Hey Tarzan.” She muttered quietly, grinning slightly when Finn’s tail picked up to lightly thump against the mattress of Carson’s bed. The dog and the boy had become quite good companions over the years, he always watched over him and now, watching Finn and Parker sitting together she wondered how that might change. Her lover looked up and she could see in his eyes he was trying not to break down, his voice shaky no matter how much he forced himself to hide it as he asked about her finding the rest of their family.

She crossed her arms over her chest for comfort, hugging herself and nodding her head as she crossed the room to sit beside the man and his dog. “They’re playing tag downstairs in a couple of the empty rooms. Carson was cheating and hiding out in the gym.” She laughed, crossing her legs up beneath her and leaning into Parker’s side when his arm looped around her back. The brunette reached over and pat Finn’s head that now rested against his owner’s leg, hearing him sigh heavily and watching his eyes flutter shut. “I told Dad we’d let him know the updates before dinner… didn’t want to interrupt them when Carson was having fun earning his attentions from his grandpa.” She told him, nuzzling into his chest and watching Parker be careful as he could with his friend at his side.

The couple was quiet for a while but Mari knew what needed to be said whether they both wanted to address it or not. “There are pills online we can order them through the vet in town for his arthritis. At least keep him from being in more pain than he needs. It’ll help him sleep and relax.” She sighed, her hand stopping petting the dog and instead resting over her lover’s upper leg, giving it a gentle squeeze to encourage him not to avoid their discussion. Parker’s eyes welled up and he shook his head, saying he didn’t want to do all that, he could see that Finn didn’t either. They always had a special sort of connection and he simply knew the dog wouldn’t want to fight unless it was on his own.

“We can’t watch him steadily get worse, baby. Carson knows Roro is sick I can tell he does.” Her hand traced up his leg to his chest, snuggling tighter into him for comfort and feeling his arm wrap around her more firmly. “Why don’t we try natural remedies? I know for people it says exercise is actually good for joints, light walking or swimming to keep there from being too much strain on their bodies…” Mari explained, trying to remain hopeful but they both knew that sooner or later they were going to have to take a step they didn’t want to and that meant losing their friend for good.

Parker kissed her temple and told her he didn’t know what the right thing to do was, how to help him or how to ease his discomfort at all without losing him completely. He just wanted to do the right thing. She opened her mouth to speak again and just as she started to a squealing dark haired little boy came running into his room, charging at Parker’s legs and tackling one in earnest, trying to take him down to the ground with him. Mari wiped her eyes to hide her tears, laughing instead at Carson’s actions and sure enough her husband reacted, lifting him up and making them both fall back against the mattress, playfully pretending to gnaw on his little belly.

Carson wasn’t stupid so when his head raised and he saw Parker’s red rimmed eyes he asked what was wrong. He shook his head and promised nothing was wrong, rising up when Dean entered through the doorway, leaning in against the frame and smiling at them both. Mari cleared her throat and shifted on the bed that was nowhere near big enough for the entire family and yet they still decided to try as she motioned for her father to join them all. She dug in her sweater pocket to pull out the images she had been given, scooting over for him to drop down beside her on the corner of Carson’s bed.

Finn seemed quite content and happy to have the crowd surrounding him actually and it was enough of a distraction to them all to focus on the next good thing instead of having to deal with the bad. Carson hopped around the bed when Parker put him down, making ape man noises… something he had learned from his father and seeming completely uninterested in the occurrences around him. “Come here bud. Sit with Mama.” She prompted her son, patting her lap and he wandered over with aid of his father to sit up against her.

She put her arms around him and started through the small stack of images she had from her ultrasound. “You remember how Mama and Daddy told you that you’d be a big brother?” She murmured down to her son, letting him take hold of one of the pictures so he could look at it, seeming confused by what it even was when he handed her the image of ‘goo’ back. She laughed, “What did you tell us you wanted it to be? Did you want a brother or a sister?” She asked, grabbing his tiny wrists to keep him from leaving, trying to get him to stay focused and he wriggled, claiming he wanted a brother to play trucks and bikes and hunters with, making Dean wince at his last little game considering he had just started to pick up on what it was his father left to do from time to time.

“Well you’re going to get that because today Mama went to the doctor and they showed me pictures of my belly and the baby and they told me it’s a little boy in there.” The brunette told her son, practically humming the words but her eyes darted over to Dean who was who she had been most excited to tell anyways, handing him the pictures and pointing to one in particular. “See.” She laughed, “Another little boy to cause chaos, Daddy.” She muttered, leaning into his side as he leafed through the pictures and smiled at them, seeming all too excited for another grandkid. Those that knew Dean Winchester before or those like Mari and Parker who knew his past through stories he told, knew that years ago he never would have admitted to wanting a kid of his own, never would have taken to growing older but now that changed and he was entirely family oriented in most everything he did.

 

Parker conceded to changing Finn's diet a bit and started taking him out to swim a couple times a week, but after about a month or so it was clear that the dog was on his last wind. The dog still wanted so much to please his family but he could hardly walk from one room to the next in the bunker without getting too fatigued and having to lie down awhile.

Parker couldn't bring himself to do the task even though in many ways he felt he owed it to his friend, opting to make an appointment at the local vet and they agreed it was the best course of action. He planned on taking Finn in on his own, coming home early from the garage and carrying his faithful companion out to lie down in the back seat of his car.

The hunter was already having trouble keeping his emotions in check and Finn seemed to sense his distress, wagging his tail and licking his hand trying to cheer him up with what energy he could muster. Parker chuckled and patted the dog's head, giving him full points for effort but with where they were going it didn't really help his spirits much.

"It's okay buddy. Let's go for a ride okay? Stop and get you some cheese fries before we go, huh?" Parker told the dog, making him wag his tail excitedly at the mention of his favorite treat. Parker straightened up from the back seat of the vehicle and turned to go around to his spot, stopping in his tracks when he saw Mari standing outside with her purse and coat on against the fall weather, holding Carson carefully to the side of her growing but still modest baby bump.

Parker's dark brows raised and he held up his hand in a placating gesture, realizing suddenly why his wife and son were out here. "Tink, you don't... You guys don't have to come along." He told her in a defeated tone, wanting to be strong for them but finding it harder than he cared to admit to keep the wobble out of his voice. For a long time Finn had been the closest family he'd ever had, and facing losing him was a lot more difficult than he ever expected.

Mari crossed the space between them, handing Carson over to him and assuring him that Finn meant a lot to all of them, and that she wanted to be there for him and their furry family member as well. Deep down Parker welcomed the company and support, but he still hesitated. "Babe are you sure it's a good idea to bring Carson? Maybe we should ask Dean if he can take off early from work or something, keep an eye on him-" Parker countered, but Mari shook her head, insisting that their son should get to say goodbye too, her own blue eyes getting misty despite the strong front she was putting up.

Parker looked at his son who was babbling on about monster trucks and he shook his head, figuring Finn had been his best friend too so even if he didn't quite understand what was going on, he should get to say farewell too like Mari said. He nodded finally and strapped Carson into his booster seat in the back beside Finn who promptly put his large shaggy head in the boy's lap, but rather than running his race car over the dog's head or making all kinds of loud noises at him, he seemed to sense the need for stillness and simply sat quietly, gently petting Finn's head the whole way into town.

Parker took them to the drive in where they loved getting burgers and shakes, getting Carson a small root beer float and an order of cheese fries for the dog. Finn seemed happy but it was a testament to how unwell he was feeling because he only ate one or two fries, licking his chops appreciatively but then simply opting for resting his head back on Carson's lap while he ate his frozen treat.

Parker and Mari split the fries though the brunette ate most of them, he just didn't have much appetite. The time for Finn's appointment drew closer and so they drove over to the vet's office, Carson had never been to a place anything like a doctor's office before and so he was a bit wary even in the vet waiting room, though that might've been mostly due to him being able to pick up on Mari and Parker's distress despite their reassurances that everything was all right.

Parker and Mari let Carson walk in his furry friend for the most part because he liked to do as much as he could on his own, holding onto the leash but Mari kept a light hold on the very end of the leash to aid him a bit. Her husband went up to the counter, speaking with the woman at the front desk who offered them a kind smile but none of them had much energy to return the gesture considering what it was they were there for.

Carson sat down in one of the chairs that Mari instructed him to go to and Finn happily laid out on the linoleum floor. He seemed to recognize it as well, normally he might put up a fight at the vets if they brought him but right now he was defeated and gave them confirmation that he was completely ready to go. He was tired and that was clear with the way he simply sat down and waited his turn, accepting pets from Carson and whoever else dropped down to the floor.

Mari scooped up her son, huffing at the effort to get him to sit with her and stop hugging on his friend when their families name was called. “Are you sure you want to go by yourself?” She asked her husband again, watching his eyes fill with tears and she sniffled, unable to keep back her own when he insisted that he was the only one that needed to be at his side. “We’ll walk you back at least.” She muttered, standing up with a bit of added effort and carrying Carson on her hip again so they could say a final good bye to their friend.

Carson didn’t seem to fully understand but he did seem to grasp that something was going on, something upsetting, his tiny blue eyes tearing up mostly out of sympathy and worry as he asked if Roro was going to be okay. Mari nodded, “Yea buddy, Roro is gonna be fine. Say good bye okay? Give him kisses.” She instructed him, wiping her eyes with one hand and bending to let her son lean over the table to kiss at Finn’s head and pat his fur, the boy telling him he loved him and promising he would be okay like Mama said.

She took a shaky breath to try and gain some of her composure back but it was difficult watching him lie there now like he was. She bent her head and pressed her lips to his forehead, “You’re such a good boy, Finny. Thank you for everything.” She whispered to him, scratching behind his ears the way that he liked and watching his dark hazy eyes flutter closed in relaxation. He was beyond ready to go, knowing his family was okay and safe at least. “I love you buddy.” She muttered, looking to Parker and hugging him before pulling her hand from Finn’s head.

Parker asked her to leave and she nodded, taking Carson with her and ignoring his questioning about where Daddy and Roro were going and why he couldn’t stay too. Mari was led by one of the nurses out to the waiting area again and she accepted a tissue from her, wiping her nose and meeting her son’s gaze as best she could, “Listen honey… Do you remember when I told you about Grandma and Castiel? Do you remember about the angels?” She whispered to him, brushing his growing dark hair out of his face so she could fully see his eyes and he nodded, gripping at her shirt and sitting in her lap. “Roro is going to visit Grandma up in Heaven.”

 

Parker watched his wife take their son out of the little exam room, unable to leave his friend's side until the bitter end but he didn't think it was something Carson ought to witness at such a young age. He gently petted Finn, murmuring reassurances to the dog who calmly liked his hand a few times before settling down with his head resting on Parker's hand, closing his eyes almost as if he knew exactly what was going on and was just peacefully waiting for it to come.

A few moments later Parker exited the room and shut the door behind him, taking deep shaky breaths trying to keep his composure out in the main waiting area with several other people including his family around. Mari and Carson stood up when he walked over to them and Parker immediately bent to scoop his little boy up to rest on his hip, hugging him tight and kissing his dark wavy hair.

"Dada, is Roro with Gramma now?" Carson asked, his blue eyes wide and teary mostly because his mother and father were both being emotional and he took his cue from them. Parker smiled, glancing over at Mari guessing she must've given their son some kind of explanation to do with Heaven to help him understand at least in some way why Finn wasn't coming home with them.

Parker nodded and cleared his throat, smiling despite the fact that he was barely keeping his own tears in check. "That's right Car. Roro is playing with Grandma up in Heaven." He assured him, taking Mari's hand and grinning at her appreciatively for coming up with a sweet sentiment like that for their son and he found a small part of himself wishing that it was true as well. They walked back out to the car and drove home, Carson was practically bouncing out of his seat the whole way and made a beeline for his room when they got in.

Parker wasn't sure what his son was so eager about but he let him go, standing at the door holding Finn's red collar and leash in his hands, his eyes pricking with fresh tears he refused to shed as he went through the motion of hanging them up on their appointed peg by the door even though they'd see no further use. Mari stepped into his space and tugged him down into a hug that wasn't too impeded yet by her growing baby belly and Parker sighed heavily as he burrowed his face into the crook of her neck.

"I'm gonna miss him." Parker said simply, hugging his wife close and feeling soothed by her gentle assurance that they all would and trying not to breakdown completely as she patted his back and ran her hand through his close cropped sandy hair. A few tears managed to slip past his dark lashes but he quickly cleared them away when they heard Carson calling them as he ran back into the main living area.

Parker straightened and got a better hold of himself, walking down the steps with Mari when their son beckoned them and he crouched down to see what he had brought out to show them. "Whatcha got buddy?" He asked, peering at Carson's Ninja Turtles backpack he had drug out of his room with him.

Carson unzipped the main compartment and started pulling out an assortment of Finn's toys he had apparently gathered from his room where most of them were kept, as well as a small blue race car that they knew to be the boy's favorite of all his toy cars.

Carson explained that he had picked up Finn's toys so they could send them to him in Heaven so he would have things to play with, and Parker almost lost his composure all over again with how sweet his little was being. Mari got down on the floor as well to look over what the kid had collected and praised him softly for his good idea, making the small boy's face light up that they approved of his notion.

Mari followed her lover into the bunker further by the hand, letting him guide her when Carson called for them both so he could show them his finds. She watched as Parker bent down to get on his knees and go through their son’s bag together, seeing what it was he had to offer them. Carson pulled out toy after toy of Finn’s and at first she worried if maybe he had forgotten what they told him about his friend. That he was in Heaven now with Grandma and Uncle Sam.

She opened her mouth to speak up and remind him should he need it but then he made mention of why he brought all the toys out like he had. He claimed that Finn needed them to play with in Heaven, stated that he would want them so Grandma and Uncle Sam could have fun with him too and she smiled at the sentiment though she knew none of that was possible. In a little boy’s eyes though it was and she knew it meant a lot that he even thought of this on his own, caring for someone that was long gone now and wouldn’t be coming back.

“Oh Car. That’s a wonderful idea. Finn would love that I’m sure.” The young woman told him softly, running her fingers through his dark hair and looking over at Parker who was struggling to keep himself together. “Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Parker?” She encouraged him to join in and at least acknowledge it, nodding his head and claiming he agreed that it was.

Carson smiled his bright cheesy smile at being praised, asking if they could make a box and send cards to Grandma and Uncle Sam so that they would understand what the box was for and he could tell them what kind of snacks Finn liked. He made mention that they could write back and maybe he could know what Heaven was like so he knew how Finn was doing up there. He didn’t quite understand the concept but he seemed to at least know that they were gone. He couldn’t see them at least.

“Well Car… Letters are easy to send but mail is awfully slow from Heaven because the angel’s get busy.” She cooed at her son, brushing his hair with her fingers. “But we can certainly make a box and send everything. I know just the angel to take it.” She smiled, “Dada and I will help you.” She promised, taking Parker’s hand when she saw his expression wavering again.

The family sat on the floor together for who knew how long, going through pictures because Carson decided they needed to have one to send with the box so that in case Finn hadn’t gotten to their ‘house’ yet they knew which dog he was so the right dog would get the toys. Parker remained patient especially for all that he was going through on his own time and in his own mind, putting together a little shoe box for the boy and letting him decorate it for nearly an hour until it was perfect in his mind, covered in glitter, stickers, googley eyes and other random décor.

They helped him write out a card since he couldn’t manage many words on his own quite yet with a crayon, letting him sign his name on his own so they knew who it was that sent everything and by then it grew into Carson’s nap time. Mari gathered her boy up who was growing steadily more and more sleepy against his father, leaving Parker with the box that he was currently taping closed and pretending right along with his son. Carson asked if they were going to call Cas to come and get it and Mari nodded, “Yep we’ll call him this afternoon and see if he’s not busy so he can bring it up himself to Heaven. Did you address it just in case?” She asked, trying to soothe him as best she could and he nodded pointing down at the top of the box that had ‘To: Grama and Uncel Sam; Heaven.’ horribly written in his handwriting with a crude heart in glitter at the bottom that read ‘Carson’ in the middle of it. “Good job.”

The woman led her son back to his room after he kissed his father before his nap, taking him back to let him sleep for a bit. She rubbed his back and hummed down to him until his eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep with his stuffed dinosaur in his arms. She tugged his door almost all the way closed, leaving it cracked so they could monitor him should he need anything and when she came out Parker was pulling his coat back on and slipping into his boots. “Where are you going?” She asked him, arching a brow and Parker muttered something about slipping off to Heaven. She nodded, hoping she understood that he was simply going to get rid of the box.

Parker took Finn's leash and collar as well as the little box out to the car with him, careful of the glitter glue all over it that still wasn't quite dry. It was a bittersweet little token to his canine friend's life, at least he knew for sure that Finn had been as important in his son's life as he had in his own during the short time they had together.

The hunter drove out through the fields and pastures stretching out from the bunker away from the direction of town, pulling off the highway onto one of the lesser traveled dirt roads and driving a distance down it before finally coming to a stop. He walked over the grass with the box in one hand and a shovel in the other, picking a spot and starting to scoop out a little hole in the dirt for their little tokens to be laid to rest.

Parker knelt down after he got the hole dug, holding the box and opening it up again, going through it's contents and smiling despite the tears welling in his eyes. He carefully set all his best friend's beloved toys in the hole, the hardest thing of all to place inside was Finn's collar. He kept the tag off of it that had the dog's name etched in it as well as the little blue race car Carson had gifted to the departed canine and put them back in the box with the cards they'd helped him make, feeling like it might be a nice little memory to pull out later on when his son was older.

Parker buried the other items and said a final goodbye to Finn, thanking him for all the times he'd saved his ass and more than that for being his friend. He brushed the tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand and drove back, stowing away the little box in the top of his closet for safe keeping while Carson was still down for his nap.

Mari was in the kitchen getting food prepped for dinner once Dean got home, turning to look at him when she heard him enter the room. She smiled slightly at him, mentioning that she was making his favorite for dinner, lasagna and garlic bread and Parker nodded, thanking her as he came to stand beside her and started rubbing her lower back with an open hand.

The petite brunette sighed and leaned into his touch so he kept it up, content to quietly watch her constructing her pasta dish for awhile. Finally she asked him what he'd done with Finn's things and he related what he'd decided on, she seemed pleased that he decided to bring the box and letters back as keepsakes.

Later that evening when Dean arrived home, the first thing Carson did was march up to him and announce that Roro was playing with Gramma and Uncle Sam in Heaven. The elder hunter looked down at his grandson in confusion, patting the boy's dark hair and nodding, which was about all the confirmation Carson required before running back into the living room where Parker and Mari were watching a movie with their son to pass the time while dinner cooked.

"Smells good in here Bug." Dean commented as he smelled the savory aroma of bread and lasagna baking in the other room. "Um, what's this about Heaven now?" He asked, though he had already started putting it together in his mind based on what Carson said and the fact that the faithful furry beast hadn't been very perky for awhile now.

Mari smiled as her father came into the kitchen, enjoying his company as she made her lover’s favorite meal for dinner that evening, figuring he needed it to cushion the blow in a way. Or at least she hoped that it would. He rubbed her back and lingered in her space for the most part while she made up their dinner, listening to him tell her about his drive out to put Finn completely to rest. She liked that he kept at least one token of their friend, holding him close and nodding as he explained that he kept the box and card as well.

Carson woke not long after Parker returned, taking to watching a movie in the other room and seeming just as happy as before. The boy hardly acknowledged that his friend was missing at all, having accepted it already or simply having not quite grasped the concept as to why he really wouldn’t see his friend anymore. Dean came home soon enough while dinner was still in the over for a few moments longer and the couple looked up from where they sat together on the sofa.

She looked up at him and of course the first thing he had to ask was about what Carson was so easily referring to… his friend being happily in Heaven playing with Uncle Sam and Grandma Aleah. Parker’s face fell a bit and he cleared his throat to speak but Mari gripped his leg and opted for taking over that little bit of information. “Finn’s staying with them.” She answered simply, her own eyes getting moist with unshed tears as she got up to her feet, indicating to Parker to keep Carson busy so she could go in and talk to her father.

Dean started down the hall to his room and she followed him, taking his hand. “We… Umm… We had to put Finn down. Parker and I talked about it a lot and it needed to be done. It didn’t matter what we did he couldn’t hold on and we couldn’t selfishly force him to. I didn’t want him going alone so Carson and I went with him to take Finn to the vet to…” She trailed off, sitting on her father’s bed with him while he at least shed his coveralls, wearing a ratty old tee and a pair of greasy jeans that made her wonder why he wore the coveralls at all. She couldn’t say the words, couldn’t say that they put him down but he didn’t make her tell him, nodding and asking again about the Heaven thing and what Carson meant.

“So we took Carson too and he was asking where Roro was going and I didn’t want to lie to him so I told him Heaven. I reminded him about the talk we had about why… Grandma isn’t here but you are and how he would never meet Uncle Sammy either because…” She sobbed, gripping her father’s hand when he offered it to her and starting to fall to pieces as memories of the past came back to her perhaps partly to do with her imbalanced hormones just as well. He hushed her and kissed her forehead, rubbing her back until she managed to continue. “I told him Finn was going to see them in Heaven and then he… made this whole box of stuff to send up to Finn so he would be comfortable in his new home and all of that and we promised to send it to him. He thinks we gave it to Cas to take to Mom and Sam so they could properly care for Finn.” She continued explaining, clutching to his fingers and sniffling as she thought.

“It was the sweetest thing. I couldn’t tell him otherwise when he’s so young but he gets that Roro isn’t here anymore.” She told her father, sighing heavily and nuzzling into his shoulder when he offered a broader hug. “Parker’s having a hard time with it so I figured it best to talk away from him just so he doesn’t have to keep remembering. He buried his toys and stuff just so Carson would think we ‘sent’ everything off. Do you think that’s wrong of us to do that?” She asked uncertainly, her worries about being a mother seeming to resurface on and off.

Dean chuckled warmly at his daughter's explanation, squeezing her fingers and shaking his head. "No. No I think that for now, with how little he is... That's perfect. Kids only get to stay young and innocent for so long, it's best to let them stay that way as long as possible." Dean replied, thinking back to his own childhood and how quickly he'd had to grow up. If his grandson could go on believing such a sweet notion for awhile, he damn well was going to support it.

The little family spent the evening together, eating dinner and popping in another movie afterwards that Carson fell asleep during towards the end. Dean offered to put the boy in bed and Mari and Parker accepted, watching with fond smiles as the elder Winchester carried his sleeping burden back to his bedroom to put him down for the night.

Parker sighed softly and Mari leaned into his side, making him smile at her comforting presence. She asked him if he was gonna be all right and he nodded, wrapping his arm around her and placing a kiss on the top of her head as the last of Carson's pixar movie played out though neither of them were really paying it much attention.

"It's weird not having him here. But... It was time to let him go. I'll be okay." He assured her, and he was speaking honestly. Sure it was painful, but he felt at peace with the decision and knew it wouldn't have been fair to make Finn live in such discomfort any longer. After awhile Dean came back out, reporting that Carson was sleeping like a rock and the young parents chuckled. Dean went into the kitchen and emerged with a beer for himself and Parker, and a bottle of juice for Mari which she accepted with a little groan.

"Sorry Tink. At least it's not forever." Parker winked and leaned in to kiss his wife's cheek, glancing down at her baby bump and lightly patting her belly. "I think it's nice it worked out that the boys' birthdays are at least a few months apart. I remember I used to lie about when my birthday was if it was too close to any other kid's at the foster homes I lived in so it didn't get overshadowed." Parker commented with a crooked grin. The trio sat up and talked for a long while, till Mari started nodding off with her head drooping down against Parker's shoulder.

Dean chuckled at his daughter, asking Parker jokingly if he wanted him to carry his wife to bed as well, to which the young hunter laughed. "I wouldn't mind it but she might." He responded, grinning down at his sleepy wife when she tried to defend herself though she wasn't even sure what they were talking about since she'd been drifting in and out of the conversation.

"Come on Tinkerbell. Time for bed." Parker murmured softly, gently shifting her off of him and helping her stand, chuckling again at her sleepy noises of protest at being put to bed like their son. Dean shrugged and commented that it was well past her bedtime, earning a light swat on the shoulder from his daughter but he reached out and caught her fingers before her arm could fall back, squeezing them gently and wishing her goodnight with a kiss on her knuckles.

Parker walked with Mari back to their room, one hand braced against the small of her back to help support her. Her belly wasn't very big yet but he remembered in her first pregnancy she'd been prone to back pain, so he figured every little bit would help.

They got into their room and Mari sighed, turning on her heel to drape her arms around Parker's neck as he kicked their door shut with his foot. The petite brunette stood up on her toes and tugged at him to bend down and meet her in a kiss, her lips soft and relaxed in her drowsy state. Parker sighed into the contact, running his hands up and down her back and deepening the kiss with a deep groan.

Mari melted into his frame and he wanted nothing more than to take things further, but he wasn't sure if his wife would want much more than than a few kisses before bed since she was already sleepy and tended to be more tired now that her body was working overtime to grow another human.

Mari grinned when her father took her hand before she could pull it away from him, her eyes hooded as she glanced down at him, catching the affection in his gaze as he kissed her knuckles and wished her a good night. “Night, Daddy. I love you.” She muttered in her sleepy tone as Parker started to usher her out of the room and back to their own space.

She didn’t mind the extra help of him pushing on her back and helping her stay upright though really in the stage she was she could manage on her own. She appreciated it none the less, knowing if his hand wasn’t there she would probably suffer from back aches. She absently ran her hand over her growing middle, smiling with contentment as she padded back with her husband to their bedroom.

Parker pushed the door closed and she sighed heavily, stepping forward the couple inches it took to get to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. She stood on her toes, using his weight as an anchor so she wouldn’t tip over and pressing her lips to his. Her blue orbs fluttered shut and she purred at the feeling of his hands running up and down her back as he deepened their kiss making her slump forward into him a bit. He muttered her name and she simply hummed in response, refusing to let go on her hold along his jaw, enjoying the rough feeling of the scruff he let grow over the past few days likely from stress and exhaustion he forgot about his own well-being.

He quietly asked her if she was tired and she nodded, her lips brushing up and down against his with the movement, pecking him again between words. “Mhmm.” She muttered, taking a step backwards towards their mattress and raking her nails through his short cropped hair along the sides of his head and back behind his ears. “Not. Tired. Enough.” Mari informed him softly, tracing one hand down his neck and to his chest, following to the hem of his jeans and lightly brushing over the growing bulge in his bottoms.

She smirked against his lips at the little groan he gave, “I know I’m not as fun in this state but clearly you’re not bothered by taking the lead there, Big Guy.” She giggled, letting him ease her up into his arms only to walk her back a few feet and lay her out on their bed. The young angel and mother wanted nothing more than to take her husband like she might normally, to put in all the efforts she often did and make him want her just the same but as it would seem, just as she said taking the lead in this didn’t seem to put him off at all.

Parker kissed along her neck, maneuvering her body so she was comfortable at the head of their bed against the pillows, his lips trailing down to her cleavage that was steadily getting more swollen the further along she got in her pregnancy. She was tired but that didn’t stop her from wanting and craving, letting him help her out of her top and the thin cotton bra she wore, smiling sleepily at him when he traced his hands down her breast and further south to her belly, his lips following the same path and his furry face making her shiver and giggle at the contact.

He smiled against her skin, his teeth lightly scraping along her flesh and making her pant heavily with her increasing desire. She returned the favor, helping him out of his shirt and lazily unfastening his jeans to push off his hips to offer him some relief at least without his pants constricting his arousal. It had been a long while since they had been slow like this and being nearly two months into her pregnancy meant their love making started to vary. His large hands continued down her body to hook into the pj bottoms she wore, tugging them off her hips along with her panties, his fingers quickly finding her soaked center as her eyes fluttered closed. She gasped lightly as he swirled his digits over her clit, his mouth focusing on her neck and chest, heightening her arousal with the mix of sensations.

Parker quickly got over his lingering doubt that Mari might simply be humoring his own needs despite being overtired, relishing the way she responded to his every touch, gasping and moaning as he drove her higher with his hands and mouth. He teased her sensitive breasts with his tongue and teeth, dipping his fingers into her core and making a repetitive come hither motion hitting her in just the right places, drinking in her scent, sounds and expression as she neared her brink.

Her body started shaking and he slowed the pace of his fingers, slipping out of her to lightly tease her clit just enough to keep her hovering on the verge of her release but not letting her unravel. Mari moaned entreatingly and tipped her hips up into his hand trying to increase the sensation but he wouldn't allow it, grinning wolfishly at his wife and acting like he had no idea what she was getting frustrated over when she whined his name.

"What's the matter Tink? Tell me what you want me to do beautiful..." Parker all but growled, twitching with want when she demanded that he take her and make her come. "Hmm..." Parker responded, pretending to mull it over as he maintained his gentle touch on her most sensitive spot while scooting closer and settling between her legs.

"I think I can manage that." He finally told her, smiling when she stuck her tongue out at him for being a tease but her face quickly contorted with pleasure as Parker pushed her legs apart, holding them up by the crooks of her knees and buried his throbbing length into her slick core. Her hands automatically shot out to grip his inked forearms to keep herself steady as he began pounding into her. He wasn't going at it quite as hard as he might normally, but still with enough force to make her full chest bounce with each thrust and her eyes roll back in her head as she finally found her peak.

She came hard around him and Parker tensed every muscle to keep from exploding, increasing his pace and cursing under his breath as he held off his own release determined to make his wife 'tired enough' as she had put it by the time they were done. Mari's legs started shaking in his grasp and her grip on his arms tightened as she came again, ragged moans escaping her on every exhalation as he carried her through two more bone melting orgasms.

Finally on the crest of her third peak Parker couldn't hold on any longer, spilling deep inside her and making her lose control of her voice as the last wave of her pleasure swept through her. He sighed brokenly in the wake of his climax, slipping from her body and gently lowering her still trembling legs back down to the mattress. Mari hummed and giggled almost as if she were intoxicated, finally letting go of his arms and he smirked at the deep nail prints she'd left in his tattooed skin. He leaned forward and kissed her parted lips sweetly, feeling more than pleased by the way lazy way she returned his kiss.

"Tired enough now?" He asked with a chuckle, shifting on the bed and tugging the blankets down so he could cover her lower half while he got up to fetch her strewn pjs and get some for himself for the night.

Mari shook as Parker came deep inside her core, taking her over the edge with him and riding out their shared high. He eased her legs down, slipping from her body and making her groan at the loss of him buried deep within her. She giggled at him, pulling her hands from around his tight forearms and seeing the tiny nail marks she left in his skin that neared the edge of breaking into his flesh and drawing blood. She maintained at least some control.

He didn’t seem to mind all that much, kissing her softly and tugging the blanket over her hips for her to rest in while he got up to gather her some clothes to sleep in. “Mmm…” She hummed in response to his question of if she was ‘tired enough’, nodding her head as a form of answer. “You sure know how to follow orders, Tarzan.” She called over to him sleepily, rolling onto her side and watching him wander bare around their room, very openly eyeing his taut form and making him chuckle. He never found himself attractive, always told her he thought otherwise but there wasn’t a second since they met that she didn’t want to get a good look at him and… jump his bones.

He asked her absently if she saw something she liked and she smiled over at him, “I see a lot of things that I love… Six feet, three inches of something’s I love.” The brunette answered, snorting with laughter when he chucked her pants at her and they covered her face, plucking them off and sitting up so she could semi wriggle back into them. “You asked.” She informed him, managing into her bottoms and reaching over from where she sat to grab her top from his hands, thanking him with a kiss when he bent back to her level.

He dressed himself while she did the same, the pair of them getting up to wander over to the bathroom and brush their teeth, making faces at each other in the mirror until Mari slapped Parker harshly on the ass for sticking his belly out at her. Mari laughed at him, catching his hand and tugging him insistently until he followed her back out to their bed, climbing in beside her and curling up with his arms around her middle.

\------

Mari’s pregnancy progressed rather easily for the most part, her second child not seeming to make her quite as large as Carson had. She and Parker debated on names up until the last few days she had before her supposed due date and before they could decide she went into labor early.

She was spending her afternoon with Carson while Parker was down in the workshop building something or other that he was determined to finish. She was on the floor with her son at her side, playing cars with him while he half watched a movie on the television when she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen that steadily traveled to her back. For the most part she managed to breathe through it, trying not to worry her little boy at her side. He was only just barely four and if she gave indication of pain before it was time she knew he would worry up until that second when his brother arrived.

“Carson why don’t you go get Mama a cup of water hmm?” The brunette suggested, hoping that with the way he took to helping her around the house he would happily run off to do so. She was almost certain these were labor pains she was feeling. The little boy nodded eagerly and tore off like a shot to the kitchen, giving her little time to breathe through her pains in her front and back. Carson ran back and was quick with handing her the water, trying to be helpful by holding it for her to drink.

Mari gently nudged at him to keep his distance, hissing through her teeth and thanking her son despite her condition. He asked her what was wrong, telling her she looked sick and as another contraction started while she was about to reply her water broke as she made the attempt to get to her feet. Carson gasped and pointed at her legs informing her she was leaking and she pushed the cup aside to speak to her son. “I know sweetie. Your little brother’s coming okay? Remember what Mama said? You go get Daddy and calmly tell him to come up. I know you’re not supposed to be in the shop but this one time I need to you go get him okay?” She muttered down to him, gripping his shoulder as softly as she could.

The tiny brunette male nodded, looking worried but seeming to understand the seriousness of the situation. “I’m okay, Bud I just need your Dad okay?” She soothed him, brushing her hand over his cheek and easing herself down onto the couch as soon as Carson took off to find his father down in the shop. Mari stuck to her breathing, resting her hand beneath the large swell of her belly and working through each bit of pain the way her classes years ago had taught her to do.

Parker had been working meticulously away for hours on his latest woodworking project, he'd fallen behind schedule with having to go on several hunts the past month and he was determined to finish it before Mari gave birth to their second son which could be any day now. 

When he had first built the crib for Carson, he adorned the four corner posts and every other rung in the side railings with intricate carvings. But now that his younger brother was on the way and would be using the crib, Parker felt like it was important that the new arrival got special treatment of some kind as well instead of just using all the same things Carson did as an infant with no touch of individuality.

So he was busily carving away the alternate posts of the crib, working in more details into the design. Maybe his sons would never really realize the effort he was going to for them, but it was still important to Parker to put in the work and show that he cared about both his boys anyway.

His sharp hearing picked up the sound of small feet coming down the hall thru the propped open door to his shop and he rolled his eyes, now that Carson was getting older and more mobile it was becoming a bigger struggle to keep him sequestered to the living areas of the bunker that were safe for him to play in.

Parker put down his chisel and tugged off his gloves in preparation for herding his son back upstairs where he belonged, he didn't blame Mari for losing track of him considering her current condition but he'd thought Dean was watching the boy too so he was surprised and even a little impressed that the kid had managed to give both of them the slip.

He opened his mouth to chide his son for coming down to his shop which wasn't allowed unless Parker or Mari brought him down themselves, but his words died on his tongue when Carson immediately exclaimed that Mama needed him. He tugged his gloves off and crossed the room quickly, scooping the boy up and hurrying back upstairs only half listening to the boy rambling on about how Mama had gone pee-pee on the floor and made a mess.

Sure enough when Parker finally got to the living room Mari was sitting tensely on the sofa, a trail of fluid from where she'd been sitting or standing on the hardwood a few feet away over to the couch and Parker's heart pounded, she was going into labor several days ahead of schedule. He didn't think it was anything dangerously early, but it still had caught them off guard for sure. He set Carson down and crossed the room to his wife who was struggling to stay calm through a painful looking contraction, her face flushed and her breathing she'd learned in birthing class strained.

Their first son hovered anxiously to their left, not sure what to do with himself seeing his mother in obvious distress and Parker glanced worriedly from the boy to his wife and back. "Where's your dad?" Parker asked, his chest tightening a bit with worry when Mari told him through gritted teeth that he'd just run out to the store to get a few groceries, none of them thought anything of him going on a run when Mari's due date was still several days off.

Parker's mind raced and he gently ran his hands through his wife's dark locks, trying to offer her what comfort he could. "All right well, I'm assuming you've been praying to Cas so keep that up and I will too, I'll go get the bed stripped and put the towels down and stuff. Everything's gonna be all right babe." Parker assured her, straightening to go get her chosen birthplace ready as quick as possible so he could carry her in but Mari gripped his arm tight before he could get so much as a step away, glancing at Carson and trying to police her tone and expression despite her pain for her son's sake.

Mari told him in a tense whisper that the baby was coming now,she didn't think she was going to be able to make it to the bed, that she was already feeling overwhelmed by the need to push. Parker's blue eyes went wide and even though he was freaking out more than a little bit on the inside he forced his expression to stay calm and confident for her sake as well as Carson's.

"Hey, that's okay, here's good. Ah, I'm just gonna go grab a towel or something to catch him with, just keep breathing okay?" Parker said hurriedly, racing off to grab a couple towels from the linen closet again Carson shifted uneasily on his little feet, not sure if he should follow his dad or try to do something for his mother who only seemed to be in more and more discomfort.

Parker hurried back, looking down at his son and trying to think of something, anything he could do with the small boy to keep him from getting to distressed by all of this. He was big enough now that he couldn't simply dump him in a playpen or something, but he could already see the boy's face starting to crumple out of sheer confusion and worry at the unknown. He glanced at his wife and then quickly crouched down to Carson's level gripping his small shoulder and holding his owlish gaze with his own.

"Carson, I need you to do something for me bud, okay?" Parker instructed his son in a direct but kind tone, making the boy focus on his voice rather than Mari in the background who was trying to stifle more cries of pain as she squirmed on the couch.

"Your little brother is almost here, but your mom has to work really hard to get him out of her tummy. It's a big job, and she needs your help. I need your help too, I have a very important job for you. Can you do it?" Parker asked with grave seriousness, making the boy forget his worry for the moment and get engrossed in this apparently vital mission only he could do. He nodded vigorously and Parker gave him a warm smile.

"Good boy. Now I need you to hold this towel, okay? I'll need it later when your baby brother comes, so you keep it ready for me. Got it?" He handed him one of the two towels he'd grabbed, watching as Carson clutched it to his front and nodded, resolution across his small face. He posted his son at the end of the couch, so he was nearby enough for him to keep an eye on but posted close to Mari's head so he wouldn't be able to see exactly what was going on at the business end of things.

Parker grabbed a few pillows from the other couch and piled them at one end, help Mari shift and sit back still mostly propped upright against them with one leg up and her foot propped against the back of the sofa. He knew it wasn't exactly ideal but when he helped her tug her underwear off and gathered her cotton jersey skirt up around her knees he could already see just a hint of his newest son's head. Mari had been doing an admirable job of keeping her reactions in check until this point, but she was damp with sweat all over now and Parker's heart twisted with sympathy seeing how much pain she had to be in.

"Okay Cas, anytime you wanna get here man..." Parker muttered under his breath, his heart pounding and his attention divided between keeping his son focused on staying still and comforted and trying to coach his wife through her contractions that were now on top of each other. Mari stammered out that she couldn't wait any longer, she had to start pushing and Parker nodded, helping her brace by letting her press her opposite foot not on the couch back into his shoulder so she could have her legs far enough apart to deliver without having to hold her limbs up completely by herself.

"Mari, sweetheart look at me." Parker rallied his wife's attention with the same firm but warm tone he'd used with his son, "You can do this, all right? Just listen to your body, keep breathing like you learned. You're gonna do great." He assured her, petting her shin and smiling at Mari, not letting an ounce of his nerves show when she needed him to be strong. 

Mari couldn’t decide which to focus on, her own pain and her newborn coming sooner than expected or her other son who she was more or less frightening by show too much of her discomfort. She tried through her labored breathing to soothe him and promise him that everything was okay, that she was fine but the baby was coming. Her voice faltered and Parker took over instead, gripping Carson gently to offer her a break while he explained to their son what it was that was going on.

She smiled slightly through her pain at hearing him say he needed Carson’s help with a simple task of holding a towel for his little brother to rest in. The boy nodded eagerly, promising that he had a handle on his job when Parker pulled away to kneel in front of her legs once she got herself more settled on the sofa with her back propped up against the cushions he laid out.

Carson stuck by her hip, high enough up that he couldn’t see anything but low enough that she could see his worried face. “It’s okay Bud.” She cooed at him again, her lover starting to strip her down of her bottoms and she clutched to the cushion beneath her bottom as another contraction came over her body, making her cry out in pain. She steadied her breathing after a moment or two, in through her nose and out through her mouth as Parker muttered to himself and tried to figure out where they were at currently.

Her contractions came one after another, making it harder for her to even keep focus the pain was so bad. “Parker I have to push. I can’t wait for Cas… I have to start pushing.” She panted out as he immediately took action and held her foot flat to his shoulder so she could push against him and keep herself in a good position to free their child. She started to cry, falling back and about to crumble to pieces, Parker was here but the pain wasn’t any easier than the first round and no matter who was around it wasn’t much of a comfort to her physically.

She trusted him to do the job but Castiel had been there through most of her pregnancy and had been the one to deliver Carson and there was a part of her that wanted him to be there for her too. Parker’s voice caught her attention, drawing her back and keeping her from passing out like she felt borderline of doing so. Mari nodded at him in understanding, sniffing at how easy his tone was despite the worry evident in his eyes. She breathed through another contraction and Parker instructed her to push, keeping pressure against her foot with his shoulder so she could brace against him while she fought to bring their youngest into the world.

Carson ventured to her head and reached up to pat her hair promising in a gentle tone much like his father’s that she was doing great, making her giggle a little when her body eased back down against the couch. Another solid five minutes or so went by slow and painfully steady in her eyes but she never let up, not once, remembering the first time she held onto Carson and growing determined to have that moment with her newest.

She screamed in pain and Parker lightly muttered encouraging words or something along the lines, his voice getting broken when he told her just one more big push, knowing full well that he was holding most of their child in his arms. Mari gave one final last ditch effort to free their child and sure enough when Parker mentioned that he had him, she did it she heard the faintest gurgling cry come from between her legs. He reached over with his free hand and instructed Carson to hand over his towel he was holding and the boy quickly ran to him, giving the towel to him and keeping the straightest face for the time being.

Parker cleaned up their little one, using his pinky to wipe down his tiny mouth and the boy’s cries became clearer suddenly. He cleaned him up and reached in his pocket quickly to cut the umbilical cord with the only instrument he had available at the time, the little pair of scissors on his pocket knife. She could see he was trying to keep his composure, pulling their son up to show him off.

In one moment Mari was in pain and in the next she was eventually settled upright and on the bed originally meant for her to deliver. Parker made it up nice and by the time she got nestled in with her infant son against her chest while her husband did his best to clean up the worst of the mess, hearing him out there talking frantically to Dean to keep him relaxed. Castiel had still yet to show up but they all knew that as soon as he could he would be there in a heartbeat to check her over for any imperfections.

Dean padded into the room guided by Carson who wanted to show off his little brother and any excuse to get up and close with his mother as well as the little boy in her arms. He pointed and explained that he knew babies came from Mama’s belly and out her legs. He didn’t grasp the concept but he didn’t seem at all afraid to share any bit of what he saw while he was there, making sure to tell Dean that he had run down to tell his Dad about how Mama had peed herself.

The older man nodded, his eyes watering as he tried to keep up with Carson but also was more focused on Mari’s wellbeing. She looked up and smiled at him from where she sat, “Sorry you missed it… And that we made a mess of your living room.” She muttered through fresh tears, unable to stop crying since she first laid eyes on her little one’s tiny face. He was fast asleep by now and Dean looked stunned by the sight, shaking his head and mentioning how she wasn’t meant to have the kid yet.

He came over, bending along the side of the bed and brushing his hand over the boy’s tiny head, shushing Carson gently when he kept talking so he could ask the name of his other grandson. The oldest blurted it out to be ‘Axel’ because ‘it was cool and his brother would be coolest.’ Mari giggled, brushing her hand through Carson’s dark hair when he came over to the bed like he had been on and off the past thirty minutes or so. “Axel Robert Black.” She cooed more down to her little boy’s sleeping pink face than up at her own father. She sniffled, “Robert. To honor Bobby, y’know?” She smiled.

Dean's face lit up at the notion of his second grandson being named after the man he'd come to love like a father who had been he and his brother Sammy's support system through some of the worst ordeals of their lives. He nodded and blinked back his tears, overcome with relief and gratitude that family, his daughter and her newborn in particular, all seemed to be doing just fine though he'd feel a lot better once Cas got his winged ass down here to give Mari and the new arrival an angelic once-over.

Parker came into the bedroom that was a little crowded now with everyone in it, acknowledging Carson yet again as the small boy reiterated that he was a big brother now and that Axel was here. The hunter's dark brows raised at the name, it wasn't one he and Mari had discussed in their on and off again conversations about what to name the baby but he found he liked the sound of it. 

"Axel... Axel Robert, huh? You just come up with that?" Parker tried the name out, finding he liked it even more saying it with the middle name they had already agreed on beforehand smiling at Mari brightly as he took in the scene of her cradling their newest child with their first sitting at her side. 

The brunette shook her head but before she could speak Carson piped up, "I picked it Dad! I did! 'Cuz Axel is a cool-guy name! Now we both have car names!" The little boy explained excitedly and Parker gave his son a confused look.

"You both have car names?" He asked, swiping his hand over his mouth to muffle the brunt of his laughter when his son emphatically explained that he had 'car' right in his name, and Axel was part of a car so they both had 'cool-guy car names.' Parker simply took his son's reasoning in stride, nodding and checking with Mari to make sure she really did approve of the name and she gave him a bright smile that let him know without words that she loved it.

Parker started explaining that he'd gotten the living room as cleaned up as he could, but he was pretty sure the couch just wasn't going to be salvaged after what had just happened on it without any kind of blankets or what not covering it. The adults laughed about it and Dean mentioned that the couch had already been there when he and Sammy first arrived so it was probably due for a replacement anyhow.

Their lighthearted discussion was interrupted suddenly by another presence in the room the somber faced angel stood at the foot of Mari and Parker's bed looking a little disheveled but in one piece at least. Parker started to utter a few pleasantries but as usual Castiel got straight on to business, brushing by Parker and Dean to gently press one hand to Mari's brow and the other lightly on Axel's tiny head.

The full angel murmured an apology to Mari for being delayed as he looked them over and the brunette woman gasped as Cas repaired the minor damage done to her body from the effort of freeing her child from it as well as making the small infant in her arms squirm and gurgle from the unfamiliar sensation of 'angel mojo' as Dean called it permeated his diminutive frame.

"You all right Cas? You look pretty beat up." Dean asked as he watched the angel work, grateful that he had finally arrived to offer his help but wondering what was going on that had kept him from something so important and left him in the state he was in. The angel finished his work on his family members and straightened, a slight smile on his face as he looked from the newest baby swaddled against Mari's front over to Dean. He reported that a coup d'etat had been ongoing in Heaven for the last several days but things seemed to finally be settling into some semblance of order.

"Well... We can talk more about that later." Dean responded with a sideways glance at Carson who perked up with interest at the mention of the word 'heaven.' Ever since his faithful pet Finn had passed away a few months ago he had been convinced that was where he'd gone to stay with his grandmother and uncle who he'd never met.

 

Castiel appeared at the foot of Mari and Parker’s bed looking beaten and almost tired for an angel. He said nothing at first, coming up to the top of the bed and pressing a hand to Mari’s head and the other lightly rested over Axel, checking them over in the same moment that he fixed up Mari from her recent birth. The woman gasped and he pulled back to look at her, “I am sorry for not arriving when you both needed me.” He muttered, letting Mari catch her breath from his sudden healing and watching as Axel made tiny distressed noises out of shock from the change in air.

He brushed his hand down along the little one’s face and over his cheek, observing him with his sharp blue eyes now. The angel straightened and his eyes darted up to Dean’s face, his oldest friend and companion, giving a slight nod and informing him of the goings on in Heaven that required far more of his attention than he originally thought. “Things seem to be settling however and order is being restored. I will remain to keep watch over the newest for as long as I can.” He told the others.

Dean nodded, accepting that for now and seeming to try and brush off the talk of Heaven with a sideways glance to the now oldest of the most recent generation of Black’s. He didn’t understand, his brow knitting together and he glanced at the rest of the group. Dean arched a brow and indicated to keep quiet so Cas nodded in only partial understanding. “Axel is well I promise that much.” He smiled slightly, trying to keep from leaning against the mattress out of need to sit and rest.

He might be an angel but the actions still wore on him over time. Carson stared up at him and he forced a smile to the young boy, “Hello, Cars—“ He started but the little boy cut him off with a quick hello and a question about Finn and how he was liking Heaven, asking if he could bring the dog and his extended family he had never met a picture of Axel once they had one. Castiel opened his mouth to speak but yet again he was cut off, this time by Mari.

“Honey come here.” The mother requested of her son, gently urging him back towards her side. He sighed but listened, coming over and letting her brush her fingers through his hair while she spoke to him in a very soft tone. “Castiel’s very busy and right now he’s not feeling well so let’s not bug him okay?” She cooed close to his level, cradling her other son against her chest.

“Aleah and Sam can see from Heaven as I understand. They know another has arrived, pictures are not required.” Castiel mentioned, making his family look over at him seemingly surprised by the fact that he had an explanation for Carson to ease the boys racing mind. He shrugged in a manner that was far more Dean than it was Castiel and Mari laughed, shaking her head but giving her confirmation down to her oldest son.

\----

Eventually most everyone cleared out of Parker and Mari’s room, giving the new mother some time to herself with her son. She fed the little one who was indeed far smaller than Carson was when he was born despite only being a little more than a week early. Mari had fallen asleep with their infant son in a bassinet beside their bed, exhausted from the day’s event and managing to sleep through the quiet talking amongst the men outside in the living room area as well as hearing Parker put Carson to bed but not before coming in and letting him say good night to his little brother and instructing him not to bother Mama.

Parker wandered back into their room late in the night and she woke to the sound of the man talking to their youngest. She smiled, blinking up at him through the dim light of the bedroom. He smiled when he saw she was waking, apologizing for waking her but she shook her head. “It’s okay.” She whispered, rolling to sit up and watch him with Axel for a moment. “I don’t know what it is about the Black kiddos but apparently all babies are quiet.” She laughed, not having the energy to get up so she simply waited for him to reach out and come stand by the edge of the bed.

When he did she leaned over, resting her head against his side and hugging his middle from where she sat. “He’s really small but Castiel says he’s doing just fine. I hope the same goes for him.” She sighed, kissing at him where she could reach. “Thank you Parker.” She muttered, squeezing him and smiling when he slowly eased down onto the bed with her, gently coaxing her up to the head of the bed with him. He asked her what for and she looked up at him, resting her hand over his cheek. “For being there. For delivering Axel and keeping your cool like you did. Especially since I wasn’t.”

 

Parker sighed deeply at his wife's words, grinning from ear to ear and he scooted closer so she could lean against him. He cradled Axel in the crook of his arm and Mari shifted to tuck her head under his chin, softly cooing at the infant and nuzzling into him.

"Just trying to do what I can for the people I love most. I know I fall short sometimes but I'm always gonna give you and the kids everything I've got." Parker assured her, lowering his head to kiss the top of his wife's head. After a few blissful moments Axel started squirming and Mari took him back to feed him again, Parker held her close as she tended to the boy and felt the tension finally leaving his overtaxed nerves. Now that his son was safely here and Castiel had given him and Mari a clean bill of health, he could finally relax a bit.

\---  
Over the next couple weeks it was just as fascinating and wonderful the second time watching baby Axel change and become more and more aware of his surroundings with every passing day. His eyes took on their own unique shade of cool blue and he seemed especially fond of focusing them on the carved silver amulet Mari always wore around her neck when she held him.

Carson had become entirely infatuated with his little brother, his only real fault was his over exuberance. He was always trying to share his favorite toys with his little brother, talking to him and taking his small hands or feet and wiggling the baby's small limbs trying to engage him in whatever kind of interaction he could. But he was always gentle, always careful, he just sometimes didn't know when to leave Axel alone when the baby was hungry or tired and needed to sleep.

Carson was sitting on the floor of the living room playing with his toys while a movie played softly in the background, sticking close to his baby brother who was being rocked by Mari's foot in the hand carved swinging bassinet Parker had built for his first son. The brunette was busy folding some clothes but kept half an eye on her boys at all times.

Carson stood up and asked his mother if he could hold Axel, they had taken to using getting to sit with the baby in his lap as a reward for good behavior since he loved to do it so much. He looked up at his mother eagerly, his young mind not really grasping that she was right in the middle of a task she wanted to finish while Ax didn't need anything.

Dean came around the corner holding a sandwich in one hand and a can of ginger ale in the other, he and Parker were taking alternating days off while Axel was tiny so Mari would have at least one of them with her at all times if needed. He smiled at his daughter when her face lit up at the sight of him and ambled over when she beckoned him.

Mari asked him if he would keep folding while she helped Carson hold Ax, and Dean agreed with a chuckle. He set his food down on the coffee table and watched with thinly veiled amusement as his daughter lifted her older son up on the sofa beside her, coaching him as always before scooping Ax up out of the cradle to make sure he held still and held the baby's head. 

Dean smiled with pride as his grandson held his baby brother secure in his lap, looking down with him with rapt attention and babbling softly to his sibling, convinced that Axel could understand him when he spoke 'baby-talk.' It made his heart sting as the image evoked memories of him holding his own brother Sam, playing with him, watching over him, running with him bundled in his small arms as their childhood home went up in flames...

Dean was shaken from his thoughts by his daughter's voice, she'd been trying to get his attention for awhile now and he understood why, he'd paused in his folding when he got caught up in the memories of his past and was holding a pair of her lacy red panties loosely in his fingers. The elder hunter flinched as if the scrap of fabric burned and he tossed it back into the basket. "You... You can fold those." He sputtered, quickly grabbing one of Axel's onesies to fold as if that might counteract what he'd been holding before. 

Axel was growing and changing far quicker than Mari and Parker would have liked, she thought it would be easier to do all of it a second time around but watching him learn and grow was still just as nerve wracking and heart breaking in a sense as well as exciting to see. Carson had taken to helping with feeding his little brother when he started to get more into solid foods and occasionally a bottle of formula here or there for added nourishment.

Mari was happy to see him sitting at the table from time to time, pretending to talk to Axel and understand his random babbling. She smiled, hearing him trying yet again to get Axel to speak actual words, telling him all about his food and what it was called, showing him a little book filled with colors and shapes. Ax gurgled around his bite of fruit, some of it dribbling out of his mouth as he tried to keep up with and repeat Carson’s words, reaching out to him and grasping at his hand.

She was busy with another load of laundry in between making lunch for when Parker came up from working in the shop and hopefully for Dean should he get the chance to come home. She folded up the last of the boy’s clothes, jolting out of fright when Carson screamed for her, startling her out of the end of her task. She whirled around on her heels and jogged in her house slippers back to the dining room thinking maybe Axel had gotten hurt or something along those lines.

The young woman pressed a hand over her chest, trying to calm her racing heart with a few deep and slow breaths, looking her sons over and curiously wondering what was going on. “Carson? You can’t scream like that, Bud.” She scolded gently, shaking her head at him for having done so and he pointed at Axel, rambling on about how he spoke. She wondered if he meant the usual babbling that his younger brother managed, nodding her head and muttering, “That’s great honey but you can’t call for Mama like that okay? You scared me.”

Mari bent over the table to brush her fingers through both her boys hair, smiling at Carson when he swore that it was for good reason, talking quieter and telling her Axel said real big boy words. She stood there for a moment, humoring her oldest son while he pointed up to Mari and asked who she was. Ax’s face broke into a huge mostly toothless grin and he fell forward across his food, reaching for his mother to no affect in his high chair. She laughed and pushed at him a little to keep him from getting any messier than he already was.

She was just about to give up and leave them to finish eating so she could check on and finish up lunch, telling Carson again to behave despite his protests for her to stay. She turned on her heel once more and when she walked away she heard Axel offering variations of excited ‘Mama’s’ over and over again, catching her attention now. Carson giggled and clapped causing his brother to do the same and bounce in his seat where he was, repeating the word and pointing up at Mari to emphasize the meaning and show he understood who she was.

Mari spun around and took off the few feet back to her son’s, laughing herself and nodding as she pointed to her chest. “Yea sweetie. I’m Mama. Mama?” She cooed, encouraging him to say it again and he did, reaching up for her and she scooped him out of his high chair to hug him to her chest. “That’s right, baby! Mama. What about Dada? Where’s Dada?” She questioned, hoping he would say the words too and address Parker even if he wasn’t in the room.

Parker was a little disappointed that he had missed Axel's first word, but he soon had little to worry about since with that first hurdle passed their second son began talking up a storm learning new words almost daily. They new every child was different, but while Carson had started walking and getting more coordinated faster than Ax seemed to be, the younger boy was definitely developing verbally at a faster pace.

After awhile Parker began to forget what it was like to have a quiet house, but he much preferred the noise anyway. Hearing his sons interact and watching them play warmed his heart. Time seemed to fly by for him now that he had two kids to watch grow and develop. 

He was caught off guard one morning when he woke and started getting ready for work at the garage, leaning over the sink in his boxers and nothing else brushing his teeth and debating if he ought to shave or leave the stubble that was starting to get fuzzy on his cheeks or not now that the weather was getting a bit more crisp with fall upon them. 

His blue eyes caught movement behind him in the bathroom mirror and Parker's brow furrowed with concern as he saw Mari sit up in bed, tucking her legs up to her chin and hiding her face like she might be upset or maybe sick. He quickly finished his teeth cleaning and went back out into their room, sitting softly on the bed and reaching out to pat his wife's leg.

"Tink? What's the matter babe?" He asked, worry evident in his voice and expression. After a moment Mari lifted her head and despite the tears in her eyes she chuckled a bit. She told him she felt silly for getting upset, but he shook his head at her for discounting her feelings.

"It's okay honey. Tell me what's bothering you." He prodded, grabbing her hand and squeezing it gently for support. Mari went on to admit that she was feeling worried about Carson, today was his first day of kindergarten and so rather than being gone only a couple hours at the small preschool run out of a woman's home with only a few other kids, he'd be gone nearly five hours and his class was attached to a whole elementary school with other kids.

Parker had lost track of the days, forgetting his kid's first day of 'real' school was today and he understood where Mari's concerns were coming from. "I know it's gonna be an adjustment Tinkerbell. For him and for us but he's gonna do great, you'll see." He soothed, smiling sympathetically when she admitted that she was gonna miss her little boy and she knew Axel would miss having him there during the day as well.

"I know babe, I know. But they won't be apart the whole time they're in school at least, Axel will catch up and they'll go to the same elementary for awhile, the same high school awhile down the road... It'll be fine, I promise. You want me to call the shop and tell them I'll be late so I can go with you to drop Carson off?" He asked, grinning crookedly at his sweet wife, loving her all the more for how tender her heart could be where her boys were concerned.

Mari curled up on the bed with her lover at her side now, her eyes filled with tears as she spoke to him about her worries. “It’s not just me I’m worried about Axel too, he’s so used to his brother being there more and now he’ll be busy at school for longer than usual and Ax won’t have anyone except for me during the day.” She complained, knowing that her son needed the interaction with his brother but at the same time it was important for Carson to make friends of his own just as Ax would one day when he went to school.

The thought of both her boys being away and suddenly being home alone for hours at a time made her crumple again, breaking down and starting to cry with her head leaning against Parker’s broad shoulder. She nodded at his offer, “Would you? I know it’s silly but I’d feel like it’s easier if you could be there too.” She pleaded, running her hand up his chest and feeling his steady heart beat that was far more relaxed than her own. She laughed again as she leaned into him, thinking about her own childhood. “You know if you ask Daddy about my first years at school… it might worry you too.” She muttered, biting her lower lip she still feared that Carson might develop powers like her own though he showed no signs of anything along those lines.

Parker asked what she meant and she sighed, “Well when I stared in grade school I got upset with my little… boyfriend at the time and we fought and I poofed him out of the sandbox and on top of the school house.” Mari shrugged her shoulders delicately. “If the boys had Winchester as their last name… there’s not a school in the district or this county for that matter would have accepted them as students. I sort of… scared everyone.” She muttered, making Parker laugh and claim she was oh so frightening in her lacy thong right now.

She slapped his chest and he quickly flipped over her, making ape man noises against her ear and making her laugh. She swat at him time and time again until their lips collided and he kissed her sweetly pulling up and looking her over, promising it would be okay. “Don’t you have a phone call to make?” She reminded him, not missing the way his eyes raked over her frame. She used her foot to push at him and let her up and he did, stealing another kiss before going to grab his cellphone.

Mari wrangled both her son’s and got them dressed and ready for the day, made Carson a lunch to take and packed his backpack full of supplies he would need for his Kindergarten year. It wasn’t much, just the basics but it had to last him in the classroom. She carried Axel who was rambling on like he always did, some real words and some not but he described the air around him and the look of the purpley blue sky, asking about rain and if he could play outside if it rained. “Not now, Ax. We have to get Carson to school and make sure he’s settled and has everything he needs and then we’ll come home and you and Mama will have some time together. Does that sound good?” She offered, bouncing him in her arm as she carried him to the car.

Axel sighed in an exaggerated fashion, flinging himself to lie over her shoulder, making it more difficult and more awkward for her to carry him. She laughed and made attempts to try and adjust him, “Outside?” The youngest Black repeated, “Mama it’s gon’ rain. Rain?” He pointed up to the sky and wriggled in her grasp until he was in his car seat and then he realized he was being driven some place, asking where they were going and why, where his father was, where his grandfather was and only half the words made any real sense but Mari had been handling it long enough that she could decipher his words.

The mother sighed and buckled her youngest boy in, watching proudly as Carson handled his own seatbelt with a smile over to her, seeming completely unfazed and not at all nervous about the fact that he was starting school. She leaned over and kissed his forehead none the less, grinning as she pulled away and Parker was coming around the side of the car to where Mari stood, asking if they were ready to go. She nodded and slipped an arm around him, leaning up to kiss him before he slipped away to his own car. He decided to take one while Mari took the other so he could go straight to work after dropping Carson off.

They departed and ventured to the school, the building for the younger grade kids was much smaller with a tiny playground for them to play, nothing too fancy or large enough that she could even worry about him getting hurt on anything. Carson clung to her hand or maybe she was clinging to his and he was simply responding to it. Mari set Axel on his feet who was trying to get out of her hold anyways, bending down to speak with her eldest son who looked a little more shaken now that they were at the actual schoolyard.

Her eyes welled with tears but that didn’t cause enough distraction for her not to catch Axel trying to tear off to the fence of the playground, catching him by his shirt and soon enough Parker came to the rescue, blocking his out and nudging the two year old back a few steps who was whining about wanting to play. “You be a good boy okay, Car? I packed you a peanut butter sandwich with strawberry jelly like you like and there’s some crackers and apple slices in there too okay? You’ll have a lunch time now.” Mari informed him, ignoring Axel’s squawking beside them.

Carson nodded at her, sighing as his mother adjusted his shirt for the tenth time since they got there, fixing his little collar of his polo shirt he wore. They didn’t have uniforms but Mari insisted on having him look his finest for the start of his first year at school, running her fingers over his hair again to gently muse it before Parker came over to join them and nudged his son, promising he would be fine. Car nodded once more, standing a little more stiffly towards his father and listening intently to what he said to him.

They led their son inside and by then Axel was practically singing to Carson’s new teacher, eager for the attention of others. “Okay that’s enough.” Mari said to him, shifting the boy in her arms once more and carrying him out to the door, “Say by to Carson, Ax.” She prompted and his little face fell as he gave a wave, seeming to realize that he really was being left behind and Axel wasn’t. “We’ll come get him in a few hours, bud you won’t even notice he’s gone.” She insisted to her youngest, handing him to Parker when he offered to take him and say his goodbye.

Axel slumped against Parker’s form and hugged him lazily, pouting about not getting to play with all the cool things and talk to his new friend, Carson’s teacher. Parker told him that in a few years he would get to do the same, likely with the same teacher to… interact with or more annoy than anything. “That’s okay I’ll go work wif you.” He mumbled, closing his eyes and letting his dad hold him, ignoring his insistence that he couldn’t come with him. “No I help. Dada it’s okay. I’m big too.”

 

Parker chuckled at his youngest son's words, getting him strapped in the car seat in the back of Mari's car. "Well maybe you and Mama can come have lunch with me today, how's that sound big man?" Parker offered up an alternative, grinning when Axel lit up with excitement at the notion. The small boy asked if 'Car-car' was coming too, eager for his brother's company already and the hunter shook his head.

"Sorry bud, Carson has to go to school. But he'll get home before you know it and play with you." Parker reassured the boy, ruffling his sandy blond hair affectionately. The boy seemed disappointed but as usual was quickly sidetracked, babbling on about rain though Parker wasn't sure why since the sky was clear and the forecast didn't predict rain until the end of the week at the earliest.

He straightened when Mari came back over, wiping her eyes from getting a little teary once more seeing her eldest son off to school. Parker wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they both waved at their little boy who stood in the open doorway of his classroom, looking excited and nervous at the same time clutching his little backpack straps on his shoulders.

Parker kissed the top of his wife's head after the door closed and Carson was out of their sight. "He's gonna do great Tink. I can feel it." He assured her, meeting her gaze and kissing her lips before breaking away to go back to his own vehicle. "Why don't you and Ax come have lunch at the shop today, hmm? Take your mind off worrying over Car for awhile." Parker suggested and Mari agreed, smiling and waving him off.

It was pouring down rain by the time lunch rolled around, so Parker piled in the backseat of Mari's vehicle while Dean climbed in the front and they had an impromptu picnic in the car since their usual table had no shelter from the elements. It was a cheerful lunch date anyway despite the weather and the odd accommodations, they all speculated on how Carson was faring and Dean told a few happier stories of when he and his brother were in schools across the country.

"It really is a special thing, you know. That your boys can just grow up in one town, go to the same school, make some friends... I couldn't ask for anything better for you guys." Dean commented, his voice getting a little rough with emotion as he recalled his own contrasting experience and his daughter Mari's as well.

The couple agreed with the senior hunter that this was going to be a good thing for their sons and their family as a whole. Parker finished up his sandwich, playing with Axel a bit in the backseat and glancing out at the rain pounding the car windows wistfully, knowing soon he'd have to run back out to the shop in it.

"This rainstorm came outta nowhere, huh?" He commented, getting a nod from the other adults and a stream of babbling from his son about the rainstorm and requests to go play splash in the puddles. Parker turned and listened to his son awhile, smiling and feeling like he was... Like he was forgetting something or like he was missing something maybe, but he couldn't quite place it.

After a moment more the hunter shrugged and kissed his youngest son's brow, wishing him and Mari a good afternoon promising to come home with pizza for dinner so Mari wouldn't have to worry about cooking for the evening. The two men hurried out of the car back to the shelter of the garage and watched the car pull away, then got back to work.

As promised Parker and Dean came home with two big boxes of pizza from their favorite joint, and they were greeted enthusiastically as usual by both Carson and Axel. 

"Dad! Dad look what I made at school!" Carson bombarded Parker almost immediately, holding up a large sheet of construction paper he'd drawn on with a combination of crayons, markers and paints.

"Whoa, that's great bud! Is that... Is that us?" Parker asked, crouching down to see the picture that looked to be the boy's family. He smiled at the little details evident in the crude drawing, 'his' character had many swirled patters up it's arms and legs, the one he assumed was Castiel had a very somber expression and a coat, the smallest one meant to be Axel's mouth was open wide almost as big as his whole head. Dean's character had his coveralls on from the shop, and Mari's had long dark hair almost down to her feet.

Carson beamed as his dad looked over his portrait of the family looking at the upper corner when Parker pointed to it questioning the figures up above the rest with their heads peeking out from a cloud. "That's Gramma, Uncle Sam and Ro-ro dad. They're in heaven." The small dark haired boy explained, smiling and moving to show his picture to his grandfather as well.

Parker crossed the room where Mari was setting Axel in his highchair. The boy was nearly big enough to stop using the highchair but he was still so squirmy and unwilling to sit still that they kept using it so far.

"Hey beautiful, how was everyone's first day?" Parker asked, setting the pizza box on the counter and turning to hug his wife in greeting once his arms were free. 

Mari smiled at her lover when he came into the kitchen where she was already putting Axel in his highchair to get him settled enough that he might actually eat something. The boy liked food but seemed to rarely have the attention span to actually sit down and munch on something or other. She gently pushed Ax’s hands down when he started wriggling already, lightly telling him he needed to behave for dinner. “I saw rain, Mama.” The boy told her again and she sighed as she straightened to hug her husband.

“It was good. Axel really liked going to lunch today and… he keeps reminding me about the rain.” The brunette laughed as their son nodded eagerly. Parker smiled and kissed her temple, seeming just as amused by their son as she was but her smile bent a little. “Carson had a really good time at school but I think that… we need to talk about it more after the kiddos are in bed.” She prompted and he nodded, seeming a little worried as he asked her if everything was okay. “I think so.” She smiled in reassurance.

The family ate together with comfortable conversation surrounding them even through dessert. Mari smiled as she watched Parker say a final good night to Carson before ducking into Axel’s room to kiss him as well, promising he could play in the puddles tomorrow if they were still there. The brunette waited until it was her turn for a bit of attention and affections, snuggling into her husband’s side when he put his arm around her again and they walked back to the sofa to finish off their beers.

Parker sighed as he got settled again, taking a drink of his bottle and kicking his feet up onto the coffee table across from them. He asked her what she wanted to talk about now that the kids were in bed, leaning over to kiss at her neck and she pushed him back, “No Tarzan I meant that we really do need to talk. You may have me later when I’m done but behave for like twenty more minutes.” She scolded, kissing his cheek when he pouted at her words.

She fidgeted and sat upright more, picking at the label of her beer, “Axel was very adamant about the rain today don’t you think that’s weird?” Mari questioned, arching a brow and meeting his gaze as she let the question sink in with her lover. He shrugged at first and claimed he hadn’t really thought much of it since Ax had been with them when the new called for rainy days this weekend. “True I guess but he talked to me about hail about a month ago and I didn’t even know he knew what that was but sure enough it hailed for about an hour the same day.”

Parker mused over her words, seeming to consider what that might mean. “I mean we both know he’s got a little of you and a little of me. I’m just curious if you know… it’s a little more prevalent in Ax than it’s been in Carson. Not like he’s got abilities or anything thankfully just seems sensitive don’t you think?” She shrugged, not entirely worried but more so wondering what it could be. Parker nodded his agreement, promising that they would simply monitor him, make note of anything he might guess at but he still seemed to think it possible that maybe the boy was more aware than they were considering and he simply had caught the news with them.

The man turned and started kissing on her again, making her melt this time and giggle as he traced his free hand up her leg. “Try not to worry too much now would you?” She requested with a laugh when he claimed he was only trying to keep her mind off of everything, telling her he needed to make up for her bad day. “I didn’t have a bad day.” She insisted, half snorting when he rolled over her on the couch and put aside her beer. “Well now I’m having one. You stole my drink.” She crossed her arms, closing herself off from him but he fought against her, tugging her hands from her frame and bending to kiss her skin.

Parker chuckled against his wife's skin, kissing at her soft flesh trying to distract her from their conversation because the more he thought about it the more worried he got internally. He hoped she was right, that Axel was just more sensitive or more aware, that he wasn't having full blow visions or growing into becoming that way. 

If it was true that he had seen or felt the storm coming, it meant his power was manifesting differently than Parker's which could be good or bad. Either way he hated the idea of having passed on his curse to his innocent little boy but he knew all they could do right now was monitor him closely like he'd said.

Parker slid Mari further up the couch, climbing to settle atop her despite her token protests she was making. He pressed her wrists into the couch cushion at either side of her head, kissing her deeply and grinding his growing hardness against her center. The petite brunette mewled into his mouth, rocking her hips up in time with his motions to cause more friction and they both got more worked up the longer they went.

When he was fairly sure she wouldn't try to resist anymore Parker let go of her arms and slid one hand down to keep pushing her jersey dress up and grinning when Mari trembled with want as he began stroking her center through her panties. He tugged the now wet material aside and dipped two calloused digits inside her, drawing her slickness up to swirl around her clit and Mari cried out brokenly, gripping his head and guiding him to look at her.

She barely managed to pant out that they should probably head back into the bedroom before continuing, that her dad would likely be coming back out here before he went to bed. Parker grinned and flicked his fingers over her little button of nerves making her face contort with pleasure.

"Do you really want me to stop right now Tink? I want to make you come here before we go to bed... And I'll make you come again." He replied with a wolfish grin, speeding his pace and nuzzling into her neck, nipping and kissing at her flushed skin. Mari didn't offer further hesitation, rocking up into his ministrations and crying out softly on every exhalation as she drew closer to her peak.

Parker nuzzled his scruffy face up her neck, nibbling at her ear and whispering roughly, "That's it gorgeous, come for me..." He prompted, aching with want for her and twitching as she came almost on command around his fingers buried inside her while his thumb kept working her clit. 

The hunter slowly eased off as she came down and slid his hand out of her, adjusting her panties back for now and sitting up to smile down at her with a bit of triumph in his gaze. Mari took a moment to collect her breath and sat up too, wrapping her arms around his neck and he automatically tugged her close so he could pick her up as he stood, carrying her back to their room to make good on his word several times over.

 

Mari giggled as Parker lifted her up and carried her back to their bedroom, her dress riding up but she hardly cared at a moment like this. She shifted in his grasp and ground against his excited front groaning at the feeling with how sensitive for him she already was.

Her husband kicked their door closed and led her to their bed, easing her down onto the mattress and immediately tugging off her dress over her head. "I dont know I still think we should talk." She teased, bubbling with laughter as he paused after unfastening his jeans and tearing off his shirt, glaring down at her.

Parker edged forward and all.but tackled her to the covers, his weight pressing her down and he promised he would make her change her mind again. "Oh you think so, Tarzan?" Mari hummed, running her hands up and down his tattooed skin. He bent and started kissing at her flesh making her melt and groan beneath him.

"Okay you win." She admitted with a laugh, arching into his hands against her bare chest. He muttered something in response but it was hardly audible as he kissed her skin along her neck and shoulder, easing her panties off her waist and down her thighs. She bit her lip and watched him with thr same eager look she had everytime she had him, eyeing her chiseled man as he undressed himself.

Parker settled over her bare and as he situated himself between her legs she shot a hand down between them, gripping his length and pumping him from base to tip. He groaned and she hitched her leg high around his waist, guiding him to her body. He followed her prompting and pushed into her completely, making them both cry out at the sensation.

Parker relished the feeling of being connected with her, sighing and grunting harshly as he drove in her slick heat over and over. Mari was still sensitive from his earlier ministrations and within moments her back was bowing up off the bed, gripping onto his shoulders tightly as her pleasure unraveled her from within. The tattooed hunter had to grit his teeth and use all his will not to lose it as her walls fluttered and clenched around him in ecstasy, carrying her through her orgasm and lifting her from the mattress.

He held her up against his chiseled torso, getting situated and then beginning to drive up into her deeply once more, making both them both moan and Mari started whimpering to him how good he felt, only spurring him to take her harder. Parker supported her with one arm wrapped around her frame, slipping his opposite hand between them to tease her clit as he pumped into her body.

Mari shuddered and he growled with satisfaction as he watched her eyes roll back in her head, coming around him once more and this time he followed after her, driving upwards and prolonging their shared high until he was totally spent. The brunette cupped his face and kissed him deeply, almost giddy from her high giggling a bit against his mouth. Parker grinned and eased his wife back down to the bed, slipping from her core and feathering kisses over her face and lips.

The couple lay entwined skin to skin awhile till Parker rose to get them some pajamas, their boys tended to provide wake up calls so they couldn't just drift off to sleep unclothed like they might have in the past, but he didn't mind the change. Mari was sated enough that she didn't even think to try and discuss anything further about Axel or anything else before drifting off to sleep against him, and though he was tired Parker stayed up far later staring up into the darkness and wondering about his youngest son in particular."Mom! Mom guess what!" Carson yelled for his mother almost the second he was in the door from school. Now that he was attending second grade and got out of class later, Dean had taken to working half-days at the shop and bringing the boy home from school with him.

Mari had just returned home as well, doing a grocery shopping trip for her father's birthday dinner that evening after picking up Axel from preschool. Carson ran to find her sorting out items from various grocery bags in the kitchen, calling for her again.

"Mom! I lost another tooth today, see?" Carson announced excitedly when she turned to face him, giving her a huge cheesy grin showing off his gap-filled smile that now boasted a new void where one of his bottom baby incisors had been. Mari giggled and congratulated him, asking if he'd saved the tooth for the tooth fairy that night and he nodded, digging in his pocket for his prize and showing it to her.

"It's just like Axel said, mom! I lost it today so I get fifty cents from the tooth fairy! Axel said she was coming tonight!" Carson said happily, putting the tooth back in his pocket for safekeeping and greeting his brother when he came scurrying into the kitchen likely at the sound of his brother's voice.

Dean leaned against the door jam leading into the kitchen, watching the whole interchange between his daughter and older grandson. He smiled at the boy's happiness but also felt a sense of reservation, meeting Mari's eyes when the boys distracted each other and he could tell she was having the same thoughts as him about Axel supposedly knowing Carson would lose a tooth today.

Mari stared at her oldest son, trying to be excited for him and hide her growing worry and fears she felt for her youngest in regards to the things that had been occurring lately. He seemed more aware of things and for a while they thought maybe he just had a very active imagination or he had far more focus than he appeared to originally. She bit her lower lip in thought as Carson eagerly told her about his tooth mixed in with something about Axel having seen it and she fought her urge to ask questions she wanted to.

“That’s great, buddy!” She cooed back to him, trying to sound excited despite her worried mind. He smiled up at her broadly again, flashing his gap toothed smile. Her eyes darted over to her father who entered the space and witnessed their little exchange and she forced a smile at him none the less, waiting for her son to get distracted and the boy took off to go and see his little brother who was completely ecstatic whenever his brother got home from school.

Dean slipped in further and put his arm around her and she leaned into his hold, sighing lightly. Her father asked her if she was okay and she shrugged, “I am I guess… I just… I don’t know.” She muttered, nuzzling into him. He asked her about if this was a common occurrence and she nodded, “It was mostly just the weather and we thought it was just kind of coincidence or lucky guessing because I mean it didn’t happen all the time or every time but he’s right more often than not.”

“Now Carson keeps telling us about things Axel says. Axel has dreams… sometimes when he’s sleeping and sometimes not… Like Parker right?” Mari muttered, looking up to her father. “I’m worried but not. I just have seen it hurt Parker a lot and affect him and I don’t want him or anyone else to go through it, y’know?” She clung to him, seeking shelter in her father’s arms.

Dean kissed her head and hugged her back promising that he was still developing, that seeing the tooth fairy wasn’t really as big of a thing as the visions Parker had. She supposed that was true, that it could be far worse so she was thankful thus far that it wasn’t to the extent that her son was witnessing murders. “I hope it stays only small things. I can’t imagine what my little boy sees and I don’t want him to see any of that.”


	7. Chapter 7

Over the next little while Axel had talked about things he saw in his head but nothing too extensive, it never seemed to bother him until he got a little older and started with school. Mari was snuggled into her lover’s side, her head on his chest when a tiny voice startled her out of her restful state. “Mama.” Axel whispered, poking at her and tugging on the covers.

“What is it bud?” Mari muttered tiredly, rolling over and seeing him close to her side of the bed. She wiped her eyes and faced him, reaching out to brush her hand over his cheek. “What’s the matter?”

Axel climbed up onto the bed and sat on her, “I had another dream. Carson fell off his bike and I ran into him and my trike falled down… my knee hurts mama.” He murmured, lying over her frame and she started to kiss on him.

“It was just a dream, baby.” Mari soothed, hugging him none the less and the noises stirred Parker awake, glancing over and seeing the pair of them. He seemed overly worried, asking what was going on since Axel wasn’t really one to crawl in bed with them. “It seems Axel is having dreams again.” She explained, “Nothing serious.” She emphasized so he would know he wasn’t watching women get raped or murdered like Parker often saw.

 

Parker rolled over in bed, stirred by the sound of voices beside him and realizing his youngest was curled up with Mari sounding distressed. He instantly tightened up with concern, despite his wife's assurance that what Axel had seen wasn't serious. He lightly padded his boy's back, scooting closer to get a better look at his face in the dark.

"Axel, it's gonna be okay buddy." Parker soothed, though internally he was getting steadily more panicked. Maybe it was just a vision of him and his brother in a minor bike accident, but the fact that Axel's powers seemed to be manifesting differently than his both calmed and agitated him. Maybe his son would get away with never seeing the terrible things he did, but on the other side he also wasn't as familiar with it so he couldn't help him as much as he might want.

It was such a rare occurrence and the boy seemed distressed enough that the couple decided to let him sleep with them for the rest of the night, snuggled in tight between the two of them.

Parker slept fitfully the rest of the night, waking before his alarm and turning it off so he wouldn't disturb the other two people in his bed with him. He switched his little bedside table lamp on and braced himself on his elbow, his blue eyes sweeping over his wife's sleeping form and down to the far smaller form of his son. He was deep in slumber, cheeks flushed and hair wild from sleeping bundled between them, his small chest rising and falling peacefully.

"What's going on in there, huh? What do you see?" Parker asked him just above a whisper, his guts churning with anxiety picturing just a handful of the terrible things he'd been a helpless witness to in sleep over the years... And it seemed like just as often Axel saw things while he was awake unlike his father who only received visions in sleep.

Parker told himself not to get too fixated, not to worry too much, but even as he repeated the mental order he could feel a weight pressing on his chest and a stone forming in his gut out of worry of what might be in store for his innocent, carefree little boy. How long would that indomitable spirit of his brace him from the horrors he might see?

\---  
Carson had been in school now for what to his young mind felt like forever, being a second grader was so much cooler than being a first grader and it meant he got his very first big kid bike. The first saturday there was enough snow off the driveway, the boy was out on his bike riding circles up and down the long paved driveway hooting and practicing letting go of the handle bars while peddling.

Mari brought Axel out with his trike and Carson waved to him, beckoning him out to join him from under his coat, hat and scarf. Despite Mari's request that he wait till she got back with his mittens the younger boy eagerly peddled out to join him, but then suddenly slowed and came to a stop. Carson stopped as well, wondering why his brother suddenly froze, trying to cheer him on to continue.

"C'mon Ax! Come ride with me!" He called, waving his arm and starting to pedal again. Axel cried out in a distressed tone that he was going to crash, which Carson simply laughed about since he felt perfectly steady and saw now obstacles in his way. He kept calling to Ax to join him, but the young boy kept insisting he had to stop or he'd fall and get hurt.

"I'm fine Ax! Come on and play will ya?" Carson called back, wishing his brother would stop whining at him about crashing and just have fun. The small blond boy yelled once more, getting more distressed and starting to pedal at him full speed, still shouting at him to stop. Carson was glad he was finally playing at least, deciding to turn it into a game of chase but as he turned to make a hard left at the end of the driveway, his shoelace snagged in the bike chain and with a short yelp he lurched halfway over the handlebars and toppled to one side just as Axel's own trike collided with the back of his own bike.

Both boys went down, Axel began crying out in pain and upset, and while Carson felt pain on the side of his face, his ribs and his bottom he made himself get up and go to his younger sibling. "Ax! Ax buddy are you okay?" He asked quickly, rolling his sibling to face upwards and started checking him over. He seemed all right except where his jeans were torn open over one knee, a bright red scrape showing through but it didn't seem to be bleeding.

Mari's voice made them both look up and Carson called for his mother, "Mama! We crashed, My shoe..." The older boy glanced over and just now realized the chain had tugged it completely off. "Axel's knee is hurt, I'm sorry I didn't mean to let him fall Mom." He apologized profusely, not caring that he in fact was bleeding from a handful of wounds when his brother had a scrape.

Mari called for each of her boys, Axel’s gloves held tight in her hands and at first she got no response, her heart racing a thousand beats a minute thinking they both took off. She trusted Carson to be the one to behave and watch out for his brother, to keep him in line a bit considering he tended to venture further and see no danger in much of anything he did or attempted to do. “Carson? Axel?” She tried again a little further out and then she heard her oldest react, yelling back for her.

She dropped the gloves and jogged over to them, hearing mostly the sound of Axel crying and screaming from his fall. Her mind couldn’t focus on her oldest son’s apologies, worriedly looking over Ax first, turning him over and he shifted, pointing to his knee and grasping at it until Mari scooped him up. “Shh… Shh, bud it’s okay. It’s just a tiny scrape, right? You’re a big boy you’re tough.” She soothed, patting his back as she lifted him to her chest where she was crouched down beside them both.

Her eyes flickered over to Carson and she reached with one free hand to gently touch him, worried for him just the same. “It-It does hurt, Mama. It hurts like that night. I don’t wanna ride my trike n-never again.” Axel insisted against her shoulder, his little body shaking with his sobbing. If anything the boy was probably more stunned than really seriously injured or seeking the added attention from his mother right now who was cooing at him.

“Are you okay Car?” She questioned, opting for setting Axel to sit up right on the ground as he steadily started to calm himself. Carson kept apologizing, starting to cry himself but probably out of worry for his brother. “Hey. Hey, Carson… Honey it’s all right. We all fall down sometimes okay? It’s not your fault Axel fell down or that he bumped into you. But you two should have waited like I asked.” She said to both of them and Axel ducked his head down to avoid her scolding gaze.

Mari shifted on the ground and reached out for her older son who was far more banged up than Axel was. His face was torn up from the gravel, little bits of rock still sticking to his reddened skin streaked with blood from at least a dozen or so shallow marks. His face started to crumple but he looked to be battling himself, refusing to cry like he might want to. “Oh Carson.” She gently cupped his face on the side that wasn’t injured, wiping beneath his eye. “What hurts, sweetie?” She asked him, watching him lift his shirt to show his side that was scraped and bruised just as badly and hearing Axel yell that he said, he told them they were going to crash.

“Let’s go inside okay. I’ll pick everything up later. We’re gonna get you cleaned up, you’ll be okay Carson.” The brunette promised her son, taking his hand a he limped a little as he walked, sniffling and trying to keep his emotions in check as he muttered another apology this time Mari ignored it, he wasn’t very old after all, there was only so much looking out for his brother that he could do on his own. She led them both inside, carrying Axel who was adamant about that and holding onto Carson’s hand, taking them both to the other room.

She set Axel up on the counter and made him promise her he would stay still while she helped Carson first. “Do you remember stories about Grandma, Carson?” Mari asked her son, knowing that if she was going to fix them up she needed the safety of the bunker even if her abilities were harder to read on the angelic level. He nodded at her and mentioned that he knew his mama was an angel too. “That’s right baby. And you remember when you bumped your head last year and I took the pain away?” She waited for him to respond in the positive and he seemed to remember what she had done before, closing his eyes while he waited for her to take off her necklace.

The mother put her talisman aside on the counter and focused her energy on her oldest in the most pain. “And what do you boys get after we get owies?” She cooed to him, placing her hand over his cheek and fixing up the scratches along his skin while he answered her. The marks disappeared and she lifted his shirt up, revealing the more cruel scrapes along his body. “A fudge-cicle.” She confirmed his answer, managing quite easily to tend to all his wounds while he stood there.

Carson opened his eyes when she let him go and he seemed in far less pain than he was so she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “All better, like magic. We don’t tell anyone outside of home though right?” She reminded him and he nodded his understanding when she stood to work on Axel next who seemed weary of what she was doing. “Ax just relax like brother did. You wanna hold my hold?” She offered, promising it wouldn’t hurt but he didn’t seem so certain until Carson came up to stand on the little step stool beside her in the kitchen.

Carson soothed his little brother and held his hand instead while Mari took little under a couple seconds to repair the skimmed knee that Axel had received. He didn’t even seem to notice that she was done, following Carson off the counter all fixed up and brand new and trying to get into the freezer on the opposite side of the kitchen. Mari shook her head and wandered over to help them get their rightfully earned treats, taking one for herself and the boys went into the living room to snack on them and despite the cold they enjoyed their treats just the same as if it were the first day of Summer.

Mari turned at the sound of a voice beside her in the kitchen where she was slowly sampling her Popsicle. Parker smiled over at her while she picked up her talisman and he asked just why the boys were eating treats and why she wasn’t wearing her usual accessory, padding over to help her put it back on around her slim throat considering she only had one hand to spare. “Well…” She muttered, pulling the treat from her lips and licking them off before speaking further. “Axel seems to be a little more like his father than we thought. You know the dream he had a while back? About Carson falling pretty badly off his bike and him falling off his trike and hurting his knee? Well he did. Today.”

She sucked her thumb that had the chocolate dripping down it, rolling her eyes at the way Parker was watching her do so. “Please try to focus, Tarzan I know it’s hard to do for ten seconds with a gal like me but really.” She teased, laughing when he did. Her smile faded as he asked what that had to do with the talisman and also wondering if they were okay. “Yeah I… patched them up. It was just a lot of little cuts so I figured it was better to take the pain away now than to… let them suffer, y’know? I managed just fine but the real issue here is that Axel is seeing more than just the weather, Parker. I told you we needed to talk about this… We need to talk to him about this.”

Parker took in everything that his wife told him, his mind racing and his heart beating faster from stress. He focused on the main issue at hand, looking from Mari over his shoulder to where his boys were playing uproariously in the other room, already over whatever hurts and fear they had suffered from the crash and on to the next activity which in this case was sending matchbox cars on collision courses down their hotwheels track.

"I know, I just... I guess I wanted him to stay innocent as long as possible." Parker finally responded, hanging his head and cursing his own blood for passing on this trait though he knew in one corner of his mind that these kinds of gifts could occur randomly as well so even if he didn't have his own gift, there was a small chance of this happening anyway.

Mari reached up and gently touched his face, smiling comfortingly at him though there was worry in her own blue eyes. Parker took her smaller hand in his and drew it back down to their sides, squeezing her fingers before breaking away to go talk to his son.

Carson saw him come into the living room and his small face crumpled once more, at first Parker wasn't even sure why but then it became clear when the boy started apologizing for letting Axel get hurt when he was supposed to be watching him.

"Hey shh, buddy it's okay. Just watch more carefully next time, all right? I'm counting on you to keep your brother safe." Parker responded and smiled when his eldest nodded resolutely, cramming his small fists into his eyes to clear his tears away. Axel was still yelling and smashing his cars together while they talked so Parker settled down on the floor between them, nodding his head at Carson to indicate it was fine for him to get back to playing as well.

The older boy started running cars down the track but it was clear he could tell Parker had something on his mind, only half paying attention to what he was doing with his toys while he waited for his dad to speak, act, something. 

"Axel. Hey, Ax buddy. Ax!" Parker picked up a car and tapped it on the hardwood to get his son's attention from the cars he was smashing together, his youngest was definitely not ever going to be the type of kid to sit still and pay attention for long but this was important.

"Mama told me about your bike crash." Parker started, seeing Mari come stand nearby in his peripheral vision but not breaking contact with his son. Axel nodded, putting one car on the floor and running a second one into the back of it, making an exaggerated smashing sound and saying they crashed bikes like that.

"I see. Axel, you said you dreamed of the crash, is that right?" Parker continued, and as he expected Axel agreed emphatically, insisting that he told Car-car to stop because he saw it. Parker put a hand out and pressed it to his son's chest, trying to calm him a bit from his over excited state. He knew they would have to keep talking to him about this as he got older, but Mari was right they needed to at least try and help Axel understand what was happening, try and understand his gift themselves as soon as possible.

"Axel... Daddy has dreams too. I see things that will happen, and I try to stop them too. You did good, buddy. But you can't always stop your visions from coming true." Parker murmured, his voice cracking slightly with long harbored guilt over the many terrible things he had seen come to pass and had been powerless to prevent.

"I want you to always tell mommy or daddy when you have a dream, okay? Or if you see a... Dream while you're awake. We can help you, all right? We want to help." Parker continued, and Axel nodded. "Axel... You and Daddy have... A very special gift, and it's a secret okay? Only tell mommy or daddy, or Carson. No one else. It's very important. Just like mama making your owies go away, it's a secret, 'kay?" He said with grave seriousness, hating that he had to tell his son to hide a part of his own nature but it was for his own good. Axel became uncharacteristically solemn for a moment, as he seemed to consider what his dad was telling him.

Axel stared at his father when he pushed at his chest to try and get him to stop what he was doing. The boy was young but he did understand when boundaries weren’t meant to be pushed. He nodded, fully understanding what was expected of him even if he couldn’t grasp why at this age. “I sometimes have good dreams too but they don’t always come true.”

“Why don’t all my dreams do that?” He asked, fiddling with the matchbox car in his tiny hands. He dropped back down to sit, staring up at his father with rapt attention as he waited for some kind of answer. Parker asked him what he meant exactly and he sighed. “I saw you staying home with us and Mama was happy and you played in the snow with us and we built snowmen but you don’t stay home with us because you have to work. And then one time Carson got an ‘A’ on his spelling test but he didn’t. And then I saw us going to the park and playing in the water and feeding duckies and Mama was in a pretty purple dress but mama doesn’t have a purple dress.” He muttered, mixing real dreams with his visions he saw.

Parker gently put his hand over the boy’s arm and Mari watched him explain that there was a difference between having real dreams and having the visions that he did. Axel didn’t seem to grasp that there was a difference between the ‘foggy faded sights’ and the full blown visions set in stone he would witness but the boy nodded anyways. “Am I bad, Daddy? Sometimes I don’t member my dreams until they’re happening. What if I can’t member and I don’t tell?” He whined, his voice wobbling with each word he spoke.

The older man reached out and cupped his cheek, tugging him to him and looking like he was about to break down himself, promising that he wasn’t bad and requesting that anytime he does remember to tell them when he can, as much as he can tell them. Axel wrapped his small arms around his father and let him hug him. “Okay. Be careful with the hammer, Daddy.” He whispered close to his face, giving a little laugh all the sudden and Parker chuckled too as he held him loosely, asking what was funny. “You make funny noises when you get ouchies. Mama said you talk like a sailor.” He told the older man before him, indicating to another harmless dream he had and Mari could only hope that Axel’s visions stayed as small as they were.

\---

As the winter grew long and the snow got thicker on the roads, falling faster than the plows could clear, Carson was given nearly a week off from school by now. It was nearing his Christmas vacation at this point but if anything they might cut it short once the weather cleared up, bring the kids back early considering they were let out sooner than intended.

Mari was fixing up the boys some hot chocolate as per their request to warm up in the cold of the early morning. Axel was racing around as he always did, ramming into her legs with one of his Tonka trucks and making loud noises even after she tried to hush him. It was easier just to let him get it all out than it was to fight him on it much. “Bud, why don’t you go play in the living room okay?” She requested and Axel took off on his hands and feet, pushing the truck along with him and past Carson who came running into the kitchen with a look on his face that startled Mari out of her task.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” She questioned instantly, bending down to his level and tugging him near her to look over him for injury. Her heart sank when she felt a change in the air even just between them, something was definitely wrong. “Carson?” She spoke his name in a softer tone, their blue eyes meeting and his filled with tears that threatened to slip past his lashes and down his cheeks. He told her that he had gone to get grandpa up for hot chocolate but he wouldn’t wake up.

“What do you mean? Baby, Grandpa takes sleeping pills remember? Sometimes you have to nudge him a little. He won’t mind.” She soothed but with the way he was looking at her and the way her heart was racing and her stomach clenched up she knew it wasn’t simply he was sleeping. Carson told her in a shaky voice that he sat on Grandpa’s bed and shook his shoulder but his eyes wouldn’t open up. Mari stood abruptly and nodded, “Carson go play with Axel okay?” She requested, making sure she kept an even tone as she turned on her heel but waited for him to leave, nodding encouragingly before she took off down the hall to her father’s room.

Carson wandered back out to the living room where Axel was constructing towers out of legos with the sole purpose of smashing them down again once completed. He didn't pick up any toys for himself, simply sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up facing the entryway waiting for his mother or anyone who might offer him some comfort to return.

His young mind didn't fully grasp the situation, but he knew beyond a doubt that something was very wrong with his grandfather. He had tried hard to wake him, and often even in deep slumber the older man still moved or made sounds of some kind but this time his grandpa had been utterly still. Too deeply asleep, too quiet. He felt a tightness in his chest that brought tears to his eyes even though he didn't fully understand why, hoping his mother could somehow make everything better.

Parker had been out in the cold for nearly an hour, shoveling snow in his heavy winter gear so that when the plows finally came and made the country road accessible again he wouldn't have such a monumental task before him as far as digging the cars out. They had plenty of food and other supplies for another week or two but still he wanted to keep the vehicles relatively easy to get to and use just in case.

He tossed another shovelful of snow away and turned suddenly at the sound of Mari calling for him from the door to come inside. "Sure thing babe! I'm almost done here!" He yelled back, driving his shovel back into the snow but straightening again when Mari cried back with far more urgency that she needed him now. He heard her voice crack with distress and so he left the rest of his task for the moment, tromping back inside as quickly as he could and meeting his wife at the door.

She had no coat or even shoes on but forced him to stay just outside the door, drawing it mostly shut behind her perhaps to keep their conversation private and up close he could see now that she was white as a sheet and teary. His insides clenched up with alarm, gripping her shoulders tightly.

"Tink what's wrong?" He asked, figuring his worst fear that one of the boys was seriously hurt wasn't what was wrong or she'd have brought him inside immediately but still he could see how upset she was, how hard she was fighting not to fall apart. 

Mari opened her mouth to speak but only a broken sob came out, and the petite brunette fell against him despite his snowy outerwear that was likely freezing her on contact. "Mari, what-" Parker sputtered, holding her secure but getting more confused by the second. Finally she sobbed against his chest that her father was gone, and it took a couple seconds for him to even process what she truly meant.

"What? How, when?" Parker asked his insides going cold not wanting what she was saying to be true though it was obvious by now that it was. Mari muttered that she wasn't exactly sure, the Carson had found him in bed and she went to check, that it couldn't have been too long because his body was still fairly warm. Parker's heart sank even further hearing that it was his son who had discovered it, but he had to be strong right now and so he gently shepherded his wife back inside so she wouldn't catch cold, quickly stripping off his snowsuit and boots and going with her towards the elder hunter's bedroom.

Carson stood and called to him, but for the moment Parker simply turned and held his hand up to the boy, "Carson, I need you to be a big boy and watch your brother, all right? We'll be right back. You and your brother stay out here." He directed, trying to keep his tone as even as possible. He took Mari's hand and they hurried back to Dean's room, by now his wife was unable to stop herself from crying but she still managed to tell him that she was fairly sure he'd just slipped away in his sleep.

"Seems strange... He was pretty fit all things considered." Parker tried to keep his mindset and voice clinical, having dealt with death in many forms he made himself look over the man he had come to know and love as his father lying at peace on his bed. He sniffed the cup on the nightstand by Dean's bed and it had no odor, he knew the man took sleeping pills but he had shown no signs of wanting to take too many.

He looked completely peaceful, like he was simply asleep if not for the unnatural stillness to his body. Parker bit his lip and blinked rapidly to keep his tears at bay, leaning over to test how warm Dean was and how the more visible vessels in his wrists looked. "Yeah. I'd say couldn't be more than an hour, maybe two but I doubt it." Parker surmised, wishing in the back of his head that he wasn't skilled in analyzing something like this. 

"Have you called Castiel yet?" Parker asked, turning to face his distraught wife but he got his answer before she could even open her mouth to respond, in the time it took to blink there was suddenly a third being in the room, the angel who Parker had come to see as a sort of steward for the Winchester family appeared just to Mari's right.

Castiel appeared at Mari’s side and she felt his presence before Parker even asked his question, glancing up that the angel she admired and considered family. Her blue eyes full of fresh tears and she wanted nothing more than the comfort of his arms to fill the void she felt having her father now gone. Castiel was the only ‘family’ she had left outside of the one she began with Parker.

The angel denied her any soothing for the time being, rushing to Dean’s side and she could have sworn he was on the verge of breaking down as well. Dean was his best friend, his partner, his brother and they fought for decades now together, through it all they had been side by side and while they might have butted heads a lot they still had a deep running bond through the years. “Dean.” He muttered, his hand jutting out and resting over his old companion’s greyed hairline.

Castiel didn’t age in the same form that human’s did though his vessel might if he wasn’t still occupying it at the moment but since he was, he still looked like the same thirty-something year old male he had been since day one. “Parker is correct. He departed little more than an hour ago. I felt him leave but I’m afraid there was a hold up on my end. I am sorry, Mari.” He said to the woman who joined him near the side of the bed. She nodded her understanding and watched the angel close his eyes and seem to be examining just what it was that had taken Dean’s life. “Brain aneurysm. It’s not uncommon in his age for human’s as I understand. If it is any comfort he merely went to sleep and didn’t wake. At least not here. He didn’t feel a thing but seeing as Dean is Dean he knows somewhere in Heaven that is where he is.”

“He’s with Aleah as well as his… furry companions.” The angel informed them sympathetically, his eyes darting over to Mari who looked like she might crumbled to pieces in her state and she nearly did, her voice breaking as she sobbed and started to slip to the ground, her face buried into her small hands but Parker rushed to her aid and kept her upright, cradling her to his chest and cursing about how unfair the choice to take him away from her was.

“Bring him back. Castiel please it hasn’t been long his soul has to still be here right? Please, Cas… Just please I want to say good bye.” Mari pleaded, rushing over to him and away from Parker despite his rather tight hold on her.

The angel shook his head, “I’m afraid I made a promise to your father long ago that saving him was no longer an option left for me to choose. I swore I would let him go just as he swore to Sam he would let him leave the Earth just as anyone else might. You have to let him rest now Mari.” He said softly but sternly, his face far more saddened than it might be with anyone else but it was like he remembered, his connection to the Winchester family bloodline was far stronger than with anyone else.

He got to his feet and in an uncharacteristic offer he opened his arms to the woman he considered family just the same. “Now it is dutifully my place to watch over the next Winchester just as I have done for the others. I won’t ever leave you Mari. The prayers from you will remain strong in my mind and I will come for you always just as I did for your father.” Cas promised in a gentle tone enough that she could hear him as she wrapped her arms around him instead, clinging to his frame and sobbing.

Castiel didn’t really hold her back but he did offer her as much time as she needed to cry against his vessel until Parker cleared his throat and realized that Cas really wasn’t very well versed in dealing with having to offer someone comfort. The tattooed male wandered over and gently extracted her away from Cas and the angel was all the more thankful to be freed. “You may have your good-byes and I will take his person.” He muttered, wincing at the look in Mari’s eyes when she realized that she couldn’t simply bury the man. “That is the way it has to be. Dean’s wish was a hunter’s burial. I will gather a few of his things and take them as well. I’m sorry Mari but I cannot go against my word.”

Things were very somber around the bunker for the next while, even Axel's seemingly endless energy was sapped and most of the time when the boys were home the opted for quieter activities like reading or watching movies, both seeming to sense that their usual irreverence was out of place in the new stillness that had settled over their household in the wake of Dean's death.

Parker got back to work as soon as he felt comfortable leaving Mari for the day, she took the loss hard as expected but at least she had her children to help distract her from her grief. He took up more hours at the shop and a couple hunts, but nothing that kept him longer than one night, at least for awhile because he knew Mari preferred him not to venture too far while her dad's loss was fresh.

Spring was finally starting to show signs of returning and Parker was getting ready to venture out on a hunt about eight hours away, double checking his bag and shrugging his coat on against the still chill March air. Mari climbed the stairs to wish him farewell, both the boys were gone at school and so they'd been able to have a more intimate farewell which in Parker's mind they had both needed.

Mari wished him luck and he bent to kiss her, but before he could pull away the brunette's cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, eyes going wide with concern as she reported that it was Axel's kindergarten teacher. Parker waited to leave until he heard what was going on, watching his wife's face and getting more worried as her expression grew tense.

The conversation ended with Mari assuring the woman she would be over to collect Axel right away, hanging up and telling him that apparently Ax was causing such a disruption and refused to be consoled so they asked her to come tend to him.

Parker and Mari were both thinking the same thing, hoping the boy remembered not to tell anyone he was upset because he had a vision not finding it likely that it could be anything else. Parker offered to drive and just leave later, putting this first and they piled into his truck to go to the school.

When they arrived Axel's teacher was waiting outside the classroom with their small son, the boy hand his hands over his face and was wailing at the top of his lungs for his daddy. Parker and Mari exchanged a weighted glance, usually both of their sons called out for their mother first for comfort, but Ax was distinctly crying out for Parker.

"Axel! Ax buddy I'm here. Look, look! Daddy's here." Parker called out as he got a few paces away, sinking down to one knee for the boy to rush into his arms. His little body was shaking violently from sobbing, if he didn't calm down soon he was going to make himself sick so Parker tried his best to soothe the boy while Mari made herself leave them for the moment and speak with his teacher.

"Ax... Hush now, everything's all right. Daddy's here. Daddy's got you." Parker muttered, rubbing Axel's back trying to get him to calm down. The little boy gasped and hiccuped as he finally started to relax, clinging tightly to Parker's front and starting to insist that he was hurt. "You're hurt buddy? Where let me see-" Parker tried to pull him back enough to look him over but Axel shook his head, pushing his small fist against Parker's chest and speaking more clearly, that it was Parker who was hurt, he saw it. 

He said a bad man made him sleep like grandpa, and Parker's eyes went wide at that. Had Axel seen something happen to him on the hunt? Or had he seen something that would only occur if he didn't go ahead as planned and leave? It was impossible to tell unless he could get more details from the boy, though that didn't seem likely either.

Either way he figured it would be best to take Axel home, try to calm him more and see what else he might find out. So far everything Axel had told them about were small things, minor events that were typically never more than a few days into the future unlike Parker's gift that seemed to operate on a far broader time table. Parker looked up at Mari, scooping Ax against him as he stood again. "I guess we should get this guy home, huh? See if we can calm him down. He has really bad nightmares sometimes, sorry that he became a disruption." Parker apologized to the teacher, looking at Mari and knowing his wife felt the same that they needed to leave for now and sort things out.

Axel clung to his father when the man pulled him out of his booster seat, still too small to be able to sit on his own in the back with just a ‘big kid’ belt over his shoulder and waist. He was still shaking and sniffling even as they made it up to the house, refusing to let go of his dad in his nervous state. He even held the man’s hand the entire ride home while he sat in the back seat with him and allowed Mari to drive.

Parker hauled him into the bunker and helped him out of his little coat and his shoes, letting him nuzzle into him as much as he needed to. “Daddy please don’t go.” The little boy begged again, sitting on his father’s lap while they rested together on the sofa and Mari went to get something to wipe up Axel’s snotty nose from his emotional state. “Not never again… I will miss you. I don’t want you to be with Grandpa.” He sobbed against his chest, wrapping his tiny arms around him again.

Mari came back in just in time to witness Parker playing his role and soothing their son, promising he wasn’t going anywhere for a while, that he would stay with him. “The bad man had a black face, Daddy. He was big and… and he looked different.” His bright blue eyes watered and spilled over when he glanced up at his dad’s face, clutching to his shirt again and Mari rounded the couch to offer him tissue, wiping up his nose and sitting beside her lover and their son, gently rubbing his back and over the boy’s shoulder she exchanged a heavy look with Parker.

\---

It turned to evening which meant it was about time to pick up Carson from school and Mari decided it best for her to go by and get him rather than trying to pry her youngest son away from his father in the state he was currently in. “Carson… Ax had a dream okay and he’s really upset so I want you to be calm and gentle when we go home. You can see if he wants to play but we’re going to spend time together, all of us okay, bud?” She prompted, glancing at her son beside her in the front seat now that he was getting big enough.

He nodded and told her he would be quiet, asking if his little brother was okay or if it was one of the bad ones again. “What do you mean, again?” She asked sternly, “Carson… what do you mean by that?” She repeated, watching the boy stiffen up like he had just done something wrong. “Honey it’s okay I just need to know these things, alright. Has Ax had bad dreams before?”

Carson nodded, claiming he didn’t tell him much about them but from time to time he snuck into his room to sleep in bed with his older brother, even more so after Dean passed. Mari absently wondered if her father’s departure left an effect on her son’s and if maybe having felt and been around death had sparked more of Axel seeing bad things like this one he had today. She nodded in return and reached over to squeeze her oldest’s knee, promising it was okay. “Axel’s okay, he’s just more sensitive than you and me. Like Daddy is which is why tonight we might need to give them their space. He’s pretty set on curling up with your dad.”

They pair drove in quiet the rest of the way home until they came back to find that Axel hadn’t even been able to stay awake, curled up and sleeping on Parker’s frame over the sofa where they were both lying. Mari’s eyes watered as she saw the exhaustion in her littlest boy’s face, shaking her head down to Parker and feeling at a loss for how to help him. Carson quietly put his backpack in its rightful place by the door and took off his shoes, bending to grab the paper he had been grasping and he handed it over without a word to Mari when she passed by him again.

Mari stooped to take it from him, her eyes going wide when she noticed it was Carson’s spelling test from this week with an ‘A’ stamped clearly on the top of the page. So perhaps Axel’s visions didn’t occur in just few days’ time. She turned it around and showed in to Parker who was pinned with the boy lying over him still and he stared up at it seeming to recall what Axel said about some of his other dreams not coming true like he thought they would. “This is… Great. Good job, Car!” She congratulated none the less but he seemed worried too for one reason or another, gently asking if Axel was going to be okay. “Yes, he’s going to be fine. Carson I promise you he’s just… I can’t explain how he feels but your Dad gets it and feels them too all the time so he just needs comfort right now, that’s all.”

 

As time went on, Carson did everything he could to be the best at everything. He was driven by an almost frantic need to support his brother, to look out for him and be smart enough, strong enough, be... Everything enough to help him with whatever he might need. Axel and he attended the same elementary school for a few years, and while they were apart by three grades Carson still went out of his way to keep tabs on Axel and how he was doing. There were better and worse times with Axel's visions, but for the most part as the boys grew they took to their environments in their own way.

Both boys tended to make friends easily, but while Carson's friendships tended to stick Axel usually rotated through kids fairly quickly, more like his audience that wanted to hang around and see what crazy or funny thing he might do next rather than true friends who would look out for him when Carson couldn't. 

But as the older Black sibling started his first year of sixth grade, he got zeroes on almost all of the first assignments and quizzes he took even when it was obvious that he knew the material. He didn't disrupt class but he never participated like he used to do, and he started off his first two weeks with the lowest marks he'd ever had not to mention the lowest in his entire class.

The pair of boys waited at the curb for their mother to come and fetch them, the elder going through Axel's book bag to see if he actually had his folders and assignments since the younger boy tended to leave things everywhere and forget where he placed them. Everything seemed to be in order and Carson handed the backpack over to Axel who was busy yelling at cars as they drove by, making the older sibling and several kids around them give him odd sideways looks.

Finally Mari pulled up and Carson climbed in the front while Axel launched himself into the backseat, half-yelling and half-singing a repetitive theme song from his favorite tv show. The older boy greeted his mother and reported that as far as he knew Axel had been fairly good that day, and that he had a spelling assignment and a math worksheet in his folder to do which caused the younger boy to groan and whine at his sibling for ratting him out that he had homework.

Mari smiled at both her boys, promising ice cream cones to any young men who got all their homework done right after school and while Axel cheered excitedly Carson simply smiled in a more subdued way. They drove home and with the motivation of a treat Ax got started on his assignments right away, still not quite sitting still but writing answers down on the papers nonetheless.

Carson sat quietly at the other end of the kitchen table, leafing through his own work and sighing as he glanced over at Axel. "Ax. Hey, you doing okay over there?" He asked, pushing out of his chair and going to check his brother's work. The younger blond had most of the math problems done but the last two lines were more difficult and he had definitely stalled out. He seemed to struggle with word problems and asked Carson for help, drumming his pencil on the table.

"Okay. Word problems are easy once you break 'em down. They're just like the number problems you're good at, I promise." Carson explained when Axel offered a skeptical look. "No really just listen: Farmer Brown has ten bushels of apples, each bushel holds 30 apples. How many apples does Farmer Brown have? How many does he have if he gives away one bushel?" Carson read the first problem out loud, pointing to each number value and writing them out in an equation problem as he went.

"See? It's asking for 10 times 30. And then it's asking for that number, minus 30. Word problems are easy-peasy once you break them down." Carson explained with a smile, watching as his brother's face lit up and he solved the math problems with a little thought correctly. The older boy praised him and helped him through the others on his sheet, unaware that his mother had been watching the impromptu math lesson almost the whole time.

When they finished Axel cheered and noticed their mom, holding up his completed work exclaiming that he was ready for ice cream now. Mari praised her younger son then turned to Carson, asking if he was ready as well and the little boy shook his head, avoiding her gaze. The brunette went to look at Carson's work and asked him in a worried tone why he hadn't done anything yet.

"Well I... I don't know the answers, so I thought I'd help Ax instead." Carson responded, still staring anywhere but at his mother. Mari easily saw through the boy however, coming closer and bidding him look her in the eye, ignoring Axel's chants for his treat for the moment and asking him why he was really not doing his work.

Carson bit his lip, his heart pounding as he glanced from his mother to his younger brother and back. "Be-because... If I get good grades, I'll have to go to middle school next year. I should stay behind another year and look after Ax." Carson finally admitted in a small voice, ashamed for doing so poorly in his classes when he'd only excelled before, but he felt it was too important for him to stay with his brother for him to move on.

“Carson.” Mari muttered, loud enough that he could hear her but low enough that Axel wouldn’t really pay them much mind. She gave him a look, knowing he was smart, overly smart in fact he was really good at school so there was no way that he was struggling and even if he was he wouldn’t be one to sit around and not ask questions he needed to so he could get help.

The boy avoided her gaze completely even as she knelt down to look at him and he admitted after some gentle coaxing that he wasn’t trying because he didn’t want to leave Axel who didn’t do so hot on days his brother couldn’t be there. “Carson listen to me okay.” She requested, putting her arm around him and drawing close to her oldest son. She brushed her fingers through his hair affectionately, “I know you want to look out for your brother all the time and your father and I really appreciate you being there when we can’t be and watching over him but Axel has to learn from his own mistakes just like you have. He’s gotta be independent too.”

Her blue eyes darted from both of her son’s down casted ones, gently tugging his chin up so he would look at her as she spoke. “You’re both going to struggle sometimes but that doesn’t mean anything to me or your dad. We both struggled too sometimes and had to get back up on our own. You know Axel just needs support and he needs to see you doing all these great things and passing all of your classes and showing him how easy it is for him to realize that hey maybe he can do it too.” She muttered, rubbing Carson’s back from where she was crouched.

They couldn’t talk much now with the way Axel was starting to scream about wanting his ice cream he deserved and just as she was reassuring Carson that she would help him get caught up by talking to his teachers, Axel took off to the kitchen. She could hear him climbing up onto the counters and trying to get to the ice cream toppings on the top shelf of the pantry. Mari sighed a little tiredly, “Anyways, don’t you ever feel like you have to give things up for anyone, okay? That’s not fair to you. You can do so much Carson and I know that you will. Your dad and I love you and—“ She flinched at the sound of a bowl crashing to the ground followed by Axel yelling that he didn’t do it that the glass was on the ground before he entered.

Mari pinched the bridge of her nose and moved to rub her temples, feeling Carson gently take her hand knowing full well she was a little stressed most the time when Ax got into trouble. She looked up and smiled, “I’m sorry our discussion is cut short, Car but basically I just want you to be the best you that you can be without putting stress on yourself. Axel will learn and he’ll grow just like you did. Show him how easy it is and that he can do it too.” She finished, kissing his cheek and squeezing his fingers. “Let’s get ice cream around the corner hmm? Axel’s going to realize that we don’t have any left at home here pretty soon.” She laughed, hearing the boy scream his exaggerated rage about how all his rocky road was gone.

Carson smiled and nodded his agreement and Mari got up, kissing his forehead before heading into the kitchen to clean up the mess that she knew Ax had made within the few short moments she wasn’t watching him. “Pick that up.” She instructed and the boy sighed heavily, dragging his feet to wander over to the jar of cherries he had dropped on the floor as well but it managed to stay intact. “And put the chocolate syrup away.”

“I am!” Axel snapped at her, huffing as he walked over to each object in turn. “I’m the special son remember.” He mocked, “Maybe I can pick it up with my mind!” Axel insisted, spilling a container of sprinkles all over the counter and staring at it as his mother yelled at him for doing so. “Shh. Mom I can do it!” He hollered, closing his eyes and making all kinds of chanting noises but when nothing came from it in a few seconds he grew bored with the charade. “Can we get ice cream?” He asked.

“Axel Robert Black, clean that up or you’re not going with us. You can stay in the car and watch me and Carson eat ice cream without you.” Mari threatened.

Ax’s jaw dropped and his face grew agitated, “Carson didn’t even do his homework! How come he gets ice cream but you made me do mine! I’m the special kid! I’m gifted.” He crossed his arms over his chest, “I see all the bad things but I don’t get ice cream. You’re mean. Daddy would let me because he gets it.” The boy continued and Mari sighed, shaking her head when Axel started licking his fingers and sticking them to the counter to pick up the sprinkles and lick them off his digits, turning the tips of them multiple colors.

Parker returned from a long hunt he'd gone in on with three other hunters, taking down a minor demon and the cult of witches who had summoned him only to be quickly enslaved by him to do his murderous will. It had been awhile since he'd taken on such a large job but they had come out the victors at the end of the day, and he had the bruises and cuts to show for it.

He got home late to find that since it wasn't a school night Mari allowed the boys to wait for him to say good night, curled up on the couch watching a movie in their pjs and Carson looked tired while Axel looked like he was already asleep, holding the tv remote like a beloved stuffed animal against his chest. Mari saw him enter and quietly got up, raising her finger to her lips at Carson indicating for him not to wake his brother if he could manage it. The older boy nodded and simply waited on the couch while his mom got up to greet his dad, but his tired face was lit up with happiness seeing his dad home safely.

Mari slipped into Parker's arms, greeting him warmly and he kissed the top of his wife's head, pulling back and shrugging off her concerned comments when she took in the bruising on one side of his face as well as the small cut framing his eye socket that had finally stopped bleeding on the drive home.

"I'm fine baby, really. Got knocked around a bit but nothing major. How have things been here? The ice cream issue get resolved?" Parker asked with a light chuckle, recalling their conversation earlier that afternoon when Mari called him on the road asking for the patience not to do something untoward to their youngest son if he didn't stop screaming.

Mari laughed as well, explaining that said incident had been resolved when she used her standby threat of 'I'm telling your father about this when he gets home.' Which seemed to get both boys pretty well back in line. Parker didn't think he was too harsh of a father, especially compared to how Ryder had raised him but he could definitely be the big scary dad when he needed to be.

"Well that's good to hear." Parker murmured, bending his head to kiss Mari's lips sweetly before walking with her back down to the living room area. Carson greeted his dad in a whisper and the hunter came to crouch by his oldest son on the floor next to where he was seated on the couch, making them about eye-level. The boy asked if he got all the monsters and Parker nodded, he had just started telling Carson a bit about hunting, why his work took him away from them sometimes and what it was he did, and the boy took his need to keep it secret very seriously so he trusted him with a few stories now and then since he seemed so keen to absorb all he could about the job.

"We did good, Car. You hold down the fort for me while I was gone? Keep your brother out of trouble?" Parker responded, nodding when the boy gave an affirmative response though with the addendum that Axel had managed to cause a few disruptions anyway. "That's all right, just keep up the good work little man." He added, patting his son's leg and promising to come say good night to him in his room after he got Axel put in bed. Carson nodded and hopped up off the couch, saying goodnight to his mom and disappearing down the hall.

Parker straightened and looked down at his youngest still sleeping soundly, wondering just what was going on in his little blond head as he slept. The hunter gently extracted the remote from Axel's arm and scooped him up, only semi-rousing him and he made a tired little groan against his shoulder, sighing a sleepy hello but quickly drifting back off to sleep. "Hey buddy. Who's my special little man?" He murmured, rubbing Ax's back and smiling at Mari as he turned to carry the little guy in to tuck him into his small bed that had once been Carson's.

The brunette followed him in to Axel's room and watched as he gently tucked him in. He watched the boy mumble a bit in his sleep. Mari came to stand beside him and he wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her gently. "So. Did he... have any visions while I was gone? Anything that came true?" Parker asked gently, knowing Mari didn't really like talking about the subject over the phone.

Mari slipped her arm around Parker’s back and hugged him from the side, watching their little boy drifting off to sleep in his bed. She sighed and shook her head at his question, “Nothing recently, at least nothing has come true that he’s told me about.” She answered honestly. “He’s starting to use it against me… The fact that he’s different and he sees these things. I don’t want to always give him special treatment but at the same time I feel so bad that he deals with some of the things he does.”

Parker nodded and lightly pressed at her back to get her to move forward and she followed him out of Axel’s room. “He kept asking about you, the first couple nights you were gone and I think he knows just as much about your job through things he’s seen as Carson does.” She told him, her blue eyes casting up to his face in the darkness of the hallway. “I think in the back of his mind he’s still wondering about that vision he had about you dying. He wanted to stay in bed with me and it’s really hard ‘cuz he’s like borderline too old to be crawling in bed with us but at the same time it’s… different.” Her voice wavered towards the end, her emotions getting the better of her.

Parker hugged her to him, softly comforting her and promising that they were handling everything just fine. “There’s nothing in the books that tells me how to discipline him.” She sighed, wiping her eyes and tugging at her husband’s hand before he could go into Carson’s room down the hall. “There’s a few issues with Carson too the past little while.” She told him, half avoiding his gaze because she sort of had an idea that their oldest wasn’t passing the sixth grade right now.

He asked her what was going on and she squeezed his fingers, “Well apparently Carson is intentionally failing most of his subjects this year because he thinks he has to stay behind and watch over Axel.” Mari explained, arching a brow up at him because she knew the man was a little more adamant about him having to keep watch over his little brother at all times, especially if they weren’t around to do so themselves. Parker seemed to understand the look she was giving him, starting to get a little defensive. “I’m not saying that it’s you, babe. We both emphasize his need to be there for Ax but he doesn’t seem to think he’s allowed anything else. I talked to him a bit and he’s going to work his hardest to try and pass this year but he’s really far behind by this point because he’s been trying to help Ax with his own homework.”

She assured him that the boy didn’t need any further scolding and the couple wandered into Carson’s room where he was already set for bed. “Teeth brushed?” Mari asked him for confirmation and he smiled up at her from where she was in the doorway, watching Parker kneel down to say good night. “Love you, Car.” She murmured, blowing him a kiss and waiting for her lover to come and join her. 

 

Parker watched Mari leave the room and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand and feeling a pang of guilt twist his guts as he looked back at his son and saw the unfiltered apprehension on his young face. The hunter came to sit heavily on the bed beside the boy, leaning forward with his elbows braced on his knees and his fingers loosely laced together.

"Are you okay dad?" Carson asked softly, likely in reference to the visible injuries on his face at the moment. 

Parker grinned and nodded, "Yeah bud. I'll be okay. Do you still wanna be a hunter like me? You get pretty beat up like this sometimes." The man chuckled, looking over at his son and grinning crookedly when Carson nodded in response. His gaze dropped from the boy's again, not quite sure how to talk to his son but knowing he was in need of some reassurance.

"Look Car, your mom told me about... Your school work not getting done. About how you feel like you should stay back a year to be close to Axel." He uttered, listening to the boy start babbling out an apology but he cut him off with a wave of his hand. "You don't have to apologize buddy. I understand why you thought you had to do that. Maybe I've... Been a bit too hard on you, expected too much from you when you're still so young." Parker admitted, wincing when Carson immediately piped up that he was fine, that it was his fault and he'd do better, try harder. He knew that even if it hadn't been conscious, Parker had instilled this desperation, this division of self in his son, pushing him to excel in everything while simultaneously drilling into him how important it was for him to watch out for his little brother.

The only problem was, Parker knew beyond a doubt that Axel would need his brother's support, his protection and guidance. He didn't have anyone to rely on, and so he let his work consume him, fed into Ryder's ideologies and it had led him down a dark path he never wanted either of his boys to get within a mile of. Parker couldn't shake the feeling that his youngest son's road was going to be paved with hardship and pain, and he was desperate to shield him from that as much as possible but there was no way he could do it all alone.

"Carson. I'm very proud of you for wanting to look after your brother like that, but you have to progress yourself, okay? I want you to pick your studies back up, be the best at everything you do... The sky's the limit for you, I know it. I want you to protect Axel, but another good way you can do that and be there for him is to be a good example, all right? Do your best, show Ax how much a man can accomplish when he puts his mind to it. He looks up to you so much, so you can show him the way by living it. All right? Can you do that for me little man?" Parker asked, finally meeting his son's face again and giving him a warm smile.

Carson squared his small shoulders, nodding resolutely and promising he'd work hard and do his best. Parker hugged him tight and put him to bed, running his hand through the boy's dark hair before straightening out again. "I know you can do it Car. I'm counting on you, your mom is, Axel is. That's what makes you special, you can excel at anything you put your mind to, all right?" Parker reiterated, and his son smiled up at him with hope in his large blue eyes. He left the boy to fall asleep and went to find his wife in their room, anxious to get some rest himself but at least feeling a little better that Carson would start applying himself again. 

Carson did indeed prove himself after that, turning around the abysmal start to his sixth grade year by graduating from elementary school at the top of his class and already starting on more advanced courses for his age. Parker began teaching him the fundamentals of hunting and giving him combat and weapons training, which he took to like a fish in water and seemed eager to absorb every snippet his father could teach him. 

As both boys grew Carson began getting involved in several extra activities in his middle school, sports, student government, charity groups and by the time he was ready to leave jr high and Axel was beginning it, everyone at the school seemed to know his name. He directed a lot of effort into getting things ready for his little brother to start at the school, getting him a spot on the wrestling team and baseball team, introducing him to some of the younger siblings of his friends that would be starting the same year Axel was going out for the same sports his brother was interested in.

It frustrated Carson that he wouldn't be able to watch out for his kid brother directly until they were both in highschool but at least this way he'd start off with some people in his corner and unintentionally with some leeway with teachers and faculty since he was 'Carson Black's younger brother.'

He started a daily workout regimen like his father's strength training and drilling combat and more often than not Axel would join him, trying to keep up or at least watch him work. He was going through a set of muay thai drills when Axel got home from school and as usual came down to the work out room to find him.

"Hey Ax, what's up?" Carson asked, not breaking his stance as he called out to the younger boy who unceremoniously dropped his backpack and jacket on the ground at the edge of the exercise mat.

Axel hated almost every day he had to go to middle school not because of the work so much as the fact that everywhere he went he was considered ‘Carson’s little brother’. It didn’t get to him at first until he started to learn the standard his brother had set. He didn’t hate him for it but it didn’t exactly sit well with him either. There were high expectations where the Black family was concerned now but as it would seem with Axel as the newest, all eyes were on him when it came down to his school work as well as his fight and drive in sports.

He hadn’t ever been good with the grades thing, in fact he didn’t much care for that aspect but wrestling was his strongest avenue followed by baseball. He managed to head past his mother who was busy in the kitchen and his dad who was likely out on a hunt or working on something or other in his workshop. The blond padded down to the workout space that typically housed Carson more than himself though Ax had intention to change that the more he got into sports.

Carson glanced up to him, greeting him in his typical casual fashion and Axel nodded in response, dropping his bag down beside the mat and stepping over towards his brother. “Wanna run some drills? Spar a bit?” He asked without really answering his older brother’s questioning. Carson shrugged and smiled at him, asking if he could handle it or not. “Doesn’t matter. Couch says I gotta put on some muscle… and work on my holds. Figured you’d be better than Dad.”

They agreed to the terms, slapping hands as they both readied their stances on the mat and Carson counted down from three while Axel started edging around the mat, sticking to his side for the time being. He always had high hopes of being able to take him down, being able to at least be an even match for his brother but no matter how hard he worked, it seemed out of reach. Carson always had an eye for every move he made though, staying a step ahead but Ax had been practicing.

He surged forward and cupped his hand over the other’s face, their heights nearly mirroring each other despite being years apart. He gripped him, yanking him down to the mat and much to his surprise Carson followed. Axel kicked his leg out with his own, knocking his weight out from beneath him and getting his calves in a tight leg lock while his arm hitched around his brother’s neck. He laughed at his easy success but he should have known the rein wouldn’t last long, feeling Carson tense up beneath him and his knee got free, slamming up into his stomach and he coughed, his arms loosening around his older brother allowing him to slip free.

“That’s cheating.” Ax insisted, rolling with Carson across the mat and fighting against his arms trying to grab at him. Their forearms collided as he blocked another blow and he knew that with their form of wrestling it wasn’t exactly ‘legal’ in the sports world but it’s what they needed to know according to Parker. “I’m supposed to be practicing on you!” He grunted, his face pressing down into the mat as Carson got above him and pinned him down, his leg wrapped around his upper body and forcing his face into the cushioned floor, tugging Axel’s leg at an awkward angle and responding that he couldn’t help him practice if he didn’t ever fight back.

“Let me go Carson!” He ordered through gritted teeth, getting irate now the longer he was pinned and pulled. Carson chuckled and told him he would but he had to tap out first. “Eff you, Car! Ahh—“ He squirmed, hating that he even thought in the beginning that he was going to beat out his brother so easily. He should have known and prepped a better fight on his part. Carson twisted his foot again and Ax caved, slapping his hand on the dark mat beneath them and his brother finally let him up, shifting off of him to stand and offering him a hand.

Axel accepted bitterly, slapping his hand against Carson’s a little more than needed before grasping his fingers and letting him tug him back upright. He squeezed his older brother’s hand and glared at him, likely more irritated with himself than the other. Carson reached over to pat him on the back and give him some helpful tips he wouldn’t accept, Ax’s ears rang and he tugged off his shirt, tossing it aside. “Best of three.” He ordered but Carson seemed weary everytime he knew he pissed off Axel but the boy was determined if anything. “Carson. Best. Of. Three.” He said more firmly, “What are you scared I might actually beat you?”

 

Carson smirked at his sibling's words, shaking out his neck and shoulders and bouncing a bit on his feet in preparation before easing into a low crouch. "In your dreams little brother, in your dreams." He said with a wide grin, reaching out for Axel to slap his hand as they always did to begin their matches. 

He had to work a little harder now that Axel had started putting real effort into his wrestling, but it was still and easy three for three victory for the older Black sibling. The final time he made the blond tap and they broke apart, it seemed his kid brother wasn't in the mood to up it to best out of five like he sometimes did so he didn't incite him. Carson got back into his interrupted workout routine and Axel decided to do some free weights, occasionally the elder tossing him a remark or two about his stance or how he should maneuver the weights and while Ax merely grumbled in response to his tips he heeded every last one.

They worked in silence for awhile, till finally Ax was the first one to speak again, asking Carson if he thought their dad was going to let him go on a hunt soon. Carson paused from the rounds of rapid kicks he was executing in favor of stretching the heat away from his muscles so he could wind down from his work and be able to talk to his brother without gasping through it.

"I'm not sure. I think so, though. If something comes up dad feels comfortable with I suppose." Carson responded, thinking back to a recent conversation he'd had with their father about his sixteenth birthday being a good benchmark to start hunting and he'd been sixteen for nearly eight months now. Axel followed up with asking if he thought Parker might take him along too, and Carson shook his head.

"I don't think that's gonna happen dude. You should probably at least be able to shave before you start going on monster hunts." He chuckled, not missing the way Axel's face fell with disappointment and then tightened with anger. "Hey, he wouldn't have let me go at your age either. He told me I had to be sixteen before he'd even consider it so it'll be the same for you. Then we can all kick some ass together, huh?" He added, wandering over to the towel and water bottle he'd left by the mat and wiping the sweat from his face before taking a few long pulls from his bottle.

“So you think Dad’s gonna let you hunt soon?” Axel asked as he hefted the weights up away from his body once more, only half watching Carson while they worked out and spoke. He tended to think that since Carson was little, their dad had been gearing him up to hunt while with Ax it didn’t seem quite so pushed on him… either he didn’t think him old enough or capable. Of course he thought it to be the latter, that his dad didn’t have faith in his focus to do something of the sort or perhaps he didn’t believe he was strong enough.

Axel disagreed he knew he could do it, perhaps a little overly confident in himself even more so since he started middle school. He nodded at the elder’s response, “And me? Do you think that Dad’ll let me tag along too?” he questioned after, letting his weights ease back in place as he straightened out fully to look at his older brother standing across the way from him. He nodded his understanding but that didn’t mean it didn’t irk him just a bit to know that after all the talk of the ‘connection’ he had with his father and the supernatural world around them he still wouldn’t get to go for another few years.

“Yeah.” He snipped bitterly, heading over to the corner of the room where they had a speed bag set up. He dug through for the gloves his size, tugging them on while Carson called for him not to be upset about it, that it would happen soon enough. “Somehow I’m not really sure on that but okay.” The blond tugged the pair of fingerless boxing gloves on and velcroed them around his wrists tight enough that they wouldn’t fall off.

He could hear Carson saying something or other in regards to how it was only fair that he be forced to wait until the same age as him before he started really getting out there. “Yep.” Ax hollered back, throwing a few quick punches at the small bag in front of him, keeping his arms tight against his body and clenching up when his brother yelled to him that he was keeping his stance too tense. He didn’t respond, simply kept going, time and time again the sound of the bag rattling and shaking from where it hung masking his angered grunting only slightly.

Carson worked his way over and snapped his fingers to try and get his attention, yelling his name to make him stop and actually talk to him about what was getting him so tweaky all the sudden. Axel yanked his shoulder away from his older brother’s hand, his idol, watching him get the privilege of doing things without him, things that he wanted to do himself and with their father none the less. “Don’t you think it’s dumb that I gotta wait? I know as much as you do, heck probably more. I’ve seen these things and I’ve seen Dad on hunts in my dreams dozens of times, I’ve seen more of mom’s abilities than you have. I’ve been training with you every day!”

“How come you get to fight and I just have to watch. Like always. I’ve done that already I wanna be a part of it.” Axel muttered, stepping away from the punching bag and tearing of the gloves again, tossing them aside and snatching Carson’s water from him to take a drink. “Have fun with Dad while I stay here making lasagna with Mom.”

Carson sighed heavily, knowing his brother was mostly just venting his frustrations but that didn't make it any easier to hear. "Look Axel, if you've seen dad in action on hunts in your visions then you know that at the end of the day he knows best when we're ready to go or not. You just gotta be patient and trust him, okay? You'll get your chance, just keep working towards it and show him you really want it; then who knows maybe he'll let you go on a hunt earlier than he is me. You never know." Carson encouraged, taking his water bottle back and downing the last of it's contents.

"I gotta go do my trig homework, you gonna be down here awhile I can get you some more water?" Carson offered, shaking his empty bottle in his hand for emphasis. Axel huffed and shook his head, so the elder boy took that as his cue to just let the kid blow off some steam on his own. Ax was hotheaded to say the least and while he didn't mean half the things he said while he was angry, it still wasn't always a good idea to keep pushing the issue.

Just as Carson got to the door way, the sound of Axel's fists striking the heavy bag stopped and he smiled slightly as he heard Ax call out in a subdued voice that he thought Carson was ready to go on a hunt. "Thanks man." He called back over his shoulder before leaving his brother to his work out.

\---  
Carson followed in his trend his first year of high school that he had maintained through junior high, quickly climbing to the top of his classes and various teams and clubs he became a part of. Parker began taking him on hunts and he proved himself there as well, already having killed a couple vampires and exorcised a handful of ghosts and vengeful spirits before he even went to his first high school dance.

The second year was progressing much like the first and in his mind it couldn't be over soon enough, he was anxious to be able to attend school with Axel again. Lately he and his brother had grown further apart and he was getting into a bit more trouble, which he felt partly responsible for since he couldn't be there during the day to monitor him and talk him down from the various crazy stunts he seemed to be taking to pulling not to mention getting caught skipping classes.

He didn't realize just how far out of touch he and his brother were until one day Carson drove on his appointed rounds to pick Axel up from school in the old Camaro he and his dad had fixed up only to find the school parking lot flooded with emergency vehicles. Carson parked and ran over to see what all the commotion was, dialing Axel and holding the phone to his ear as he searched the crowd, his stomach in his shoes worried that his brother might be involved in this somehow.

The phone continued to ring and he tried to focus on finding his brother, hearing a few police officers describing the accident that had occurred only moments ago. A girl had been walking around the parked and loading school bus, and some idiot going way too fast in a parking lot zipped around the stationary bus and hit her full on, unable to stop in time. 

Finally he spotted Axel standing on the grass, staring at the crowd of emergency personnel frantically trying to get the young girl stabilized before loading her into the waiting ambulance. He fought his way through the crowd, watching his brother pull his phone from his pocket, stare at it, then simply put it back in his pocket unanswered and go back to staring vacantly at the scene before him.

Carson exhaled roughly in frustration and worry, hanging up and pocketing his own phone making his way to his brother. "Ax!!" He called, gripping his brother's shoulders when the blond gave no response to finally make him acknowledge him.

"Axel, are you all right? Why didn't you call me? What- what happened?" He asked urgently, relieved that his sibling was apparently unharmed but upset because he knew even a year ago his brother would have called him right away if he was in an emergency situation. The young Black boy met his eyes and Carson was shocked to see his brother struggling to hold back tears, his blue eyes red-rimmed and the muscles in his jaw tight as if he was keeping them clenched to keep from crying aloud.

"Ax... Tell me." Carson said in a far softer tone, trying to block some of the hectic scene from his brother's view with his body but the young man still glanced around his shoulder at the girl being loaded into the back of the ambulance. Axel began to stammer out that it was his fault, that he knew this was going to happen, he saw it, and Carson cut him off again trying to understand. "Ax, there's no way this was your fault, it was an accident, that girl got hit by a car that was going too fast around the school bus and didn't see her. You didn't cause this." He assured him, but his words seemed to do little to comfort his sibling.

Axel shook his head at his brother, his control starting to slip as he spoke to him. “I-It’s my fault. Car it’s my fault.” He muttered, “I saw it. It’s my fault.” He insisted but his brother cut him off from saying anything else, trying to block his view from the girl they were loading up into the ambulance. Carson promised him that it wasn’t, reminding him of what happened but Axel already knew that.

“No Car!” He snapped, pulling away from him slightly and taking a step backwards. “No I saw it.” He emphasized through clenched teeth, his eyes still filled with unshed tears. “Two weeks ago I saw it and I saw her and every god damned day I tried to stop it from happening, I tried to pull her aside but every day she stared at me like the freak that I am and hardly gave me the time of day. I couldn’t stop her from leaving as early as she did.”

“Every day, Car! I didn’t do enough. I came out here and waited. I came and stood in the grass watching her and promising myself that if I heard a car I’d stop it somehow. She called me a creep, told me to leave her the hell alone but I saw it again and again in my fuckin’ head!” Axel screamed at him, breaking down and causing somewhat of a scene for the passersby and those that were watching the incident get taken care of. He angrily ran his hand over his face and through his hair, fidgeting in his spot on the edge of the drop off lane in the grass.

“I couldn’t do it. One of the security guys started watching for me and he caught me out here, dragged me back to class and I didn’t insist on him letting me leave. I didn’t fight him like I should have. She would be walking away from here going home to her stupid boyfriend and her fuckin’ family right now.” Axel huffed, taking a few deep breaths and feeling on the edge of a panic attack or something along those lines. His vision blurred and he felt like he might pass out or throw up as Carson’s hand jutted out to grip him but he yanked away and backed up further into the grass only half hearing him beg him to go home with him.

“Sure we’ll just happily go home, have a pop and sit down to eat with mom and dad. No big deal right? Just another one of Axel’s visions just another thing he couldn’t fix or control that we’ll all pretend didn’t happen. We’ll just forget about her, forget all about it. Yeah lets go home Carson, singing Blue Oster Cult on the ride.” He grumbled, taking off out into the parking lot but nowhere near his brother’s car. He waved him off when he asked where he was going, what he thought he was doing. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

Carson's fists clenched up and he felt his worry for his brother like a heavy weight on his chest, wishing he knew some way to make this better for Axel but he knew there wasn't much if anything. He wanted to chase his brother down, pin him and tell him over and over that it wasn't his fault until he believed him, but he knew that was useless and if he tried to push him more at this point it would just make things worse.

Still it wasn't like he could just show up home without Axel, his own conscience wouldn't allow it not to mention his mom and dad would flip out if Carson simply left Ax here and went home leaving him without a sure way to get back. He sighed and pulled out his phone, typing out a quick text: I'm not going home without you, take a walk or whatever to clear your head, I'll be in the parking lot when you're ready. He sent it off watching as Axel walked away towards the back of the school he pulled his phone out, read the screen and replaced it. 

Carson paced back and forth for awhile, leaning against the back, sides and front of his car waiting and watching as every last other student was either taken home on a bus or picked up or walked away. He texted his mom so she wouldn't worry, telling her they decided to stop and look at parts for the bike he was building with his dad on the way home so they'd be late. He hated lying to his mom like that, but he didn't want her or their dad coming down hard on Axel about what had happened, trying to make him forget it and move on since that tactic clearly hadn't been working well for awhile now.

Finally over an hour later when Carson was considering pulling out his phone and calling Axel to make him come back already, he saw his brother circle around the back of the trailers separate from the main school building and amble back towards him. The young boy looked pinched and withdrawn, not at all like his usual outgoing self, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes fixed firmly on the ground and floor of the car when they got in the vehicle without a word.

They drove awhile in silence, finally Carson broke it. "We went to Lawson's, to look at bike parts. If mom or dad asks that's what I told them. It's up to you if you wanna tell them the truth or not." He mentioned without looking directly at his brother, who grunted in acknowledgement that he'd spoken but gave him nothing more. 

They got back and Axel almost immediately retreated to his room, telling his mom he didn't feel well so he wouldn't want any dinner, and when Mari tried to get him to stop and tell her more, Carson reached out and gripped her hand.

"Mom, I think it might be better if we leave him alone for awhile. He had a bad day." Carson half directed, half pleaded, knowing he couldn't really stop her if she was set on talking to Ax but hoping to at least buy his brother some peace if she'd listen to him. 

Axel ignored his phone once again, stuffing it in his pocket after silencing it completely. He wandered around campus and contemplated everything that just occurred as well as all that happened to him over the years. Well maybe not to him personally but he watched it all as a third party as a ghost observer in a sense. He walked for he didn’t know how long around campus, sat on his own outside the cafeteria at one of the empty tables merely thinking everything over.

It started to get late and his mind went to something else he thought about time and time again when his visions got bad like this, something that he had been told time and time again would ease his stress. Even if those people didn’t know what his stresses were. He stood abruptly and walked back to the outbuildings on his own, pleased to see that those new found buddies were lingering as they often did even after campus cleared out of everyone else. One kid he knew from wrestling had been the one to bring up his options just recently, giving a nod and asking him if he had changed his mind. “Considering my options.” Axel shrugged, shaking the hand of the other kid and ceremoniously offering a pat on the back as they hugged. He pulled away and grinned, “Been that kinda week y’know? Family shit and all that.”

Forty minutes or so later he walked back out to the parking lot, reaching in his pocket for his phone and turning the sound back on, finding his brother was there waiting for him. Axel was still on edge, nodding a greeting to the other and getting a little irate just being around him at all. He didn’t get it and neither did anybody else. “Yep.” He said simply as Carson gave him their cover story, at least acknowledging him so he knew he heard what he said. They drove in silence and he fidgeted most the way getting a little more anxious to be at home.

Axel didn’t even greet his mother like he might normally, making her face fall as she called out to him in regards to his explanation as to why. “Ax! Hey wait up, kiddo. I can make you something plain?” She offered, furrowing her brow with concern as he retreated back to his room and yanked the door shut. Carson grabbed her by the hand and held it softly, far better at comfort than Ax might be though perhaps that was just the ages they were. He stated he had a bad day and it was best to leave him be and she at least grasped that it might have been school related or related to his ‘special’ abilities. “What happened?” She asked, sitting down at his prompting to listen to him tell him mostly what went on.

The young blond male sat on his bed and waited out dinner as well as dessert, listening to his mom heading off to bed for the evening despite the somewhat early hour. He figured his dad to be in the library or workshop, either working one job or another and he would be there for a good few hours more before turning in himself. Ax slipped out of his room and headed outside, pulling out the joint from his pocket and rolling it in his hand as well as the lighter in the other.

Ax flicked the lighter, setting the joint between his lips and holding it there with his thumb and index finger as he lit it up, taking a slow drag from it and coughing a little at the dank unfamiliar taste. He sucked in like he was told, holding the smoke within his lungs and letting it set before blowing out what little was left. The sensation burned in his chest but in an oddly warming way not displeasing. He took another drag and followed the same process then another and another until it was only the twisted end left burning between his finger and thumb, flicking it out into the gravel and pressing his foot down against it to put it out completely. He waited in the darkness, sitting down in the dirt and letting it sink in, feeling the effects of the weed he had just smoked.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, breathing in the night air and giving a little laugh at the floating sensation he felt throughout his limbs, his heart fluttering just a bit faster or perhaps he was increasingly more aware of it. The air against his skin tickled more than usual and again he laughed, shaking his head as his worries about the earlier stresses slipped from his mind. He spent maybe a good half hour or so outside on his own before dusting himself off and heading back inside, the effects of his intake still strong and fresh in his person.

He walked back to his room but before he could make it all the way he was interrupted by Carson asking him if he was doing okay. Axel turned on his heel and looked over his older brother, his eyes blood shot and hooded, barely opening enough to even see his brother’s face completely. “Perfect.” He answered, his hand slipping from off his door handle and he nearly stumbled as his weightless feeling legs wavered beneath him. He laughed again and swatted at Carson’s hand when he tried to grasp for him, “Found it. I got it. We’re good.” He insisted, patting his brother on the shoulder and then slapping his cheek softly. “We’re good.”

 

Carson ate dinner with his parents, trying to easy some of their worry for their younger son and he felt at least fairly confident that he'd given them enough to leave Axel be for the evening, hoping that was really the right course of action all things considered. Ax didn't tell his parents more than half the time about his visions, not wanting them coddling him like they so often did. But the elder sibling could tell, he always knew when Axel had had some form of a vision or dream at least when they were negative any way rather than the neutral ones he often had of seeing people he didn't know simply having conversations or random images where nothing of note happened at all.

Carson figured even as bummed out as Axel was about what had happened today, he'd still get hungry eventually so maybe the two of them could talk again if he snuck out into the kitchen after hours for something to eat. The dark haired boy sat at the table in the kitchen waiting, getting some of his work for student council done as well as making out assignment lists for one of his teachers he'd become a quasi-TA to.

He waited until later into the evening, finally hearing Axel emerge from his room but to his surprise instead of heading to the kitchen the blond made a beeline for the front door. Carson's impulse was to follow him outside, but he forced himself to stay put, making himself wait for his brother to come to him rather than going after the kid and risk angering him further. 

He sat even longer at the table, drumming his fingers on the hard surface and arguing back and forth with himself about if he should just go out and find Axel outside or not. Carson perked up when he finally saw the blond slip back inside, crossing the space taking far less care to be quiet with his movements than he had been when he first went out.

Carson saw that yet again his younger brother wasn't coming towards the kitchen at all so he finally got up and jogged after him, catching Axel just as he got to his bedroom door. As soon as he got close Carson smelled the unmistakable aroma of pot smoke faintly clinging to his sibling's clothes and breath, taking in Axel's red eyes and overly relaxed expression just confirmed it further.

"Ax... You all right?" He tested, knowing exactly what his brother had done but wondering if he was going to admit it to his face or if he thought he was actually flying under the radar with this. His brother's dazed response gave him all the rest of the information he needed, his brother was still too high to really be thinking about the consequences or what would've happened if it hadn't been his older brother waiting up for him as opposed to their mom or dad. 

Axel pitched forward and Carson's arm shot out to steady him, but the boy merely brushed his support away, reaching up to pat Carson's cheek as he spoke nonsensically in an almost sing-song tone. The elder sibling sighed heavily, rolling his eyes and gripping his brother's wrist to draw his hand down when he didn't remove it on his own right away. "Ax... Man you can't get into this shit. It'll screw you over. I mean if nothing else, if mom and dad caught you like this... Ax, come on, stop it." Carson tried to talk seriously to his little brother but he simply kept trying to paw at his face insisting that he was fine now, that everything was going to be all right.

"Look just... Give me your shirt and pants. Come on, let's go." Carson instructed his brother, helping him out of his shirt and ignoring his brother's giggles asking him why he had to undress in the hallway. "No, no just- keep your boxers on, just give me these!" Carson directed, tugging at his brother's jeans and gathering them up with his shirt loosely in one hand. Axel reached for his clothes asking for them back and the dark haired boy tugged them quickly out of reach.

"No, Ax. I gotta get these washed so mom and dad won't smell the weed on them. You might as well go yell at them through a megaphone that you smoked if you just leave these lying around. Go sleep it off. I don't wanna see you doing this again, got it?" Carson insisted, pushing lightly at his brother's bare chest to encourage him to retreat back into his room for the night, his chest tight with worry and annoyance.

Axel traced his hand over Carson’s cheek until he insisted on taking his clothes. He wasn’t sure if he was undressing himself or if he was being undressed by his brother. He giggled at him for tearing off his clothes like he was, “Why don’t yah buy me dinner first big guy?” He teased, “Undress in the hallway! Naughty.” He tsked.

He pushed at his bottoms unconsciously with his thumbs hooked in his boxers just the same until Carson instructed him to keep those on, pulling off his pants fully and rising up with his clothes balled in his hands. “Give ‘em back. I have rights. I know them… Bear arms.” He stuck his hands out like claws, “Freedom to wear pants.” He mumbled, his words slurring a little tiredly as Carson snapped at him and told him to sleep it off.

Ax reached out once more for his older brother’s face, caressing his cheek and furrowing his brow until Carson swat at his wrist again. “Ow! Heh heh.” He scolded and laughed, wriggling his fingers as the sensation of Carson’s stubbly cheek still remained along his fingertips despite not touching him any longer. He turned on his heel to walk past his brother but he gripped his wrist and demanded to know what he was doing. “I want—I… food.” He mumbled again, pointing in no particular direction, “Oh man can you order pizza? Hey! My phone is in my pants. Order pizza.” He scrambled to get to it, grasping at air as Carson pushed him back to keep him away from him and towards his room.

The blond let his older brother guide him back to his bedroom completely and he sat on the edge of the bed without further argument, muttering about food again as Carson promised he would warm something up for him. “It should be pizza.”

\-----

Axel recalled the following morning when Carson handed him his clothes back, emphasizing the fact that he had to stay up for him late the night before so he could wash them without mom or dad finding out about it. It irked him and forced him to make a mental note not to let his older brother be privy to the fact that he continued smoking from then on. It started off as only when he had bad visions but then it grew more frequent when he couldn’t make himself stop thinking about them. It became almost a ritual to roll up and light up a joint in the evening to get through and manage to get himself to sleep.

Within a few months’ time he began feeling the urge and the need to smoke between classes, sneaking off to the far buildings or the football field with a couple other guys or hell even alone to simply enjoy a bowl together. He kept it quiet or he thought he did from his brother, coming home in the change of clothes he brought to school from time to time now so he wouldn’t reek quite so badly. He climbed into Carson’s Camaro, his eyes blood shot and his hands running up and down his legs anxiously, overly aware of the way his jeans felt against his palms as well as his legs but he knew better than to say anything, hoping his brother wouldn’t take note of any of it and simply drive him home.

Carson stayed in his parking spot and didn’t back out, staring Ax down for a moment or two until his brother caved and he finally met the other’s darker blue gaze. “What? Forget how to drive? Though you were the smart one, Car?” Axel sighed, his head lolling back against the rest behind him and he slouched in his seat, ignoring the other’s questioning about his state right now. “Fuckin’ drive.” He whispered with no depth behind his tone.

Carson reached over to snatch at Axel’s bag, asking him if he had more on him if that was why he took so long getting out here. Ax swatted at his hand and squeezed his back pack tighter between his calves, “I’m not stupid I wouldn’t buy with you around. God.” He snapped back, grumbling to himself when his older brother started asking him about if he had a vision again, begging him to talk to him like he used to. “I’m gonna walk. Want me to walk? I’m gonna walk. I’ll just walk. I don’t need you babysitting me. I don’t tell you shit ‘cuz it’s none of your business.” He murmured easily, his eyes slipping closed further the more he talked to the man beside him.

 

Carson's anger flared at his brother's reaction, easily finding the bag of weed in his brother's pack despite the words he'd just spoken. He had been bending over backwards for weeks covering Axel's tracks, cleaning up after him and keeping him corralled in his room or down in the basement when he was stoned in the house, and all he got from his brother in return was this attitude.

"Dammit Axel! You can't even keep your eyes open right now, let alone walk fifteen miles home! What the fuck is wrong with you man? You think you're being clever? You think I don't know you're high off your ass right now? It is my business because you make it my business! If I didn't cover your ass you'd be caught in less time than it takes you to change your damn clothes before you come out here for a ride home!" Carson shot back tersely, not quite yelling but not being quiet either. He rolled his eyes at Axel's shocked expression, he really thought he'd had Carson fooled? That just made him more mad and he threw the car into drive and pealed out of the parking lot, keeping the small plastic bag of weed out of his brother's reach when he made a half-hearted grab for it.

They got well out of town on the rural highway toward their house and Axel was moaning at him to give him his weed back, laughing as he made a few more grabs for the bag. Once they were a good distance between town and the house, Carson unrolled his window and it didn't seem to dawn on Axel what he was doing until Carson had the bag held open out the window, shaking it's contents out to be scattered by the wind over the ditch along the highway.

The blond shoved at his brother's shoulder lightly, laughing and repeating several times that he couldn't believe Carson had just done that and asking him why he did it. The elder sibling simply shrugged him off, not looking him in the eye keeping his focus on the road less out of necessity and more out of the anger he felt towards his brother at the moment.

"Because that stuff is garbage, Ax. You need to stop. I can't keep covering for you like this and you're only getting worse. What do you think's gonna happen if they catch you with that shit at school, huh? What will you do if I'm not there to cover for you like I am at home?" Carson asked bitterly, torn between concern for his brother and wanting to keep him out of trouble, and getting fed up with his behavior and wanting to see him face the consequences.

But no matter how mad at his brother he got, it seemed he couldn't break himself of the need to protect him even if he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that covering for Axel was really hurting him in the long run, he couldn't just stand by and let his brother get reamed by their dad, kicked out of school or something worse. 

They got back to the house and Carson immediately shuffled his brother into his room, telling him to change again and not come out till he was sobered up. Their father wouldn't be home for a few more hours and Mari wasn't immediately available, so Carson left his sibling to find her so he could keep her busy awhile if needed.

 

“I can’t beliiiieeve you did that. I can’t believe it.” Axel repeated over and over through his laughter and he likely would be more irritated if he hadn’t smoked as much as he had. He reached over and pushed at Carson’s shoulder, “Why would you do that?” He questioned adamantly.

Carson answered quickly with the fact that what he bought was garbage, clearly not wanting him to smoke it. He only half listened to the other state that he couldn’t keep all of this up, questioning him repeatedly on a number of things he didn’t quite grasp right now. “W-wh… hah-hat?” He giggled again through his word in response, not quite grasping onto the serious discussion that his older brother was trying to have with him right now.

They drove and Ax was drifting in and out of it the whole time they sped back to the bunker until Carson nudged him hard and ushered him into the house, ordering him to go and change, following him back to his room to make sure he got there. “I don’t smell.” He insisted in an annoyed tone, his arms swinging awkwardly with him as he spoke with his hands. Carson pushed him to the bed and jabbed a finger at his chest asking him if he wanted him to tear off his clothes again like the little kid he was acting like.

Ax raised his foot and while his aim wasn’t all that great he didn’t miss really and the kick was light against Carson’s abdomen and thigh. The older of the Black brother’s grabbing his foot and telling him to shape up because he really couldn’t cover for him like this all the time. “Then don’t. I don’t care. Man if you took a hit or two… that stick shoved up your ASS would just fall right out.” He emphasized with sound effects as well as his hands gesturing to show him what he meant.

“Ow.” He whined as Carson shoved his foot down and away from him, gripping Axel’s shirt as he almost tumbled off the bed from the movement. Carson muttered that he meant it, telling him to change and sleep it off. Axel did just so as his brother left, tearing off his clothes and climbing into bed, sprawling out and drifting off with in a few moments of his head hitting the down pillow he slept on.

Mari smiled at Carson when he came into the laundry room, not something entirely uncommon but certainly not something that occurred often either. “Hi Honey.” She greeted lightly, leaning into him as he bent to kiss her cheek while she reached up to pat his firm middle. “Where’s your brother?” She asked him but with the way he had been so withdrawn lately she wasn’t too surprised that the pair weren’t hanging out quite as much anymore.

Carson easily answered that he went to lie down and said he might shower off since he had practice earlier, not wanting to offend his family. Mari laughed, “Yeah because we’ve never and to deal with that before.” She stated as she folded up the shirt she was still grasping, appreciating that her oldest son took right to helping her out without her asking. “He has less than a year and he’ll be bugging you day in and day out around campus again. Are you prepared for that?” She arched a brow, laughing to herself but really she hoped that them being close by would mean them getting to be friends again.

The young dark haired man answered with a shrug of his shoulders saying he wasn’t so sure that he was. “What do you mean?” She asked worriedly, her brow furrowing with concern as he stammered out that he just thought Axel was sometimes better learning on his own. “Well maybe so but I like it a whole lot better when you two are at the same school and you can keep tabs on him, show him around campus and introduce him to your buddies. He needs someone to look out for him especially with the way he’s been lately. I’m worried about him closing in on himself. He’s always in his room. Maybe… You could take him out this weekend or something? Have a boy’s night?” She offered with another smile.

 

Carson withheld the heavy sigh fighting to get out of him at his mother's request, reminding himself again that she was ignorant of what her younger son was up to and why he was really acting so withdrawn of late, why they really had been growing apart. The last thing he wanted to do was keeping lying to her and his dad like this, but his fear of the huge trouble Axel would be in if he didn't was just enough to keep him from coming clean. 

He agreed to his mother's request, nonchalantly stuffing Axel's clothes into the washer and quickly dumping in extra soap, laughing when his mom teased him for accidentally using too much though really he had done it on purpose. They finished up the clothing she had out to fold, he kept the conversation as much on what she'd been up to that day and her plans for the rest of the week so he didn't have to keep lying or talk about the things he was up to personally since he knew that didn't really matter to either of his parents, as long as he was getting high marks and keeping Axel in line, that was what they wanted to hear about.

\---  
As promised that Saturday night Carson pulled up to the pool hall in town with two of his friends from school as well as Axel and one of his friends from wrestling in tow all crammed into his vehicle. The main reason Ax had agreed to come was because Carson let him bring a friend and agreed to pay for their food. 

They all piled out of the car and walked in, Carson's friends hooting and hollering with Ax and his buddy already and it made the older Black sibling smile a bit at least, maybe they would manage to have some fun together tonight like old times. The first order of business was getting a table in the rather crowded pool hall, ordering plenty of greasy food to graze on while they played.

They got a couple games going, laughing and talking and getting a few friendly bets going. Axel even played a round or two on the same team as Carson, and things were going really well until they switched up the game and it ended up coming down to Carson versus Axel. All their friends egged them on, smack taking on one or the other brother's behalf, putting bets on them and Carson started to get agitated realizing that all his friends were betting in his favor while only Axel's friend put money on Ax, and it was clear he was doing that out of friendship not because he really thought Axel could win.

The bets hedged against him only seemed to make Axel more determined however, and he started talking shit himself, goading Carson into playing despite the older sibling's reservations. He always beat Axel at pool, to the point where Ax could always tell if he was trying to throw games so his brother could win and that only tended to make him angrier. The problem he had with pool was the same he had with pretty much everything else Carson beat him at, the kid either couldn't or wouldn't look ahead to the next moves and how one maneuver might effect the next.

But he gave in to them anyway, handily beating his brother and trying not to feed into the smack talk too much, watching Axel's reactions carefully and seeing how he was trying not to lose his cool but his resolve was crumbling fast.   
Axel was never the greatest at pool though part of him knew why, he didn’t have the focus like Carson no matter how hard he tried it didn’t come so easy. Carson always told him it was because he never thought ahead, just like in his own life he simply acted and reacted and let things fall where they did, lie with whom they may without much of a fight or will to change that all the time. The future wasn’t much in his mind in regards to the game and his plays as well as his real life outside of this round of the sport.

He steadily grew angrier as Carson sunk ball after ball and he could see in his brother’s eyes that he knew where each was going and how it was going to get there. He was just that good. By the time he sunk the last ball in Ax was livid, his jaw clenched tight and he couldn’t help but feel inadequate yet again just as he almost always did around his brother. “Yeah well he practices all the time I’ve only played like a dozen times and none of them were serious anyhow.” He grumbled though Carson didn’t help when he mentioned he hadn’t been playing pool long either.

The blond shot him a glare and all but slammed his pool stick on the felt covered table, hearing his friends make comments in regards to him throwing a tantrum. “Screw you guys.” He snapped back over the dull roar of the crowd, glancing at the eldest Black sibling who told him it was no big deal. “Of course it’s not, not to you. You win everything. All around perfection, Carson Black everybody!” He clapped but the other men around them seemed a little put off by his bitterness, clearly noting now that he had some serious issues and wasn’t just getting a little upset by his loss.

Ax took off around the table and his buddy followed after him like the loyal guy he was to him, asking if he was okay and why he was freaking out about all this when it was only a friendly game. “No he’s rubbing it all in my face that he’s better than me at everything…” He mumbled, his fingers fumbling with the lighter in his hand while the other searched his pocket for his stash he had just bought or he could have sworn he just bought. He remembered in the car, the last time he smoked was Thursday afternoon, two days ago and Carson stole his baggy and dumped it out his window along the road.

“Fuck. Man you got like a quarter or a joint or somethin’?” He asked his friend, Kyle beside him. The shorter stockier brunet shook his head and patted at his pockets for emphasis, apologizing that he didn’t bring anything with him. “I texted Pearson like an hour ago ‘bout meetin’ later cuz he said he’s got Sour Diesel right now. Hell of a lot smoother than that other shit and I gotta nab that while he’s got it. He’s making rounds though, you heard from Styles?” He nodded to his friend, getting a little fidgety as he waited for him to look over his phone and confirm that he hadn’t gotten anything from the two people they usually bought from depending on the high they both wanted.

Ax’s phone vibrated as he waited in line for another soda, paying the cashier hurriedly and informing Kyle that Pearson managed his way outside of the pool hall. “I owe yah from last month dude, buy you a gram and call it even? I think I got enough he said forty.” He stated, scrounging around in his wallet to see if he had enough cash on him to cover them both. Kyle followed him out of the Pool Hall and sure enough the overly tall and hard to miss black male named Pearson was standing out leaning against his old Pinto with a cigarette ablaze between his lips.

“’Ey, Ax-Man. What’s good?” Pearson asked, reaching out to slap his hand into Axel’s and offer a ceremonial handshake that they both just seemed to know. “We cool out here right? Place don’t seem too classy, no high rollers lookin’ get us popped by the Blues?”

“Nah we’re good. If anything think it’ll bring yah more business.” Axel watched the cursory glance that Pearson made as he nodded for him to get in the car with him. He did just so, slipping in the backseat and making the deal in a little more private setting. Ax looked over the cannabis he had to offer, taking in what Pearson had to say about the color and the effects Sour Diesel would have on them, promising this particular branch wouldn’t disappoint. “Looks good man. Your trade.” He offered, handing over the tightly folded bills and Pearson accepted, counting them out before indicating they could go with a little grin on his face.

Ax got out of the car and headed over to Kyle who was lurking just by the vehicle more or less as a watch dog for them to make the deal. “I got papers in my wallet, grinder in my pocket.” The blond told his friend as he stepped aside by the entry way of the pool hall to show him their latest buy, tugging out his roll papers and taking two to use until Kyle stated he wasn’t up for lighting up in a public place like this, seeming far more worried about it than Axel was. “Nobody’s gonna come out and who gives a shit if they do anyhow?”

The young Black sibling pulled out his grinder, dropping down a couple flecks of the flower into it and tearing it up between the metal, sniffing at its sour scent. He knelt down to use his knee as somewhat of a table, putting away the remainder of the cannabis in the back pocket of his jeans while he dumped out the ground contents onto the little white sheet of paper, licking his fingers and touching the edges of the paper eagerly, grinning from ear to ear as he started rolling his joint until Carson’s voice broke him from his task. “Shit.” He curse from the more or less alleyway area he and Kyle housed. He wasn’t sure he even saw what they were doing but it was likely he had an idea that Axel came outside just to buy.

Ax tucked away his lighter and the joint he just finished rolling up, evidence hidden and his blue gaze flickered up to his older sibling. “Sup? Comin’ to rub it in some more? Did you hustle everyone outta their money?”

Carson gave him that same look he almost always did, looking down his nose at him and shaking his head because he knew for certain Ax wasn't doing what he was told. He straightened back out to meet his older brother's eyes, staring right back at him as he asked what he was doing outside when everyone else was inside. "I don't need a babysitter. When are you gonna get that?"  
Carson's gaze narrowed as he took stock of his younger brother, he didn't have to be detective to note the tense set of the young man's frame or the mixture of rage and apprehension in his eyes. He glanced back out to the parking lot and saw a large black man sitting in his parked running car staring intently at the both of them with an amused grin on his face.

"Maybe I will when you stop acting like a little kid who runs off to pout when he loses? So. You just bought from him, didn't you? You can't even handle losing a fucking game of pool without medicating now? Jesus Axel. I took you out tonight to have some fun without that shit." Carson bit back, rubbing his hand over his mouth and jaw trying to keep his swelling anger in check. So much for a guy's night out, he was pretty sure now the only reason Ax had really agreed to come was to get the chance to meet up with his dealer.

Axel insisted that he hadn't bought anything, that he wasn't that stupid with Carson around calling him 'officer self-righteous' and that tore it for the elder Black sibling. He was just trying to spend some time with his brother, get closer to him again and watch out for him and this was his reward? Quicker than thought Carson had Axel pinned against the rough brick wall of the pool hall, glaring into his brother's eyes the same bright shade of blue as his own.

"So you're telling me that if I don't search you right now and you know that I could and you couldn't do a damn thing to stop me, you're saying I won't find weed on you, is that it?" Carson growled, forcing his brother harder against the wall for emphasis, and though Axel struggled there was no way he was getting out of the older and stronger boy's grip. The blond shouted back in his face that he didn't have anything, that all he wanted was to go home and be left alone. Carson stared at Ax a moment longer, his heart falling into his gut because he knew one hundred percent that Axel was lying to his face. 

He leaned in closer so only the two of them could hear, whispering harshly, "You're lying to me. We both know that. But unlike you I pay attention to the things dad teaches us and I know there are two undercover cops inside, so I'm not going to bust you here and let them get wind of it. You wanna go home? Want me to leave you alone? Fine. See how long you last without me wiping your ass for you 'cuz I'm done." Carson stepped back, gripping the back of Axel's collar and roughly walking him back to their car, all but throwing him inside. "Stay here. The cops watched you leave so if you go back inside they'll be paying special attention to you. I'm gonna go get the guys." The dark haired sibling growled, storming back into the pool hall schooling his expression into something more casual to put on a show for his friends.

Carson did a fair job of hiding his anger but Axel simply stewed so everyone else pretty much ignored him on the way home, chalking up his attitude to taking losing the game too hard still. Each of their friends got dropped off and Axel's friend seemed the most uncomfortable of all of them, saying a timid good night to Carson and promising to meet up with Ax at school on Monday which the blond grumpily acknowledged. The siblings drove home in stony silence, just as Carson pulled up to the house he cleared his throat.

"If you're gonna smoke that shit here tonight I suggest you set your alarm extra early to do your own damn laundry if you don't want mom and dad to find out. And mellow out a bit first before you come in last time I had to tell mom you were acting weird because you pulled an all nighter studying when she saw you." He said in a neutral tone, not really even angry anymore just disappointed. He got out of the car and preceded Axel inside, going straight to his room and swearing to himself that he wouldn't wait up and check on the kid tonight, it was his own responsibility to cover his tracks now.

 

Axel stared at Carson as he instructed him on having to cover his tracks and telling him to set an alarm if he was going to smoke what he bought tonight. Hell at this point the boy was wishing he hadn't handed off the other half of it to his buddy. "Why thank you, Officer Friendly." He quipped, rolling his eyes a little but at the same time he was considering what Carson had to say, that he would have to be more careful though he really doubted if the man would simply stop helping him out. "I'll be sure to be more discrete about it if it makes you feel better." He stated, grabbing his lighter from his pocket and lacing it back and forth along his fingers, giving it a little twirl before pocketing it again.

He did just as his brother requested of him, smoked the joint he rolled only now he was to the point of happily doing so in his own room, towel shoved up against the crack of the door to keep the smoke and scent from pouring out. Only this time after he was done, after he woke up in the morning he followed Carson's lead, set his alarm no matter how groggy he felt he got up to wash his clothes knowing if he didn't that Mari would find them on the floor or in the laundry smelling as dank as ever. It was better that way and in a sense Ax felt guilty as well as relieved that Carson had backed off and it lasted a good while.

\---

Ax started high school within the next year and his habits hardly changed, the only difference was that he was cleaning up after himself for the most part when it came down to his smoking. He wasn't exactly making a name for himself but he wasn't avoiding doing so either. People knew him, mostly through Carson but the only way he got out of that was when he started getting more serious about wrestling. He bulked up just a bit before his freshman year, in the middle weight class and striving   
for the upper division by the time he became a sophomore but he had plenty of time to do so anyhow.

He didn't love classes, didn't love the new environment but he did love the freedom that being in High School offered him, free lunch period with open campus so he could leave as he wanted. Not that he had anywhere to go without his own car really but he could stroll up the block a ways and get enough away from campus to light up and smoke a bowl before sixth period.

He wandered out to the parking lot and while his focus and drive had been on his usual afternoon ritual to get him through the day, he didn't miss the crowd of upper class men that opted for addressing him. Axel made the attempt to ignore it and keep his task in mind, "Nice moves out there, 'Ax-Man'." One of the boys mocked the nickname most the wrestlers addressed him as. "Throwing matches on purpose? It's cute how you think you'll lead us to the finals already. Just got here and you're already fuckin' it up for everybody. Maybe if you'd actually learned to wrestle instead of dance you'd serve purpose."

"Oh I'm sorry... I don't think I've seen you on the team before. I do remember you at try outs though, panting like a dog after the first lap around the track... couldn't do more than a dozen pull-ups straight? Matt right?" Ax questioned, pushing forward towards the little crowd hanging towards the back end of an open truck bed. He stared at the larger kid, "Being a big boy don't mean you know how to fight right? Hard to keep your rival pinned when you're too busy dealing with the hard on you get at the smell of pizza from the stands, right?" He quipped, smirking up at the huskier kid and ducking instantly when his fists clenched and he threw a punch in his direction. "Aww too slow."

Matt threw another hook with his opposite hand and Ax caught it, twisting his arm and slamming it against the side of the truck he and his buddies had been standing around. "It's restraint you know... Part of my problem. Too much or two little. I'm sure you can sympathize." Axel grumbled deep in his throat through clenched teeth, feeling Matt fight him and throwing his elbow into his stomach as he turned around to face someone else's fist that came crashing down on his jaw. The blond launched back a foot or two, nearly stumbling into a girl who had been lingering beside one of the other boys. "Sorry." He apologized sincerely to her for crashing into her and making her lose her book clutched in her hands. He bent without thinking about the others, picking it up for her and when she gasped he spun around, slamming the smaller hardbound book alongside Matt's face. "Again sorry. Uhh-- Here." He stammered, picking up the rest of her things quickly and trying not to tumble himself as he shoved them into her arms and she simply stared at him and cringed at the blood streaks he left on her supplies.

Ax whirled around and clenched his fist, tossing his weight just like Carson taught him into his left leg as he stepped forward and upper cut the taller of the few boys. "Nah we need big ol' burly manly men like you on the football team. That... takes so much skill, slapping each other's asses and chasing each other around. Tee hee, come on Matty we both know you're fit for quarterback. Not much running there right?" He ducked again to dodge another punch only to take a third's knee right to his face, his foot raising and colliding with Axel's chest to lift him and knock him back again only this time he slammed into a parked toyota behind him, coughing and spitting blood, his split lip already swelling and his eye bruising faintly around the rim. "It's not so fun when the bully get bullied is it?" He spat.

Carson's days at school were hectic to say the least, always running back and forth from various clubs and groups not to mention that it seemed like no matter where he turned someone wanted to talk to him or get his help with something, students and teachers alike. But no matter how busy he got he always tried to keep an eye on Axel, opting for more observation than direct interaction since the blond seemed to want hardly anything to do with him at school.

He had a girl from his advanced physics class waiting on him for lunch date, and by lunch date he figured they'd do less eating actual food and more making out in his car but he was more than okay with that since she had been the one to suggest it in the first place. Carson didn't really have time for serious dating but that didn't seem to stop the almost perpetual stream of interested girls trying to get his attention.

He was on his way out to his vehicle in the parking lot to meet up for 'lunch' when he saw a fight happening a few rows over. Carson naturally jogged over to try and put a stop to it, only realizing once he got closer that it was none other than his own younger brother right in the thick of it. Axel was becoming a better fighter every day but still it was hard to hold your own when the score was four against one. Two of the larger upperclassmen had gotten Ax pinned to the side of a beat up old Toyota while another laid into him throwing punches to his gut and face as he saw fit while the forth largest one was laughing his ass off next to the slender girl beside him who clearly looked uncomfortable with this whole affair.

Carson honestly wouldn't have been surprised to hear his brother had started this fight, Axel's mouth and temper tended to get the better of him but it didn't really matter to the elder sibling, he wasn't about to let any one beat the shit out of his little brother. 

He stormed over and shoved past the ring leader to take out the one doing the beating with a solid kick to his midsection, causing the young man to fold at the waist and fall to the asphalt like so much dirty laundry. The pair holding Axel prone stared at Carson in shock, he was a year ahead of both of them, taller, stronger and looking angrier than probably anyone at the school thought he was capable of considering how generally nice he was to anyone he met.

Axel was pretty badly beat up but he took advantage of their distracted state, yanking one arm free and clocking the dude still holding him in the face, sending him back a few steps with his sucker punch. The blond staggered out to stand beside Carson and they automatically turned their backs to each other for cover, looking at their opponents with a grim sort of satisfaction now that the odds were more evenly stacked.

Both boys seemed hesitant to engage the brothers, Axel cursed at the one facing him calling him names trying to goad him into fighting, but Carson was hoping this could end without further bloodshed so they could avoid getting into even deeper trouble. Right now Axel was still clearly the victim here, but if he kept inciting them then he'd end up in just as much hot water as the guys who jumped him, provoked or not.

Carson glanced at the biggest guy who'd been merely observing, glancing down at the one he'd sent to the ground seeing him struggling to get up on his own. "So? What's it gonna be shithead? You wanna call your dogs off and go enjoy a quiet lunch hour without any more trouble? Or do I have to make them and you bleed like the cowards you are for attacking my brother four on one?" Carson asked dangerously, no trace of bravado or bluster in his voice, only simmering anger and a quiet confidence that told the other guys they had no chance of beating them in a fight, because in reality they didn't.

The biggest one took an involuntary half step back, nodding to his other friends who quickly collected their doubled-over comrade and all of them hurried off without so much as another word to either Black sibling, clearly taking Carson's threat to heart.

Carson sighed and turned back to face his brother who had slumped back heavily against the car he'd been pinned to, clearly only putting on a show for the bullies but really he was in pretty rough shape. The elder brother winced sympathetically as Axel coughed and blood bubbled from his mouth down his chin.

"Come on man, let's go get you patched up." Carson said gently, not asking anything about the fight right now only caring about treating his brother's wounds. He had to help support Axel's weight most of the walk to his car where he already had a stash of hunting supplies started in his trunk, including a fairly decent medical kit. His classmate was no where to be seen and Carson was grateful for that, making a mental note to apologize to her later.

Axel slung his arm around his older brother’s shoulders, letting him keep him upright and while they might have had their differences a lot more lately than they ever had before, they were still brothers always. He followed Carson to his Camaro, leaning against the side of it while he dug around in the trunk for his medical kit to help him get fixed up a bit if he was going to look at least somewhat presentable for classes now without there being troubles on either end.

“You know I honestly thought you might side with them on that bit.” He muttered through a huff of air, shifting against the side of his brother’s car, listening to him when he responded that wasn’t a fair accusation, asking him why he thought that. “Just a thought… Inclination I guess. Hardly see you at home or on campus anyhow.” He shrugged, his body starting to ache as he got a real feel for his bruises and cuts.

Carson sighed heavily and mentioned just what he thought he might, that they were still family and he wouldn’t fight against him whether he agreed or not, asking to know what the whole ordeal was about anyhow. “Matt Hunnam this is hot shit since he made the football team last minute. Started makin’ jabs about how I lost my last few matches. Just a bunch of bullshit.” He shook his head, not missing the way Carson was looking at him like he didn’t fully believe that was the whole story.

Axel pushed at his hand when he started to try and clean up his eye, “You don’t believe me. Lemme guess you think I owe ‘em money for drugs right? Or they jumped me for drugs?” He snapped up at his brother, yanking away from his grasp. “I know I smoke and do stupid shit but that’s not all I fuckin’ do. Excuse me for not bein’ Daddy’s Little Hunting Machine.” He coughed towards the end, his ribs and abdomen hurting him with each movement.

Carson gently guided him back to lean on the car, claiming he didn’t think that was all he did it just seemed like a high priority to him lately. “Hunnam’s a bully so I picked back ‘cuz nobody else will. Just thought I was doin’ everyone a favor.”

Carson's gaze flickered from his brother's eyes to the bleeding cut above his eye, finally getting to work cleaning it up now that Axel was being still and allowing him to do it. "Well you certainly didn't do yourself any favors now did you?" He commented with a low chuckle as Ax winced as he cleaned it up, putting in a couple stitches which seemed to surprise Ax somewhat, he asked him where he'd learned to do that and the elder brother shrugged.

"Dad taught me. Gotta know at least basic stuff like this if you wanna make it as a hunter... Dad made me stitch up my own arm last month when that damn harpy sliced it open." Carson replied in a subdued tone, finishing the small cut and moving on to clean up the other nicks and scrapes on the blonds face, applying some sealant to the split on Axel's lip. "Keep your lips open a minute and let that dry, it'll stop the bleeding and help with the swelling." He instructed, leaning back and looking his brother up and down. He was probably gonna walk with a limp for a day or two, but Axel was a tough kid, he'd be all right.

Carson moved to stand next to his brother, leaning against his Camaro as well and sighing as he cleaned his hands of his Axel's blood with rubbing alcohol and cotton pads. "There's a _lot_ more to you than just the drugs Axel. I know that, mom and dad know that, but... I'm starting to worry that maybe you don't. I mean have you thought at all about what happens next? After high school, after all this... It seemed like you wanted to become a hunter too, but lately you haven't been showing up for sparring or lessons, you even turned down going on your first hunt with us last month, same time I got that cut on my arm. Coulda used your good aim out there." Carson laughed as he lightly touched the pale scar that graced his forearm now. 

"You accuse me of thinking all you do is drugs, and I don't think that, but... You've been doing a lot more lately. I'm just worried is all. I wanna help you, Ax but-" Carson shrugged, looking at his sibling again not sure how far to push this conversation now, "You keep pushing me and everyone else away. I'm always gonna be here for you, man. But you gotta talk to me, let me know what's going on with you. I could've helped you with those guys if they're giving you a hard time, _before_ you caught an ass-beating. We could've put a bad juju hex bag in one of their lockers or something." Carson joked, nudging his brother's shoulder trying to win at least a smile from him.   
Axel stared at him occasionally looking away out of self consciousness. "I'm not all drugs... that shit just makes it easier. That's all." He started, allowing Carson to clean him up at least and giving a shake of his head. "It's not easy dude. Everybody seems to think it is." He had to admit that smoking had become priority especially considering how often it happened on his free time anyhow.

"You're a lot to compete with..." he mumbled as Carson cleaned him up a bit. He shrugged at his statement, supposing it was true that he more or less had to deny hunting to avoid his dad catching.onto what he did to cope. "It's you and dad's thing. All I am is a good shot right?"

He shook his head again, "I wanna hunt it's just... my head gets... it's like a mess of things up there, y'know?" Ax admitted. "There's shit I didn't even tell you and I can't tell dad. He gets it more so but it's that constant worry and starts to feel like the worse they get the more he's checking in on me. Smoking keeps it at bay then I don't gotta lie." Je stated softly, not mad but also disconnected mostly from the conversation entirely.  
Carson's heart twisted with sympathy for his little brother, brushing off his jeans and pushing away from the car to turn and face Axel again. "I know it isn't easy man. I know I'll never really understand what it is you have to live with, but... I mean there's gotta be another way. There's gotta be something we can do so you don't have to be so dependent on the drugs to the point where you can't do anything else with your life, you know?" He prompted gently, smiling at his brother when he nodded but knowing that just saying the words and actually doing something were two very different things.

"Why don't you come on the hunt with dad and I tonight, hmm? I've already got a pass out of school for the next two days, it'd be easy to get you added to it. Maybe having something to do will help take your mind off the shit you have to deal with. You're more than a good shot, we could really use you out there." Carson suggested, turning and walking away so Axel wouldn't feel pressured to respond one way or the other immediately. "Just think about it, okay? Let me know after school if you're in or not. Unless you're gonna let those little bumps and cuts slow you down." Carson called over his shoulder, pleased when Axel chuckled and yelled back at him that his injuries were nothing, at least he still had a little fight left in him.

\---  
Carson had to work to hide his joy when Axel actually agreed to go on the hunt with him and Parker, and the three of them set off that night, their dad openly over the moon that his youngest had decided unexpectedly to join them. They cleared out a small nest of vampires and while Carson had had to keep his brother from getting his head torn off once, it went well and he was pleased that over the two days they were out Axel didn't slink off to get his fix though he had noticed he'd packed it and Carson hid it a little better for him so Parker wouldn't find it.

They returned and it seemed like Axel was at least in a little better spirits, but he still locked himself in his room the next night to get high and Carson hoped the tiny amount of progress they'd made wasn't all for nothing. Over the next week he noticed that Axel was still using but at least it didn't seem to be two or three times a day like it had been, he even saw him eating lunch with his wrestling buddies instead of going out to smoke three out of the five days of the week.

He hoped maybe their talk had had an effect on his younger sibling, but he also knew the wrestling team had preliminary state matches coming up so it was possible it was just coincidence, Ax tended to smoke less when he had a tournament coming up so he could be sharp on the mat. 

Carson, Parker and Mari all attended Axel's match, cheering him on from the stands and the blond tore through every fight in the first and second tiers, till he finally was bested and lost his chance to compete in the final match up. He didn't get all the way to the top this time but he still had out performed every other guy on his team, and his teammates all rushed to congratulate him once his fight was over. 

Carson and his parents were near the top of the bleachers so they had a hard time making their way down to offer their own congratulations, but the elder black sibling didn't miss seeing a petite little blonde girl timidly approaching his brother who was toweling off his sweaty head after removing his ear guards. He smiled wide and pointed it out to his mom and dad, whispering that maybe they should give the boy a minute or two before they made their way down anyway.

\--  
April wasn't really a big wrestling fan, but since her brother had made the team this year she didn't really have much choice but to attend his matches along with her parents to support him. She was mostly bored the whole time, wishing she could be at home working on her homework or practicing for her violin solo in the orchestra concert next week.

But there was one thing that caught her interest this time that hadn't before. One of her brother's teammates was doing well and she found herself becoming far more invested in his progress rather than her own sibling's. He was tenacious, his fighting style was unpredictable and bordering on the edge of chaotic but he was strong enough that he could out-muscle his way through most of his competition until he finally went against an opponent who thought a few moves ahead. He had talent, that was for sure, just not a lot of focus it seemed.

She went down to the floor to congratulate her brother, almost all her attention on the tall blond several feet away toweling off from his more recent match. Her brother got distracted talking to his coach, and so April made a move that was very unlike her, crossing the space to approach the boy who had inexplicably captured her attention all evening. She told herself she was crazy for just going and talking to him out of the blue, but... April felt like the butterflies in her stomach were never going to leave her alone if she didn't just go over and at least try talking to him.

She timidly walked up to him, ducking her head and smiling shyly when he turned at her approach and looked down at her with a slightly confused expression.

"Um... Hi." April all but squeaked, glancing up when he said hello back in a baffled tone. "My name's April... Brandon is my brother?" She prompted, giggling nervously when his eyes sparked with recognition at the mention of her sibling at least. He started to say his name but she cut him off, "You're Axel Black, I know." She smiled, fidgeting with her fair hair and tucking it behind her ears. "I just wanted to... Say good job on your fights tonight. You were really great out there." She said softly, blushing a bit at how stupid she felt she sounded to him.  
Axel had taken to wrestling more as an outlet for his frustrations and in part it seemed to help. He still hadn't stopped smoking but when he had focus and drive on the task of putting on pounds or bulking up a bit for his next match it became a little less of a priority. Hunting and training with his father and brother seemed to help him just as well to keep a good head despite what he sometimes saw on hunts or before and after.

He had just rang in on another match finishing up close to the top and while he still wasn't the best he was definitely good. He wandered over to grab his water and wipe off some of the excess sweat from his face and brow when a little blonde number came on over his way. He smiled at her nervously finding it a little odd considering he wasnt the sibling that normally got attention like this, fidgeting and glancing around as she said hello to him and he awkwardly returned it.

"I'm Ax--" The blond responded but she seemed to know him already saying she was Brandons sister. "Oh right yeah Brandon." He nodded to her listening to her congratulate him and sound as though she had been cheering him on. "You uhh... you watched my matches?" He questioned.

The girl called April nodded at him her cheeks burning red aa she only half looked at him. "Cool." He muttered uncertainty, looking over his shoulder at his family in the stands and then the rest of his teammates. "Sorry I'm all... I'm sweaty and uhh... well youre probably used to it with Brandon right but..." he stammered out.

"I don't sweat this much normally just after matches." He cleared his throat uncertain on what to say to her. She giggled at him none the less and told him he was fine. Axel nodded again, "Wh-what are you doing after? I mean we just... we just met but like ice cream sounds kind of good." He mumbled.  
April never imagined that when she worked up the courage to come say hello to Axel Black that he'd immediately ask her out. The petite blonde nervously giggled and her blue eyes fell to the floor as she blushed further, taking a deep breath and repeating her mantra that had helped her feel brave enough to even come over here in the first place, that she was brave and she could get what she wanted if she only had the guts to go after it.

"No no, it's... It's fine. I mean working hard like that you're gonna get sweaty right? Um... I like ice cream, sure. I'll go out for some with you, if... I mean if that's what you're asking." April responded, making herself look Axel in the eye as she spoke and smiling at his poorly masked shock that she actually agreed to his offer. The young man continued to towel off his hair, stammering about how he should probably go change first and that made April laugh and nod her head, "Yeah that might be um, a good idea. I'll just... Wait for you at the gym entrance?" April replied looking him up and down in his bright blue wrestling uniform that likely wouldn't meet any kind of dress code for a restaurant. Axel quickly agreed and waved as she walked off to go wait where she proposed to, feeling lightheaded and giddy that her little bit of courage had had such a positive result. 

Carson was a little disappointed that the blonde girl was gone by the time he and their parents finally go thru the crowd to congratulate Ax on his matches. But then again their mom tended to get a little... Overly enthusiastic about meeting the girls that he went out with and he figured she'd be the same way if not more so with Axel and he likely didn't need that kind of attention right now.

The elder Black sibling opened his mouth to congratulate his brother and ask who that girl was, but his mom true to form beat him to the punch squealing excitedly at him and practically dancing where she stood asking her youngest who that pretty girl had been and if they were going out, forgoing any comments about his wrestling entirely in favor of firing questions about the mystery girl at the young man instead.

Parker put his arm around his wife in an attempt to calm her down a bit, laughing at the way Axel was trying to awkwardly backpedal out of giving his effusive mother too much information though it was clear he didn't really have much to begin with, stating that they'd only just met and he was going to take her out for ice cream once he changed.

Carson's dark brows rose at that, a grin spreading from ear to ear over his face. He was happy for his brother, but he couldn't help but be amused that his rather famous problem of not thinking things through applied to his love life as well.

"So... You're taking her out for ice cream, huh? Were you planning on carrying her on you back to Edith's?" Carson asked with a little chuckle as he named the local creamery in town, holding back on shaking his head as his brother went wide-eyed with the realization that just because he had a date didn't magically mean he had a car to take her in. "Do you have any money with you? I know a lot of times you don't bring your wallet to matches so you don't lose it..." The elder brother continued, already making a move to take his own wallet out but Axel hardly noticed as he was too busy getting more disappointed realizing he was ill prepared for what he'd gotten himself into.

"Here, I've got 30 bucks in cash you can pay me back later. And you can take my car, I'll bum a ride home with mom and dad. If you guys don't mind?" Carson handed the cash to his little brother and pulled his keys from his pocket as well, glancing over at his dad who nodded approvingly at him for helping his brother like he was. Axel looked just as shocked by Carson's offer as he had been to simply admit he had a date, standing there dumbstruck holding the cash and staring at the keys dangling from Carson's hand.

"Well come on killer, take 'em. Just take care of my car all right? No crazy driving." Carson laughed pushing his keys out closer to the blond who finally reached out and took them.  
Axel was never one to plan anything through and most of the time it bit him in the ass, apparently even now. He stared at his brother and then his parents, seeing that Mari was itching to keep asking him questions but those that varied from what Carson was asking him. He fidgeted almost just as nervously in front of them as he had with April. "I uhh--" He started realizing that he had yet again screwed up, berating himself for not having his own car and for not having brought his wallet.

Carson tugged out his wallet and told him he could take his car, requesting he not drive to crazy and that he pay him back later on when he could. Ax nodded, his smile returning and his stomach in knots when he realized that now he... really did have a date since there was nothing holding him back. "Thanks, man. I'll pay you back when I'm home for the gas and everything too." He assured the other Black sibling, grinning as Carson pat him on the shoulder in a congratulatory manner and it felt different than when he was trying to make him feel better. He seemed genuinely proud that Ax had a date.

"Guess it's a new day huh? Finally didn't get shot down." He mumbled, "I'm gonna go change and then... I'll be going. Thanks. Mom I'll fill you in when I'm home okay?" Axel promised, seeing her fidget and knowing she was dying to grab him and force him into questioning. She nodded eagerly and told him to run and get changed, not to let them keep him any longer because his lady was waiting for him. Ax nodded in return and grinned up at his father too as he jogged past them, going to the locker room to change out his clothes and when he came out of the space he nearly crashed into Carson who was dangling keys in his face, reminding him those were important when it came to actually getting the vehicle moving. "Right."

Carson gave him a final pat and told him he would be fine, to relax and just get to know her at least. Axel took off once more and found April where she said she would be, fidgeting with her hair as the wind started to pick up a bit. He smiled and cleared his throat to grab her attention, chuckling as she mentioned his newest attire and claimed it more suited for their outing. "I'd hope so. I'm not very good at the whole cleaning up thing." He stated lowly, "I have... my brother's car so... Oh did you need to tell anyone you're going?" He offered, nodding when she shook her head and assured him that she already informed her mom she was going out for ice cream.

He led her to his car, his hands stuffed in his pockets up until he tugged the keys out of his jeans to unlock the door, forgetting they weren't manual and not until April asked him if she was going to be dragged from the back or ride on the hood did he realize it. "No. Shit sorry... Hold on." He murmured, getting in the driver's side and reaching over to jiggle the bolt on the top of the door to get the lock to unlatch so she could join him. "Sorry. I don't usually drive. Well I mean I drive but I don't... he never likes me taking his car much." He told her, clearing his throat nervously again and starting up the car when she climbed in fully, giggling at him. "Are you cold? I can turn up the air?" Ax offered, flicking the heat on even before she responded to him, noting his hands shaking slightly from just having her around.  
April got settled in the passenger seat, shaking her head and laughing nervously at his question, "No no, I'm just fine thank you." She responded, getting herself buckled in and fidgeting with her small purse in her lap. Axel nodded and stretched his head around to look behind him as he began backing his brother's car out of it's space, getting them out on the road heading to the other side of town to the local ice cream shop.

They rode in silence for several moments, sneaking looks at each other but neither one seemed to quite know how to start a conversation. Finally Axel cleared his throat and leaned forward to mess with the radio, asking her if she had a station she liked that he could turn it to.

"Oh um, I like pretty much anything really. What kind of music do you usually listen to?" She asked, her silvery blue eyes flickering from her lap to the boy beside her and back. Axel shrugged, mentioning that he didn't really listen to music much, settling on the local top 40 type station and April nodded when he looked at her as if for confirmation.

They continued on, again neither one of them quite knew what to say but she figured since Axel had tried to say something first it was probably her turn. "Um... So what got you into wrestling? My brother talks about you a lot, says you're the best one on the team." April prompted, smiling softly at him when he grinned, seeming genuinely surprised to hear something like that said about himself.  
Ax changed the station to something that might be suitable, music wasn’t really his thing so much. He just never really cared enough to form an opinion on those kinds of things. He had kind of more or less expected his question to prompt some sort of conversation but it didn’t really considering he didn’t know anything about music and as it would seem she didn’t really have much to say in regards to it either, settling on a channel without argument.

They rode in quiet again for a little while and every time he felt her eyes on him he would glance over seconds later to do the same, look her up and down and then offer a smile. She broke the silence as if understanding that he wasn’t good at all of this really either, asking him what had gotten him into wrestling and mentioning her brother had talked about him rather highly. He smiled at the statement, “Didn’t think he really paid me much mind.” He responded.

He shrugged his shoulders and thought about his honest answer, “My brother kind of got me into it I guess. Kind of like an outlet for my anger and all that. Not that I have like a raging temper or anything just well you know.” Axel muttered, glancing over at her again and laughing when she started to making the tension in his frame visibly ease. She mentioned that most anyone that did sports had to have some sort of drive or frustration that made them do it as an outlet anyhow. “True. It keeps me from thinking about other things. I started sparring and boxing with my brother when I was younger and before that my dad taught us to fight and brought us up trying to build endurance and all that, stay in shape. Never like we had to do it we just liked the time in the gym I guess… until mom would call us up for dinner or something anyways.” He chuckled.

The blond lifted one hand, running it through his hair as he drove into town, looking over at her and trying to think of something to ask her in return again but instead he just got caught staring, making her flush and himself get embarrassed for having down so. “Do you like going to matches? I mean obviously it’s sort of obligation with your brother but you uhh—weren’t required to watch mine.”

He pulled up to the ice cream shop before she could answer him so he awkwardly shifted in the front seat once they got parked along the street. "So this is it." He stated... obviously.  
April blushed at Axel's questioning her about watching his wrestling matches when she was technically only 'obligated' to watch her brother's, but fortunately he cut himself off not giving her time to even answer his question by announcing that they'd arrived at the ice cream place, as if being parked right outside of it wasn't evidence enough.

The petite blonde giggled and nodded, unbuckling her seat belt, "Yep. I've ah, been here a few times before." She responded, hopping out of the car and walking with Axel into the ice cream shop. Axel got a triple scoop oreo sundae while April went with something smaller, a chocolate dipped strawberry shake. The girl sipped her treat neatly, watching the young man across from her start wolfing his ice cream down trying her best not to laugh at the fact that his nose got dotted with whipped cream.

After a moment he asked her what was so funny and she giggled harder, gesturing at the tip of her own nose to indicate his own situation. Axel's blue eyes crossed to try and look at the end of his nose, wincing a bit when he realized and quickly wiped the cream from his face, smiling sheepishly at her across the table.

They kept eating for a few minutes and April kept trying to think of something interesting to start a conversation but before she could Axel suddenly blurted out a question of his own, bluntly asking her why she had agreed to go on this date with him. The blonde's delicate eyebrows rose in surprise, her cheeks flushing as she struggled to form an answer in her mind that wasn't completely embarrassing.

"Well I- I mean I just... You asked me, so..." She started but he interrupted, apologizing for being so up front but mentioning that he wasn't really used to girls agreeing to talk to him let alone go on dates with him. April felt a little sad to hear that, leaning a little closer over the table to catch his gaze when he trained it on his half eaten bowl of ice cream.

"Well, I guess that's too bad for those other girls then, 'cause I'm out with you now and I'm having fun." She replied with a smile, taking another sip of her ice cream. "I don't really know what made me notice you Axel, I just... Did. And honestly I wasn't expecting you to ask me out when I said hello, but... I'm glad you did." She continued, her voice getting smaller and her cheeks getting redder but she felt a little better seeing his cheeks flushing a bit as well.  
Axel devoured his dairy treat much like his mother would, ice cream was always one of his favorite things since he was little but the fact that he hadn’t really eaten since before the match a couple hours ago made him all the more hungry for it. For anything really. He noted April’s amused smile and he questioned what it was for, why she seemed to be laughing at him and internally he was considering maybe this was a cruel joke he had missed entirely and now it was playing out completely.

She pointed to the tip of her nose and he quickly understood, his eyes crossing and he got confirmation that he had something or other on his face. He reached up and wiped it off instantly, feeling like an idiot now until she started to giggle again and he found it rather pleasant actually and smiled at her right back. They were silently eating again and to anyone passing by might think it the strangest ‘date’ ever if it could even be considered such if not two strangers that just happened upon the same table.

He made the attempt to break the quiet, “Why’d you agree to go out with me tonight?” Ax asked blatantly not really realizing how he might have sounded to her but in his opinion it was important to know. Not until she started on an answer did he recognize, shaking his head at his own stupidity, “Sorry… Just most girls don’t really give me the time of day… Don’t talk to me y’know? And dates are totally out of the question.” He explained, his gaze casting down to the ice cream in front of him as he recalled the numerous times he’d been shot down or asked about his older brother as a replacement or substitution.

Ax looked at her when she managed to duck enough to meet his eyes, telling him she wasn’t sure what it was exactly but she was really glad that he asked her out and he was certainly happy too. “Well I’m glad that you said yes… That you’re the first to say it.” He murmured, his cheeks burning hot and he knew his nerves were showing now. His smile broadened and he continued to eat the rest of his ice cream. “My brother says I jump into things and scare people off… That I go in full force with everything. I knew it’d work eventually.” He mused, giving a laugh and hearing her do the same again and promising that it did.

“I’m surprised I haven’t seen you around campus or anything.” He stated and then stopped eating, looking up at her, “You are in High School right?” He confirmed, nodding when she told him she certainly was, same year as him and then he recalled Brandon was older than him so it made sense for them to both be nearly the same grade he supposed. “How’ve we not had classes together? I’d think I’d have noticed a girl like you right away.” April flushed red and ducked her head saying she wasn’t so sure he would notice her. “I would. People think I don’t pay attention but I do more than most and I’d have definitely paid attention to you.”

April blushed furiously at the boy's words, feeling the butterflies in her stomach stir up all over again. But the only problem with what he was saying was that they did share a class together. Honestly, she was used to not being noticed, the blonde was shy, small and didn't exactly have what anyone could call a curvaceous body which seemed to be about the only thing that could make a high school boy notice a girl. 

She shrugged, "Actually um... We're in the same sixth period American history class after lunch... But I think I've only seen you there a handful of times and when you're there it seems like you've got bigger things on your mind than school." April countered with a little laugh, waving off his obvious discomfort with her bringing up the fact that he hardly ever made it to the class right after lunch and wasn't really checked in when he did.

"It's fine, I mean Mr. Rhodes is ancient, I don't he'd notice if half of us were gone anyway. If you're gonna skip a class, that's the one to go with I suppose." April rambled, feeling a little silly because even talking about skipping class made her nervous. She had definitely never been one to break the rules before.

Axel relaxed somewhat but he still seemed a little awkward about not realizing they did have a class together, mumbling about how he usually ended up having better things to do at lunch that kept him longer, but still trying to apologize for not realizing they had a class together.

April raised her small hand to stop his babbled apology, "Axel it's okay, really. I'm sort of... Used to boys not knowing I exist." She murmured, her posture deflating and even though she'd meant the comment to come across more jokingly her tone still carried a lot of sadness due to how close her insecurities about herself and her looks were to the surface.

She dared a glance back up at Axel who was looking at her with a worried expression, and she made herself sit up straighter again and laugh trying to lighten the mood she'd brought down by accident. "It's no big deal, really!" She giggled, taking a sip of her shake, "I mean, once I got up the courage to come out of my shell a bit, it worked out, right? Here we are having a good time, I'm sorry I didn't mean to spoil the mood." April rambled nervously, keeping a big smile plastered to her face even though she was internally berating herself and feeling like a huge idiot.  
Axel felt like an ass when he found out that he in fact had a class with April but when she told him which one it made sense why he would hardly notice that she was there. He hardly noticed anyone or anything when he actually showed up for sixth period History because that was after lunch. Maybe now he would start showing up a little more to see her at least. He apologized profusely, sitting forward and his hand rested on the top of the table almost reaching out but not quite getting close enough to her nor did he have the guts to do so.

“I usually get pretty… busy and stuff at lunch with like friends and other things so I don’t really go to that class anyways or if I do it’s really late and I’m not really all that… interested or focused.” He muttered out an apology but she was quick to brush it away with a wave of her hand indicating for him to stop what he was saying.

She claimed it was okay that she was used to not being noticed or having any sort of acknowledgment from boys in general and his brow came together not quite understanding how that was even possible. His face distorted with worry for her but in a sense he understood that. He got mostly negative attention over anything else but at least it was something he supposed, better than nothing at all. He opened his mouth to say something but he couldn’t really think of anything that might help her now and she quickly laughed it away albeit a bit awkwardly.

Ax shook his head at the way she was promising that it was fine, no big deal, almost begging him to let it go only he couldn’t. “We are having a good time.” He assured her, “So fuck all those other guys especially me for being stupid enough to not jump at the chance sooner. April you seem like a really amazing girl and I’m only basing that on like an hour and a half of actually knowing you and maybe 15 minutes of that was actually conversation.” He laughed out, his fingers twitching just slightly as he leaned further forward, pushing aside his ice cream that was nearly completely so he wouldn’t lean into it by mistake.

His knuckles brushed over the back of her hand grasping her milkshake so tightly she looked like she might pop the lid off of it. “I’m glad to be the guy you noticed because I don’t get that kind of attention either, I’m not really good looking nor am I that smart guy or whatever. I’m pretty damn average and I’m trouble.” The blond shrugged, his eyes darting from hers down to her hand that was right beside his own and she must have noticed it too.

Her fingers unclasped around the cup of her milkshake and she half offered her hand to his upturned one lying on the table. Axel bent his elbow just a little and slipped his fingers under her much smaller ones. “Sometimes being under the radar’s not such a bad thing.” He knew what that look was, that one she had when she laughed through her discomfort. He used that tactic in a way too, pretended things didn't bother him though really he wasn't good at hiding it either not to the people he loved and that sat close to him like this. He smiled softly at her, his heart beat easing just a little as her fingers curled and laced with his.

April felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest, she'd never had a boy talk to her this way and she could see in his eyes that he really knew how she felt in many ways. She wanted to interrupt and contradict him calling himself merely average when she felt he was much more than that, but for the moment she couldn't find her voice and so she just let him keep speaking. 

She felt a pang of self-consciousness as her eyes misted slightly with emotion, but she quickly blinked the forming tears away and squeezed hisfingers a little tighter. "Yeah, um... I think you may be right about that." April finally murmured in response, her voice small but her smile warm.

"So, you said you grew up learning combat training with your brother from your dad? Is he like... Military or something?" April asked, taking a stab in the dark since she couldn't think of much else that would explain why combat and physical fitness were so important in his family. Axel chuckled a bit and shook his head, saying it was just a family tradition of sorts, adding in a somewhat dismissive tone that he wasn't nearly as good as his brother and father were at fighting.

"Really? I find that pretty impossible to believe watching your moves out there." April responded, giggling again at his pleased smile. He looked so handsome when he smiled like that, all warm and genuine. It wasn't an expression she'd ever seen on him the few times she'd noticed him before and she found she really liked it. Axel shook his head, saying he still had a ways to go before he'd be able to beat his brother, and they both were still pretty far off from being able to beat their dad, though they had taken him as a team a few times now. 

He launched into a story about one such sparring session where he and his brother Carson tag teamed their dad, getting more and more animated the way he described their Thai stick fighting match that had ended in stitches for him and an ice pack for the side of his dad's face, laughing as he explained the ice pack ended up just being a frozen steak they later cooked for dinner since it was thawed out anyhow.

April followed very little of what he said where the fighting was concerned, but still it was fun to watch him get so exuberant about a subject and she couldn't help but laugh about the impromptu meat ice pack. Axel's story ran out of steam and he seemed to suddenly realize she probably didn't know or care much about a few guys beating each other senseless with sticks, apologizing for telling such a stupid story.

"No, no! It's not stupid, it... Sounds like you have fun when you spar with them. I think that's cool." April insisted, drinking the last of her shake. Axel seemed somewhat encouraged by her response but still opted for changing the subject, asking her haltingly what she liked to do for fun.

The petite blonde leaned back a bit in her seat, considering his question thoughtfully for a second, "Well, let's see. I love reading, playing the violin... I like swimming in our pool a lot, and I like going to the lake even more- My parents have a little house up there and we go boating and stuff a lot in the summer, that's fun." She responded, giggling a little self-consciously, "I spend most of my time studying though really. I guess I'm kind of a geek." She added, her face crumpling a bit when she wondered if he thought she was completely boring now.  
“Basically I ended up in stitches, took one of the Thai sticks pretty hard slapped me just right to break to skin.” Ax told her, starting to talk with animated gestures with his hands, hardly paying mind that she wouldn’t really know what he was even talking to her about let alone the fact that she probably didn’t even care at all to know all of these things. “Carson was holding back up though and Dad took the end of one right in the side of his face. He ended up with a steak on his face for an ice pack, our dinner for later that night.” He laughed, shaking his head as he remembered the incident.

He was done with his ice cream, fidgeting a little with the bowl beside him when he settled down from his own story and he came to his senses. “Sorry that was a stupid story. Three guys all related beating the shit out of each other… You probably don’t really care to hear about all that.” He brushed off the story but she insisted it was fine and he watched her finish up her drink not long after.

He gave a little nod and despite her attempts to tell him he could keep on going the route he was he opted for something new, talking about her instead. “So what about you though? What do you like to do for fun?” He asked, his hands extending across the table again but he was hesitant to make the same bold move of holding her own again. His brow rose when she referred to herself as a geek, “Why just ‘cuz you’re smart? What’s wrong with that?” He questioned with a little laugh.

“I don’t think studying makes you a geek.” Axel shrugged, meeting her gaze. “So long as you still get out from time to time right?” He shifted a little in his seat, reading, studying, playing the violin, family owned lake house… she was too good for him but he didn’t like his crooked little grin waver despite his realization. She’d learn too much about him and things would go south. “I play guitar but it’s not really on a consistent basis.” He muttered, attempting to find some sort of middle ground in there, something they had in common.

“A lake house huh? Are you one of those families with a bunch of houses and vacation spots?” He asked meaning it in part to be funny but she seemed self-conscious at his questioning. “Sorry that’s… that’s not what I meant. It’s really cool that you have a place you guys can all go together. I mean like a couple times my parents took us out to the beach at this place that they stayed once or twice when they first got married and then this cabin a few hours out of the way. It’s real cool and it’s the only two spots that my mom can—“ He cut himself off, wanting to say that his mom could truly relax at and not worry about any of them being followed but that might cause some questioning. “That my mom likes to go to. We haven’t gone since I was little though.” He corrected himself, reaching up and rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Umm… But… But we never did like the boating stuff. I’ve been on a jet ski once when we went to the coast. That was pretty cool.” Axel told her, smiling again. They were quiet a little awkwardly again and he cleared his throat trying to think of something else. “So uhh—Did you want to like go someplace else or something? I got the car for the evening we could just go for a drive.” He offered. “If you just want me to take you home that’s cool too I mean I know I’m not all that exciting—“

April came from a fairly wealthy family but it wasn't something she ever really thought about, all that really mattered to her was pleasing her parents by being a good little honors student. She had never felt awkward talking about her family before but even though he played it off she was sure she'd made Axel feel uncomfortable just casually mentioning her family's lakefront property and things and it made her heart race with panic that she'd ruined everything by coming across as some spoiled rich girl.

She latched on to his offer, hoping for a chance to prove she wasn't some priss-miss like she might have sounded. "No, not at all! I mean... I'm having a really good time with you." April sputtered, sitting forward in the booth almost as if she expected him to just get up and leave her there. "Um... I mean, a drive sounds nice. I bet the stars are coming out by now, I can show you where I like to go to do some stargazing?" She suggested, hoping she hadn't turned him off from wanting to spend time with her completely.

Axel readily agreed to her suggestion and the pair slid out from the booth, standing awkwardly facing each other for a second. The tall boy cleared his throat and side stepped around her, leading the way out of the ice cream parlor and out to his car. They piled in and April directed him to a large park in the middle of her gated community that sported a rolling golf course in the center of it that her parents' and many other lavish homes backed onto. 

They got out and started walking towards the tall, steep hill in the center of the park. "This place is just a short bike ride from my house, so I like to come here at night and look at the stars." April explained, stooping at the edge of the small paved parking lot and slipping her ballet flats off to walk barefoot in the cool grass. Axel nodded, commenting on how fancy the place was and she giggled a little self-consciously.

"I suppose so. It's nice because our neighborhood has it's own police, so I feel pretty safe coming out here after dark alone. The view really is beautiful from the top of the hill." April shrugged, smiling sweetly up at her companion and summoning what little courage she had left to reach out and lightly thread her fingers with his once more. "Come on, I'll show you." She added softly, starting towards the hill and much to her relief Axel returned her grip and followed her up the lush grassy slope to the very top. 

They stood on the crown of the hill and it really was a good view even at night, looking out over the well manicured golf course with the rows of softly lit houses against it on one side, the small playground area amidst young trees on the other and the whole starry sky stretching out above them. It wasn't quite as bright as it might be out in the country where there were no other lights, but this area was fairly dark right by the golf course and so it was probably the best place to see the stars in town at least.

"So? What do you think?" April asked, her stomach full of butterflies once more but she made herself look calm on the outside as she settled to sit in the grass and craned her head back to look at the glittering night sky.  
Axel took her hand, following her easily up the hill and managing to keep his pace slow enough that her shorter strides could keep ahead of him more or less. He smiled as he looked out over the grassy area which was actually rather nice. He wasn’t even sure he had been to places like this even on hunts, at least not a neighborhood. He let go of her hand just long enough to watch her ease down into the grass, setting aside her shoes and getting comfy.

He sighed as he knelt first and dropped down to his rear, nodding at her question. “It’s nice.” He answered honestly, looking up at the darkening sky and hearing the sounds of the night starting to come out. He was pretty sure it had been at least a decade since he was even settled enough and focused enough to actually hear crickets chirping in the grass. “You really come out here all by yourself?” He asked, still mostly watching the stars that were only just beginning to brighten.

April nodded saying mostly it was alone because she could enjoy it more then, verses with friends there were distractions. He nodded back at her, reclining back and lying in the grass, hearing her giggle at the way he grunted before getting comfy. “What? Can’t enjoy the full extent if I’m not relaxed.” He smiled over at her, patting the grass so she would do the same and soon enough she did, lying beside him and he took her hand instantly.

His mind wandered like it tended to do most the time, absently thinking about his work as a hunter, if stars were seen from Heaven. He had heard stories, his grandfather had been there before, surprisingly enough and Castiel often told them tales that the brother’s never knew if they were true or not but Mari always claimed they were considering ‘angels don’t lie’. He chuckled at random, catching her attention and she craned her head to look at him, asking what was funny. “Nothing. Just thinking is all. My Mom used to tell me every star was a different world that belonged to someone passed. She used to say the very end of the Big Dipper was my grandma’s and that she only opened the door when my Grandpa joined her. It’s stupid.” Axel muttered, feeling dumb for even telling her what he just did.

April’s fingers flexed around his and she shook her head saying she didn’t think it was, that while technically speaking the stars held purpose but the thought was nice to know that each one shined for someone. “Yeah. Maybe.” He sighed again, glancing down at her and while they were silent again the thought popped into his head when he caught goosebumps rising on her bare arms. “Cold? I left my jacket in the car but…” He trailed off, lightly pulling at her so he could slip his arm around her shoulders where they lay on the grass. She didn’t feel all that chilled but she also didn’t put up any resistance to his advance.

The blond lie with her curled slightly against his chest, their eyes locking as she spoke to him about some consolation or another but neither of them even looked up again. He smiled and reached up with his free hand, brushing her hair out of her face, his heart racing as he listened to her. “Am I a distraction?” He wondered aloud.

April's heart was fluttering frantically like a wild sparrow trapped in a cage, she almost forgot to breathe when Axel reached out to brush her hair back, let alone be able to form an intelligent response.

"It... Seems that way." She whispered, frightened and thrilled and curious all at once as their faces slowly inched closer together. She wasn't sure who actually kissed who first, both of them kept edging forward in tiny increments never once breaking eye contact until their first tiny brush of lips. April's eyes fluttered closed and their mouths pressed together more firmly, Ax angling his head just slightly so they aligned better.

It was quick but sweet, everything April could have asked for from her first kiss here in this secluded romantic setting under the stars with the first boy who had ever told her she was worth noticing. They parted much more abruptly than they came together, both of them breathing rapidly and on April's part deeply blushing from a combination of nerves and exhilaration.

Axel grinned crookedly at her for a second, leaning in with more confidence and kissing her again, this time gently kneading her lips with his being more adventurous. The contact sent thrills of sensation up and down April's body, her toes curling in the long grass and her heart seeming to skip every other beat. He started to shift to lean more over her and that made her heartbeat more with alarm than desire, they had only just met and she didn't want things to move any quicker than they already had even if the kiss did feel amazing.

April braced her hand on his chest and broke the contact, giggling breathlessly and sitting up, smoothing her hair a bit out of nervous habit. Axel asked her if everything was okay and she nodded, letting her hand linger on his firm chest a moment longer before finally pulling her hand back. "Yes, I... Everything's fine I should just... It's getting kind of late, so I should probably be getting home before my parents start to worry." April stammered, still giddy and breathless from the thrill of her first kiss.

Axel smiled and sat up as well, brushing any loose grass from his short hair and nodding, telling her he'd get her home. He stood and offered his hand which she took, letting him help her stand and looking down bashfully when he purposefully held her close to his frame, draping his arm around her once more as they began walking back to his car. "Um... I had a really great time with you tonight Axel. Thank you." She said softly, keeping her hand clasped tightly with his all the way down the hill.  
Axel leaned into her for another kiss, pressing his lips to hers a little more aggressively than the first time, finding confidence in the original response she gave to him and rolling with it. He shifted as he kissed her, his weight resting more over her but no sooner had he moved that she started pushing at his chest to break away from him. He took her cue and pulled up off her without a fight, sitting up when she did. “Everything okay?” He asked, panting a little as he listened to her answer.

April explained softly that she was fine but she should probably get home now since it was getting later and the darkness and finally fully settled. He nodded at her in understanding, his breathing steadying again. “For sure. We’ll get you home then.” The blond smiled at her and got up without another question, brushing a hand through his hair and shaking out the grass as he offered his larger hand down to her. 

He slipped his arm around her, holding her hand on the opposite side and feeling far more confident than he did when they first began. Perhaps that was due to her response to him, grinning from ear to ear as they walked back towards his car but not before he hunched to scoop up her shoes, carrying them in his opposite hand when she seemed just fine walking barefoot for now. “I had a great time too.” He assured the girl beside him, leading her to the car and offering her shoes again. “Your slippers, Cinderella.” He teased with a mock bow as she accepted them with a giggle and dropped them to the ground before her, stepping back into the flats and his hand jutted out to grab her elbow when she stumbled slightly on her own two feet.

She flushed red and he couldn’t help but chuckle, letting her arm go but she kept her hold on his bicep. Axel smiled and her hand dropped from around his arm as he pulled away to unlock the passenger door, tugging it opened and watching her slip inside. He took to the driver’s side and for the most part their incredibly short drive was quiet but this time it was a comfortable sort of silence. Ax pulled up to the house she gave him, remembering all that he was told and offering to take her to the door but she stated it was best he didn’t in case her family was still up and he didn’t fight her on it. “Well I’m glad I didn’t rush to the locker room tonight…” He started, looking to her and reaching out to take her hand.

April nodded, smiling up at him and holding his hand right back, mentioning again that she had a really good time. “Yeah me too.” He stated, leaning over in his seat and she took the bait, growing closer to him in turn and their lips met again softly. It ended just as soon as it began, pulling away and he smiled once more. “I’ll see you at school?” He questioned, laughing when she asked if he was actually going to show to sixth period. “I will.” He promised.

\----

Axel drove his brother’s car home, grinning the whole time and while the date was simple and he might not have scored in the same sense that Carson usually would it still was something. He pulled in and parked the car, hopping out and hurrying into the house where naturally his brother was already poised in the living room, working on his homework against the coffee table with the television going but the volume muted. He turned it off entirely when Ax came round the front, tossing his brother his keys and smiling when Carson asked him how it went.

“Good.” He shrugged, turning on his heel and knowing that Carson wasn’t going to let it go at just that, questioning why ice cream took so long, indicating he thought his car was used more for a make out spot than anything close to driving. Ax rubbed at the back of his neck and shrugged once more as he faced him, “We kissed a couple times but she kinda pulled away from me. Which I mean it’s fine I guess… Uhh—We have a class together and we’re in the same year and I made this huge thing about how I’d have noticed her if I did and turns out well we do in fact have a class together… sixth period.” He nodded, seeing that Carson understood.

“Yeah. She seemed okay though? Brainy type I think but I can work around that, y’know.” Ax smirked as if he had done this a thousand times and then Carson brought up another little tidbit, asking if he got her number from her. “Fuck.” He cursed harshly, his face falling as he realized that he would have to wait two days before he could see her again. “Well she’s Brandon’s little sister so I could get it from him right? Is that weird?” He asked and Carson laughed, shaking his head and telling him for Brandon it might be a little unnerving considering who was asking for it. “Right.” He mused, sucking air through his teeth and making them whistle as his head lolled back feeling stupid now. “Monday it is then. Thanks for the car, Car.” He laughed.

 

Carson shook his head, laughing in a good natured tone as he extended his arm for his sibling to toss him back his keys. Axel did so and he caught them smoothly, setting them down on the table next to his school work and returning his eyes down to the assignment he was finishing up. He always did his work in a timely manner but he simply had so much of it on top of his other priorities it seemed like the workload never ended.

"No problem little brother. I'm glad you had a good time." He responded, picking up his pen and thoughtfully chewing on the end of it as he worked out the last few problems he had to get done. He expected Axel to head off to his room, maybe down to the gym or something, but the younger blond simply stood there looking at him and after a full minute of it the elder sibling finally looked up from his work again.

"Is there... Something else you wanted to talk about?" Carson asked, cocking his head curiously at his younger brother. Axel immediately responded with a short 'no,' and so the elder boy nodded and turned back to his paper, but still Ax kept looking at him. He glanced back up with an expectant look on his face. So there was something else he wanted to ask or talk about, he just apparently was having some problem broaching the subject.

"So..." Carson tried again, rotating one hand in a gesture meant to indicate he wanted Axel to get on with whatever it was he had to say or ask. The blond fidgeted nervously for a second more, finally sighing and climbing over the back of the couch to sit at the opposite end of it from him.

Axel reached forward and ate a potato chip out of the little bowl Carson had brought into the room with him to snack on, chewing it thoughtfully and finally coming out with what he wanted to ask. He asked Carson how he knew if a girl wanted to sleep with him or not, if there were any hints he could watch for so he didn't try to go to far and make the girl in question mad.

"Wait wait, did you try to get April to have sex with you on the first date?" Carson asked, but Axel quickly interrupted stating that he hadn't tried anything nearly that far but he had thought they were going to make out a bit more and she pushed him away, stumbling over the words awkwardly but it was clear he honestly wanted some insight into such activities.

Carson chuckled, putting down his pen and giving his full attention to his sibling forgoing his assignment for the moment, "Look dude, you gotta leave that stuff all up to the girl, okay? Make it all about what she wants, what she's comfortable with. You'll find it works out in your favor every time." He advised with a sly wink, leaning back into the couch trying to figure out what the best thing he could say to his brother would be.

"Every girl is different. I've had some that give it up the first date, some that take awhile longer, some that I never ended up actually sleeping with but it's all fine. Try... Try not to think of it like a goal you have to meet, like the finish line of a race. It'll happen when it happens, don't put that pressure on yourself. Just enjoy her and let her enjoy you along the way. You'll have a lot more fun that way. When she's ready... She'll let you know. I promise." He laughed, thinking back over some of the more exuberant girls he'd had fun with. 

Carson never gave any girl the impression that he was looking for a serious relationship. He tried it once or twice but it never lasted, he couldn't give them everything he felt the deserved. In the end he simply didn't want that complication added to his life when he had so much to do at school as well as hunting and looking out for Ax. 

But he had the feeling that Axel wasn't going to be like him in that respect, he definitely gave the impression that like most high school boys he wanted to have as much sex as possible, but.... He just couldn't see it happening. Axel was much more the type to be loyal to one girl to a fault once he found one he really cared about. He could only hope the boy was ready for the head trip that being in a relationship was.

Axel seemed to consider what he told him, nodding and stealing another chip before getting up off the couch again. He wandered away with a deeply thoughtful look and Carson figured that must mean they were done talking, calling a hasty goodnight over his shoulder before his brother disappeared down the hall, shaking his head again and going back to his work with a little smile on his face.  
"How do you know if a girl wants to have sex with you?” Axel finally spit out as he swallowed the chip he had just stolen from Carson’s bowl. “Are there like… hints to watch for?” He asked, looking to his brother for some serious advice. Carson arched a brow at him and questioned if he had tried to have sex with her on the first date already.

Ax shook his head, “Naw. We just kissed. I thought we were gonna make out a bit at least but she pushed me away like she didn’t want to or something.” He muttered, shifting a little awkwardly as he told his brother this. He nodded and listened to his older brother tell him a thing or two about girls and in a way it was nice but at the same time it bugged him that he had so much to say on it…

He sat a bit uncomfortably and waited for him to finish up, rolling his eyes a little at the way he spoke about women simply because he knew that meant he had far more experience under his belt even for his young age. Axel mulled it over for a second or two and then nodded, nabbing another chip and darting up off the couch, considering what his brother had to say on the subject and heading back into his room. He simply gave a wave to acknowledge Carson’s good night, wandering off into his room and doing his usual ritual.

\----

Through the weekend Axel thought a lot about April, wondering about her as he sparred with his brother and father down stairs in the gym. When Monday came he was pleased to get a move on and hoped to see April in hall at least one time during the day but to no such luck. Lunch came and he wasn’t even sure if she was on campus today but he knew of only one way that he could see her for certain if she was.

He wandered from the outbuildings to the parking lot and back up to the main campus, chuckling at one of his friends who he lazily pushed and watched nearly stumble to the ground. Axel gripped him by the back of his shirt and yanked him as best he could to straighten back out, shaking his head. “The fuck did you even give us, man?” He questioned absently, slinging his bag fully over his shoulder and walking backwards slowly to his class, slapping the hand of his friend and then another, ones that he hardly hung out with but when he needed to bum a few hits off them they became his best buds.

The blond said his good byes and for the first time in two weeks he actually made an effort to get to his sixth period. He wondered if it meant something considering April hadn’t offered her number either though maybe she didn’t think he wanted it or something but then again she did push him away when he tried to kiss her more than he originally had. He was late but that was no surprise, slipping in through the door and managing to sneak around his teacher when his back was turned… again to no surprise. His blue eyes hooded from his intake at lunch but he glanced around the room in search of her.

April smiled a little nervously when she saw him, fixing her hair and he couldn’t help the smug grin that came to his face as he padded across the room to get to the one empty seat behind her. It was a little closer to the front than he would have chosen normally but he wanted to sit near her. “Miss me?” He joked, leaning over his desk when he sat down and speaking close to her ear from behind.

 

April had realized almost immediately after Axel pulled away from her house that neither he nor she thought about exchanging phone numbers. She tried not to worry about it, reminding herself that two days wasn't really that big of a deal, he had told her he'd see her at school, right? She hadn't thought of it because she'd just been too in the moment while they were together, and she could only hope that he hadn't thought of it for similar reasons, rather than a lack of interest like the nervous voice in her head kept bringing up.

She thought once or twice about asking her brother, he surely had Axel's phone number but just in case he hadn't asked for her number on purpose, she didn't want to look stupid or clingy getting at him through her brother. She didn't want him thinking she was some crazy girl who couldn't go five minutes without calling or texting the boy she liked... Did she really like Axel that much? The more time she spent thinking about him, the more she thought she did.

Finally Monday arrived and April felt a mixture of excitement and embarrassment as she chose her outfit and styled her hair with more care than usual, all with the intent of hopefully getting to see Axel at school. She and her brother rode together and he asked her why she was all dolled up but she quickly dismissed his questioning, saying she just felt like looking nice which he seemed to accept simply because he probably didn't really care much in the first place.

April couldn't remember seeing Axel in the halls on the way to her other classes before but she still kept an extra sharp eye out for him regardless, hoping to see him but to no avail. Finally sixth period arrived and the petite blonde fidgeted in her desk, watching the seconds tick by on the wall clock and glancing at the door repeatedly. Would he show up like he said he would? 

Class started and there was no sign of him, five minutes, ten, then fifteen passed and still nothing. April started to feel ridiculous for getting so excited about seeing Axel again, of course he wouldn't bother to follow through with a boring geek like her. She slumped in her desk and finally gave up watching the clock or the door, taking a couple notes absently but not really absorbing their ancient teacher's dry lecture.

At almost twenty after, the door opened a crack and April's heart leapt into her throat as she caught sight of Axel sneaking in. He paused at the door and she nervously messed with her cornsilk tresses, hoping all over again that she looked pretty to him. The teacher didn't notice and no one ratted the boy out since they all knew how pointless it was to report anything to the ancient man droning at the front of the class and the tall blond quickly took a seat just behind her.

He leaned forward, asking if she had missed him in a whisper and she giggled lightly, her nose wrinkling slightly at the strange smell on Axel's breath that was sort of dank but also mixed with peppermint like he was chewing gum after having something foul in his mouth. She took a chance and craned back to face the boy, smiling shyly, "Maybe. Did you miss me?" She asked softly, her heart fluttering when he nodded vigorously and told her he had very much.

Axel seemed a little out of it, like he was really sleepy and April started to get a worried but she didn't want to get in trouble for talking in class so she simply smiled and turned back to face the front, just in time as the teacher turned to ask a few questions on what he'd been going over. After awhile when he turned back to the whiteboard, April felt a heavy tap on the side of her arm and realized Axel was prodding her with his cell phone, whispering to her that he wanted her to put her number in his contacts, apologizing for not getting it sooner and telling her that her hair smelled nice in almost the same breath.

April's cheeks tinged pink at his somewhat odd compliment, reaching back and taking his phone quirking her delicate brows at the background photo on it of a very scantily clad woman stretched out over the hood of a black sports car of some kind. Her stomach turned a bit at that but then again she knew her brother had all kinds of magazines stashed in his room and porn on his laptop, she'd overheard him watching it a couple times in his room not being nearly as stealthy as he thought so she guessed it was just... How boys were. She only hoped that Axel didn't wish she looked more like the girl in the picture.

"Um... Here you go." April handed his phone back in a less enthusiastic manner, her number programmed into his contacts but she couldn't help but feel silly now for putting extra effort into her appearance today when she'd never look anything like that busty girl. Axel took his phone back and April heard a little curse fall from his lips and he was leaning forward again, apologizing profusely for the picture on his phone explaining that his brother liked to steal it and change his homescreen images to stuff like that and he forgot to check before he handed it to her, claiming he'd never have photos like that on his phone.

April still felt a little skeptical but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, it sounded a lot like the kinds of pranks her brother talked about him and his friends pulling so she smiled and nodded, "It's okay, my brother does dumb stuff to me all the time too." She replied with a hesitant grin.  
Axel got settled into his seat, leaning back and slouching down for only a moment or two as he semi focused on the teacher up front who hardly seemed to realize that he had an extra student today. He shifted and slouched forward, pulling his phone from his pocket and shoving it at April in front of him, poking her with the device. “Heeeeere.” He whispered. “I want you to put your number in ‘cuz I forgot ‘cuz I’m an idjit…” He giggled at the term he heard his mom use once that supposedly came from her ‘Uncle Garth’ or something like that.

His mind refocused a second or two later, “I’m sorry I forgot. Put your number in; your hair smells fuckin’ good.” He emphasized, swearing it was strawberries she bathed in and the scent alone made his mouth water. “Like Starburst.” He muttered, not even sure if she heard him but she did however take his phone anyways. She typed on his touch screen rather quickly and handed it back to him with an almost frown on her face though she was very much trying to hide it from him.

He smiled and hoped that the gesture alone would make her respond in kind and perk up again but it didn’t and his own faded when he looked at the image on his lock screen. “Shiiiiit.” He drew out the word, slumping forward on his desk, his backpack still on his shoulders but he didn’t care at the moment. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry… Man I’m sorry, Ape. I don’t put that shit on my phone….” He trailed off in thought. “My brother does that shit to me all the time and tries to get me like that, y’know? I’d never have that on my phone!” He insisted, shaking his head vigorously and repeating, ‘never ever’ a few times before she spoke up again.

He laid his chin on his desk and stretched his arms out across the table, his head starting to loll to one side as he felt like he might just drift off. Axel wriggled his fingers as she spoke, no longer noting the way the air between them changed. His fingertips brushed over her flowing blonde hair and at first she giggled at him, asking if he was okay and he nodded again. “I like… hair… your hair. I mean your hair.” He corrected quickly, hearing the teacher shush him and he hissed right back with his head against his desk, still fiddling with April’s soft hair and liking the way it felt against his skin.

Axel pulled his opposite arm down enough so that he could see his phone, pulling up her contact and clicking on the blank message icon to send her a text that simply read: I see you.Her phone buzzed in her purse and he watched her pull it out and giggle at his message, seeming a little confused but happy that she had his number now and again she asked if he was okay, claiming he seemed tired. He nodded against his desk, his eyes closed now and he pressed his phone near his lips. “Shh.” He instructed, pulling his phone back and typing out another message to her.

Did you really miss me?

April stifled another giggle at Axel's first text message, he was definitely acting different than he had their first evening together but at least he still seemed just as interested if not more in her and that alone was a rush since she'd never had a guy flirt with her at all let alone give her this much attention. She asked him once more if he was okay but he just shushed her and she turned back to face the front of class to avoid getting in trouble.

Her phone buzzed again and she felt her heart skip a beat as she read the words. Had he really been thinking about her just as much as she had him over the weekend after their date? April worried her lower lip with her teeth as she typed out her response.

Yes. I was hoping all weekend that I'd get to see you today.

She heard Axel chuckle softly and waited for some kind of response, but several minutes went by and nothing popped up. Finally April chanced another look back and she saw that the blond was sound asleep with his head pillowed on his arm and his phone in his hand tucked up under his chin. She normally thought that any kid who fell asleep in class was some kind of lazy delinquent, but... Axel really did look pretty cute sleeping. She couldn't help the small smile that tugged at one corner of her mouth, but at the same time she had to wonder with his strange behavior and drifting off like this if he was really all right. Maybe he was sick, running a fever or something... She reached out and gently pressed the backs of her fingers to his brow, but he didn't feel overly warm.

April heard the teacher clear his throat sharply and she turned back to face the front, smiling sheepishly when the elder man told her to pay attention. She nodded and didn't turn back again for the rest of class, rolling her eyes and smiling inwardly a couple times when she heard Ax snore slightly behind her. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea for her to be getting in deeper with a guy who regularly blew off a class and then slept through it when he did show, she knew her dad certainly wouldn't approve, but.... She could help but keep thinking back to the sweet things he'd said to her at the ice cream shop, and the genuine smile he'd worn when he told her he'd had a good time out with her. He had a good heart, that much she knew for certain.

Class ended and Axel roused at the sound of the bell, April hesitantly turned back to face him fully now that she wouldn't get in trouble for it and looked the boy up and down. "Are you sure you're all right? Do you need to go to the nurse and lie down? You slept almost all through class." April asked, concern in her tone but she didn't want to come across as too pushy so she tried to act as lighthearted as she could about it.  
Axel’s head lifted at the sound of the bell ringing within the entire school building and for a second he forgot where he even was. He looked up still feeling the effects of his high from lunch, his mouth was dry and his stomach growling or at least his mind was telling him it was and his eyes still felt tired like he hadn’t just taken a little cat nap in class. April was the first person he saw, turned in her seat and looking at him a little worriedly in fact the look in her eyes was almost the same as Carson’s. He wondered if she was even aware of his current condition.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly as she questioned his well being again and he hesitated at first, shaking his head which now felt heavy which told him his high wasn’t going to last through his last class of the day. “No.” He answered simply at first, shaking his head but it more lolled from side to side in a sluggish manner. April stared at him and shifted in her seat as his eyes kept wanting to close against his wishes. She reached up and jostled his arm to keep him with her and he grumbled under his breath.

“I’m fine. I’m good.” He promised more adamantly, sitting up fully again. “I’m fine, Sweetheart. Erm… April, sorry.” He corrected himself instantly, “Lots of shit going on, that’s all okay?” He prompted, hoping she stopped and left it at that. She seemed to grasp that she had overstepped a boundary somehow, biting her lip and nodding that she understood what bad days felt like.

His hand reached out and he brushed her hair with the tips of his fingers again, this time a little more in tuned with what he was doing. “Don’t you worry about me, kay?” He muttered again, shaking his head insistently so she would understand that he meant that. “Nooooot worth it.” He sighed heavily, getting up from his seat and April questioned if he needed to just go home. “Not worth it.” He repeated, waving her off as he got to his feet and wandered out of the classroom after a mess of other students, leaving her there on her own.

Not until he was home with a somewhat irritated Carson for the fact that he reeked again did Axel finally check his phone. He opened up his messages and the one was still left unread though he remembered seeing it flash up on his notice bar at the top of his screen. April had thought about him all weekend? Or at least she was hoping that she would get a shot at seeing him again. He hadn’t been so far out of it that he couldn’t remember their encounter, vaguely recalling all but petting her in class, the fact that she saw the nude pictures he had on his phone as his backgrounds…

Now he felt guilty for having even gone at all when he couldn’t even stay coherent enough to interact with her honestly. He sighed and brushed his fingers through his hair, opening up the message and typing out a reply to it now that he had settled again and was getting food in his system.

Hey. I’m real sorry about today. It’s just been rough the past while and I’m pretty drained.

Axel spun his phone in his hand and wandered to his room, changing his shirt so his mom wouldn’t be privy to his activities at school lately, heading into the kitchen to greet her. Mari smiled at him and of course asked the usual questions of how his day was and what he did in school and he answered in the same manner as always, ‘fine’ and something along the lines of ‘the usual bullshit.’ To which Mari would slap his chest for the term and order him to start helping her with dinner.

The blond put his phone aside for now and took to helping his mother in the kitchen, feeling a little groggy but coming down always made him feel that way after. He diced up potatoes and his mother was none the wiser of what he had been up to previously. His phone didn’t buzz or ring within the hour and it made him tense to think that perhaps he had blown it already, feeling the urge to smoke again to take off that tension and the thoughts running in his head telling him he fucked everything up even when he didn’t try to do so.

Can I see you again? I know I ruined our encounter in class today.

He typed up another text quickly and sent it off and within a few moments while he was waiting for the water to boil for the fresh pasta he made to cook in, she had messaged him back. He smiled as it read that she would like to see him too but perhaps when he was feeling a little better. Axel waited, feeling guilty for more or less hiding what he was up to from her in particular especially when he was doing it right under her nose.

Yeah I feel a little better though and I think we should meet up again if you’re willing? Or maybe I’ll just start coming to sixth period from now on 

Axel wanted to talk to her but he wasn’t really sure why it wasn’t like she could figure out or be told the reasons he did what he did. Plus they weren’t dating anyways would it be weird for him to just come out and tell her he more or less had a weed problem. She seemed so innocent, he couldn’t help but wonder if she even knew all of that.  
April chewed on her lip as she read Axel's latest text message, torn between what she wanted and her worries now that she'd gotten home and done a little research. The blonde had always been the book worm type, always needing every last bit of information and wanting to go into every situation prepared. She had typed in Axel's symptoms and behavior online and while she'd found several ailments like fever and sleep deprivation like she'd first considered, she also found that what she described was a perfect match for someone under the influence of psychoactive drug like marijuana or something similar.

And while she didn't really want to assume that he was high over that maybe he was just feeling sick, she couldn't help but keeping coming back to that conclusion especially when he talked about having a lot going on and that he seemed perfectly fine now. Was he using smoking as a way to forget something really bad going on in his life? He didn't seem like the type who had a bad home life but then again she knew hardly anything about him. It made April want to shy away from him but at the same time it made her want to get to know him more, maybe help him if she could.

She knew he was probably waiting on her to respond and so she took a deep breath and typed out her answer. After all she couldn't hide from things she felt unsure about forever or she'd never do anything in her life.

I'm glad you're feeling better maybe we could have lunch tomorrow and then go to class together?

April sent her reply, feeling her stomach do a little flip as she did so. She hoped that eventually he'd tell her for sure what was really going on with him, but for now all she could do was try to find ways to spend more time with the boy and figure out what she could on her own. She had always been pretty sheltered growing up and she knew that, but even so April found that just the thought of getting more involved with this guy felt more exciting than it did frightening. She could only hope that he wouldn't end up finding her too boring.

A minute later her phone buzzed and she nearly dropped it in her haste to unlock the screen and read his reply, her heart beating a little faster seeing that he'd agreed to her proposition and even offered to buy her lunch if she wanted. April smiled brightly even though it wasn't like he could see it, quickly responding back.

Sounds great! But you don't have to buy me lunch, I could pack us something to share? I make a pretty good sub sandwich and my mom baked chocolate chip cookies today if you want to give them a try. Just tell me a few things you like and I'll throw something together 

April hoped he'd like her little picnic idea, almost immediately second guessing herself wondering if it was too cheesy or boring. The petite blonde paced nervously in front of her bed, flopping down on it holding her phone to her chest anxiously waiting to see what he had to say about it.  
I’m a fan of subs and homemade cookies. I’m not picky, if it’s food I’ll eat it so whatever you’re up for putting together is fine with me. 

Axel typed out his next message, grinning at his phone when April seemed eager to see him again despite his behavior in class yesterday. So maybe she didn’t know what was going on with him or why he had been acting like he had and maybe he would keep her none the wiser. Going to lunch with her tomorrow meant resisting his usual afternoon urge to smoke a joint to get through the rest of the day. He had been up and down most recently but the past few days, maybe since April, it had been a little easier to say ‘no’.

I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow. Looking forward to it. 

He sent out another text and finished up helping his mother with dinner, avoiding her questions about who he was talking to. He and April spent most of the night texting back and forth about nothing in particular, their history class together, the teachers she liked and didn’t like, what they were having for lunch and he found he enjoyed feeling like he had her company through the evening.

\---

When lunch came the next day Axel was overly fidgety, partly out of nerves and partly out of the fact that he had turned down meeting his dealer just off campus despite being out of marijuana himself. He simply responded to the guy that he would find him after school in the same place but didn’t have the funds quite yet for even a gram which was true in part but he also just wanted his time with April, knowing she would be waiting for him a while if he took off to buy even quickly.

He waited just near the parking lot, leaning up against the brick building and closing his eyes to force himself to stop thinking about what else he wanted to be doing. April’s soft kind voice rang in his ears and the patter of her feet on the pavement as she rushed to him, pulled him back. He opened his eyes and she giggled, asking if she was keeping him from his afternoon nap or something. Axel shook his head, “Nah just relaxing while I waited for you. We got out of class early.” He muttered and she caught his lie instantly, asking if he got out early or didn’t show up. “I didn’t show up.” He laughed though when he admitted it to her he felt that same sense of guilt he did last night.

The blond cleared his throat and offered to carry the lunch bag she had been hauling with her. She handed it off to him and instinctively he snatched her hand, tugging her with him towards a decent sized grassy area just off the corner of the parking lot, away from the lunch tables and cafeteria so they could talk easily. “So what’d you end up packing?” He asked, breaking the silence that had started to fall over them. She answered as he dropped down into the grass, ensuring it wasn’t wet before helping her down beside him.

April sat none too close to him but she also didn’t sit far away either, leaning over and unzipping the cold bag she brought for him as she told him all she had to offer. She said she wasn’t sure if he was more of a ham or turkey fan so she made him one of each just in case he had a preference. “I don’t. Remember I eat anything edible? Maybe I’ll just make a super sub and smash them both together.” He smiled over at her and she blushed instant as he caught her gaze.

They unpacked their food and just as he said he put both sandwiches together, removing the top of one and the bottom of the other and creating a far larger sandwich. He groaned as he tore into it, claiming she was correct, she really did make a really good sub and she seemed to appreciate that he didn’t let a single bite go to waste. April was picking at the grapes she brought, popping them in her mouth and watching him finish off the chips. “Here.” He reached out and snatched the bag of fruit from her, pulling out three grapes. “I bet you can’t catch three in a row using only your mouth.” He challenged, making her laugh and ask what it was they were betting.

“A kiss. If I can catch three and you can’t then I get a kiss.” Ax informed her, grinning broadly. She laughed once more and stated that it sounded like a prize to both parties. He smiled brighter at her words and shrugged, “I guess so.” He pulled his hand back and asked her if she was ready, tossing one into the air when she said she was and she very easily caught it in her mouth.

April grinned as she chewed the fruit she'd caught, giggling a little at the blond's somewhat surprised expression that she'd nabbed it so effortlessly. "Are you sure you wanna make this bet?" She asked in a playful tone, waiting for him to toss back a grape for himself which he did with the same amount of ease. He chuckled and wrote it off as beginner's luck, asking her if she was ready for the next one.

April nodded and opened her mouth, moving her head slightly and catching the second grape just as easily as the first and Axel made an exaggerated noise of disapproval. He threw another and caught it, raising his brows at her saying he wouldn't make this last one so easy on her. She sat up onto her knees and waited, ready for her last fruit. He tossed it a little farther back than the first two and she craned backwards to get it, but the juicy globe bounced off her top teeth and hit the grass.

Axel laughed, crowing with victory but then giving her a sideways glance asking if she had missed that one on purpose. April shook her head, "Nope, that was an honest miss, but you still have to make your third shot or the bet's off." She reminded him, waiting with an amused expression on her face. The tall boy nodded and readied another grape, making a big show about getting ready to throw it causing her to laugh at his ridiculous expression.

But then at the last second instead of tossing it in the air Axel merely popped the fruit in his mouth, ensuring he'd get it and April made a noise of amused exasperation. "That's cheating!" She exclaimed, laughing as he shrugged off her accusation and leaned in closer to her. 

April's giggles died down as he brought his face within a breath of hers whispering that he wouldn't tell anyone he rigged the bet if she didn't, a sly smile making his handsome face look even more roguish. The petite blonde smiled back shyly, nodding her head ever so slightly and letting her eyes slip closed as Axel closed the tiny distance left between them.

He gently pressed his lips to hers, working from the outer corner of her mouth to kiss her fully and April felt the same thrills run up and down her body at the contact, intensifying as he cupped her face and deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth to him when he prodded at her lips, goosebumps rising over her skin and her heart skipping as their tongues slid together intimately.

April craned her head at his gentle prompting for a better angle, letting herself get lost in the sweet sensations coursing through her and not letting up till her lungs were burning painfully for want of air. After a moment they finally broke apart and April felt a rush of happiness as she saw that he was nearly as breathless as she was, but she couldn't hold eye contact with him for more than a second or two with the hungry way he was looking at her, it made her feel bashful all over again.  
Axel put on a show of being ready to throw the last grape up in the air but rather than doing so he simply popped it directly in his mouth, chewing it up and grinning at her for calling him out on cheating. He raised a finger to his lips like it was some huge secret, leaning to her and settling just inches from her face with a grin on his lips as he spoke. “I won’t tell anyone I rigged it if you won’t.” He muttered softly.

April didn’t protest so he closed the space between them, kissing her gently at first. His hand slipped up to cup her face, keeping her drawn against him and brushing his tongue along her bottom lip requesting entry which she quickly granted to him. Her mouth opened and he followed his instincts, kissing her deeply and craning his head down as he drew her up for a more comfortable angle. She kissed him back just as enthusiastically, his fingers tangling in her hair as they kissed until they were both left breathless.

Ax pulled back, panting lightly as he looked at the young girl across from him who was breathing just as heavily. He stared at her, his eyes dilated slightly with want but when she didn’t meet his gaze for longer than a couple seconds he ducked his head to make her do so, kissing her sweetly again. “You’re not mad at me for cheating are you?” He joked, knowing she wasn’t. He figured she was just a little frazzled by their activities maybe he was a far better kisser than he thought he was going to be.

The blonde girl giggled and promised she wasn’t holding it against him at all, her bright blue eyes meeting his own once again and her hand lightly traced up his chest, shifting on the ground and seeming to watch to close the gap but lacking the confidence herself. He covered the ground himself, pulling her forward again and their lips crashed together once more, kissing her a little more hungrily than before and not until she pushed at him like she originally had did he let up.

His hand had roamed over her hip and up her side while the other clasped over her cheek holding her to him. “What’s the matter?” Axel questioned her as he broke away once more. She shifted away from his hand and took his wrist, pulling it from her hip and telling him they needed to slow down. His brow furrowed, “Sorry. I was just kind of enjoying my prize.” He stated with a little chuckle but his apology was sincere, not wanting her to feel like he was pushing her even if they were only kissing.

She smiled at him and he returned it, leaning up and kissing her brow in reassurance before getting to his feet and dusting himself off. “Come on. Clean all this up and get to class shall we?” He offered, extending his hand to her and helping her to her feet as well. April seemed flustered and a little confused, perhaps because he so easily brushed off the fact that she didn’t want to continue right now. While he might have happily taken her further even in the parking lot or wherever he could, he also wasn’t the type to push at her like that.

He picked up their things and carried her books for her to class, all the while holding her hand as they walked, leading her to the classroom and back to a couple empty desks as the bell rang. “You do realize this is the first time probably ever I’ve been early to class.” He murmured to her as she sat in front of him. “Maybe this’ll become like a weekly thing, huh?”

 

April giggled happily as they got settled in, "Sure! As long as you don't get sick of sandwiches, they're one of the few meals I can make well." She commented with an apologetic grin, shaking her head when Axel assured he could happily eat anything she made. 

"I don't know, you should've been there to see what happened when I tried to make tacos... I didn't cook the beef all the way and I added about four times more hot peppers to the salsa than I was supposed to... I'm generally better at ordering take out." She admitted, blushing when he claimed that even if she wasn't the best cook she had lots of other good qualities that more than made up for it.

\--  
Early the next morning Carson was awoken by his dad telling him to get himself and Axel ready for a hunt, it came up suddenly and was only a couple hours away so he wanted the boys to accompany him since it was close and would provide a good challenge for them. The elder Black sibling put up no resistance whatsoever, nodding when Parker mentioned Mari was already calling to excuse them from school and he got straight up to carry out his father's instructions despite his reservations about Axel missing even more school when he already skipped classes.

The tall dark haired boy entered his brother's room, surprised that it actually didn't smell of stale pot. Had he forgone his typical nightly ritual? The blond was sprawled face down naked save for the pair of ratty boxers he wore on his bed, sound asleep with his phone just next to his head on his pillow.

Carson gingerly picked the phone up and lit up the screen, seeing it was still open to a chain of texts between him and a girl named April. He didn't read through them wanting to give his brother a bit of privacy but still he grinned hugely as he carefully set the device back down on the pillow. 

Was April the same girl he'd gone on that date with and that he'd seen eating lunch with yesterday? Had he decided not to smoke last night because he was too busy texting his new girlfriend instead? He made himself calm down first before finally rousing his brother, but he hoped that was the case.

"Rise and shine! C'mon Ax let's go man! We got a hunt!" He announced, shaking his brother's shoulder and reaching down to snap the elastic band of his boxers making the groggy teen groan and swear at him sleepily. 

"C'mon, up up up! Dad's waiting for us. Unless... You actuallywant to go to school for some reason..." Carson added with a mischievous grin, raising his dark brows at his sibling when he sat up and rubbed his eyes.  
Axel wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep or if he had ever said good night to April before doing so. They had texted until late in the night or rather early in the morning, probably reaching at least one o’clock before he even closed his eyes. He didn’t think once about smoking before bed like he usually did, his mind too focused on wanting to chat with her instead and ensure he got that time he wanted. She must have opted for not waiting for him to respond to his text any longer considering about thirty minutes or so after her last text she had sent another good night message informing him that she should rest but she would see him tomorrow.

The blond was sprawled on his bed in a deep sleep when he heard his brother’s loud voice and felt his boxers slap against his hip. “Ow! You fucker…” He snapped tiredly, his eyes just starting to open and seeing his brother’s excited face looking down at him. He was always far too enthusiastic in the mornings to Ax’s tastes, glaring at him as he kept talking.

He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning through his response to his older brother. “I never want to go to school, Car. I’m not you.” Ax shifted and got to his feet, not missing the way his brother was eyeing him when he reached for his phone to read his last message from April. Carson arched a brow and asked if he was sure there wasn’t a single reason he would want to be going today instead. “Shut up.” He grumbled, tossing the device back on his mattress and despite his brother being present he shed his boxers to trade them for a clean pair for the day.

Carson questioned if April was waiting for him, Axel shot him a harsh look, “Did you read my texts or what the fuck dude?” He asked, fixing the rebel alliance boxers on his hips and not missing his brother’s amused look as he said he just noted the name. He questioned if she was the same girl he was with on the lawn and he had seen holding her hand as he walked her to the parking lot so she could wait for her ride. “She’s just the girl I had ice cream with last week. It’s no big deal.” He stated though he was smiling to himself.

His brother didn’t seem to want to let it go really, asking him if they were a couple-y type thing or what the deal was. Axel mostly just humored him on the drive out of town for this hunt, something he wanted but at the same time he wanted to see April like he promised her he would.

Dad’s taking us on a last minute trip. Said we needed a mental health day. I guess he just wants some family time so I won’t be in class but I’ll see you Friday.

\----

Mari was wriggling her foot as she sat cross legged on the sofa waiting for her boys to return home from their little hunting trip. She liked to see them bonding over something they all had in common, especially since her son’s had started drifting apart almost entirely. It was important for them to still have things they liked to do together even if those things were dangerous. She had grown up around the hunting life and she understood full well its importance.

She could faintly hear the rattling of the engine outside until it cut entirely and the sound was replaced with her boys hooting and hollering to one another until they got to the door. Parker announced that they were home and she giggled to herself, shaking her head. “I’m fairly certain that everyone within a ten mile radius now knows that the Black boys are home.” She called back from where she sat, closing down her tablet and looking up towards the doorway.

Her dark brows rose at the look on her husband’s face when he stepped to her, keeping her from rounding the corner to see her sons like she wanted. He kissed her slowly and greeted her after only being gone a short while. “Umm… Hi?” She laughed, very aware of his hands brushing up and down her sides as he told her how nice she looked, promising he missed her. “Yeah okay. What do you want?” She asked, “If you’re hungry just say so and I’ll make you guys something or order out but I’m not watching another one of your stupid folk hero-y movies, guys.” She called for all them to hear and the tiniest sneeze caught her attention and she stared at her husband.

“Bless you Carson.” Axel emphasized with a laugh to himself, “You and your little chick sneezes.” He continued but it wasn’t worth it when whimpering began and no matter how much he tried to hush their newest editions he couldn’t.

“What did you do?” Mari asked, requesting the boys come see her too and they did, each of them housing a tiny pup in their arms. Her mouth fell open and she stared at the sight, trying not to laugh as Ax waved his little dogs paw at her. “Parker Black, what did you do? I send you boys to work and you come home with more? Do you know how much I clean after you three? And now you’re adding puppies? Without informing me first?”

Parker gave his wife a big cheese ball grin, continuing to pet her arms a bit in a placatory manner. "I know I'm sorry for springing it on you like this Tink but... The farmer we helped couldn't keep the pups and he wanted to reward us for clearing the out the vengeful native spirits making his crops and animals die when he accidentally tilled up some old native american graves on his property." He explained quickly, looking back at the boys who were both beaming with their respective pups in their arms.

"I had a talk with them, they're going to be their responsibility. I'm gonna teach them how to train em up, spring break is just a couple days away so they'll have two weeks to start getting the basics down." Parker added, not letting his smile up for a second knowing his wife was a little peeved with him but she looked like she was about to crack.

Mari commented that all was well and good until the boys got bored with the responsibility and she was left to pick up the slack. Parker shook his head and turned back to his eldest who carefully handed off his furry companion, a chocolate lab female he had named Lucy. Parker knew exactly what to do to make the final sale on this, turning back and quickly handing the warm fuzzy bundle to his wife before she had a chance to protest.

"We won't get bored with them mom we promise! Right Ax?" Carson chimed in glancing at his brother who nodded enthusiastically then turning back to watch his mother trying not to melt with his puppy in her arms. "I mean who could ever get tired of that face?" He added in a baby-talk voice as Lucy chuffed and stuck her nose up to to Mari's face, licking her nose with her tiny pink tongue.

Mari seemed to be wavering but her voice was still doubtful so Parker nodded at Axel, directing his gaze back at his wife so his son would get his cue to act. The younger boy immediately understood and stepped closer, holding his own male fox red lab puppy out close to his mother's face as well so she got the buttering up treatment from both baby animals at once.

Axel went on to describe in further detail how they puppies were just old enough to eat solid foods but they still stuck close to their mother, but when the spirits ravaged the farm they took the life from their mother and other two litter-mates leaving only Lucy and Obi Wan behind. It was clear Mari's heart was finally won over by that last bit of information, but she still raised her brows questioning the name of Axel's puppy much to Carson and Parker's amusement.

Axel practically shoved his own pup in Mari’s direction, drawing him near her face and the woman was very near crumbling completely. They all could tell so he went on to tell the story about how they obtained the dogs and why they needed to keep them. “They’re not really old, just old enough to start on solid foods but they were still pretty attached to their mom until she was taken along with their daddy and their other two siblings.” He stuck his bottom lip out, making an overly sad face for his new companion.

“They left only Lucy and Obi Wan behind.” He finished off, starting to coo to his fox lab while Mari processed everything. She seemed skeptical still but he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was going to cave and let them have the dogs without questioning.

Mari nodded but soon her brow arched as she caught the name that Axel had given his own dog. “Okay well that’s fine then but umm… Obi Wan?” She giggled at the name and it seemed to offend her youngest son. “It’s cute it’s just… really Ax? Obi Wan?” She questioned.

“Yeah. Obi Wan Kenobi. Duh, mom.” Axel informed her as if she didn’t know that already. He glanced to Carson who asked if he was sure or if he was going to change it again in about ten minutes. “Oh well excuse me, George Lucas created a lot of damn good characters, it’s hard to decide!” He reminded his older brother, getting a look from his mother for the curse he used. “Uhh… Darn good. Heh heh.” He smiled, pushing Obi at her again and Mari sighed.

“Okay but you better clean up after them. I don’t want this only to last a week or two as your responsibility. I’m serious I’m not going to do it for you. I also want you to train them both, I mean that in a few ways. I want them to have boundaries and I want them to be potty trained as soon as possible.” Mari told both her boys, glancing up at Parker to indicate if they didn’t he would be the one in trouble more so than their sons. “Do we have an agreement?” She asked and they both nodded vigorously, promising that they would.

Carson took Lucy back from her arms and bent to kiss his mother’s cheek, prompting Axel to do the same which he did so happily, thanking her and turning on his heel and setting down Obi who was still a little unbalanced on his feet. Carson set Lucy down as well and the pups play fought tiredly with one another. “And what are we doing about feeding them? The pet store’s closed at this hour—“ Mari pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest and looking up to Parker.

He shook his head and told her not to worry that the farmer gave them a little bit of puppy chow to hold them over a couple days at least and Carson chimed in telling her they would go out tomorrow for everything else they needed. “Yeah like piddle pads, toys, leashes and all that. We got it, Mom. There’s too much cute in this room for you to say no to anything right now, come on.” Axel teased, making her laugh.

 

As promised both boys put all the attention needed and more into training their puppies and while they all knew that getting them one hundred percent potty trained would take a bit longer than a couple weeks they were definitely on the right track and not showing signs of running out of steam any time soon.

Carson woke more than a few times over the next month with not just Lucy but Obi Wan on his bed as well, not sad to have the extra company but disappointed with his little brother because that meant Axel had slipped Obi into his room in the middle of the night so he could smoke without it effecting the young dog. Axel always took him back the next morning with a somewhat guilty look, and it made Carson want to yell at him that if it made him feel so bad maybe he should just stop doing it but he made himself hold his peace.

He had hoped that now that Axel and April had been dating for nearly a month that the younger man would be able to wean himself off the drugs and while it did seem like he was smoking less it was obvious that it was still a chief part of his life. Carson just wished there was something he could do to help his brother deal with his visions, but there wasn't really much he could do and that drove him crazy in and of itself.

\--  
April had really been enjoying her and Axel's weekly lunch dates over the past month, they didn't go out a whole lot besides that since they both seemed fairly busy a lot of the time. She always had lots of studying or work to do with the student council, and Axel... Well he didn't exactly tell her a lot of the time what he was busy with other than that he was helping his dad or was too tired from helping his dad with his work to be able to go out. Still, she tried to stay positive and give him the benefit of the doubt since he was always so good to her when they were together.

April was starting to wonder if she could officially call Axel her boyfriend now, and just as curious if Axel thought of her as his girlfriend. They didn't go on tons of dates but they talked every day and had a really good time when they were together, she certainly wasn't interested in seeing anyone else.

They made a date on Friday to stargaze again on Saturday night, April didn't really think introducing Ax formally was a good idea at least not until they were official since he wasn't exactly the kind of guy her dad would want his precious little honor student going out with but she didn't care. She really liked Axel and if he didn't bring it up at their date tonight, she swore to herself that she'd work up the nerve to ask him if they were officially in an exclusive relationship or not.

Because of her knowledge of her dad's disapproval, they agreed to meet at the hill rather than Ax coming to get her at her door. April wore a breezy little white sundress covered with small blue butterflies and left her shoulder length blonde hair in loose waves, hoping she looked pretty. She walked to the park early, spreading out the old quilt she'd brought with her and lying out watching the sun set as she waited for who she hoped was her boyfriend to come join her once night fell. It made her giddy just thinking about it. 

Axel drove the distance to meet up April at the golf course by her house again, somewhat hating that he couldn’t just pick her up but at the same time he understood why. She was the straight A student type, did all her work, signed up for every club and answered to Daddy when she came home. Hell he wouldn’t want to meet her father knowing all that. He was certainly inadequate by comparison.

The thoughts reeling in his head about how he didn’t deserve her yet again were mixing with the images that came to mind after his last hunt with his dad and brother. School was stressful, work was stressful, home was stressful. His extracurricular activities he chose for himself allowed him to forget all of that crap. He pulled up alongside the golf course, his arms tingling and he giggled as he threw the vehicle he borrowed from his parents in park, getting out and the wind added to the sensation along his tanned skin.

He wandered up one of the highest hills, seeing her sitting cross legged on a blanket in the short grass, waiting patiently for him with her hands delicately folded in her lap. He bounded up the hill with a little wobble in his step but he didn’t tumble as he made it to her. She got to her feet or started to but he waggled his fingers at her. “No shhh… Stay.” He insisted, making her giggle at him when he flopped down beside her. “You look awfully cute up here in your… in your in the…” He waved his hand to her dress trying to think of the word but his mind wasn’t entirely there right now.

April gave the word for him and thanked him for the compliment, asking if he was alright. He nodded vigorously, shifting to hug her like he always did in greeting and she stiffened at the contact. He had more or less hosed himself down in cologne to try and mask the scent of the weed he just smoked in the car not long before he left. He hadn’t intended to do so but the urge was more than he could fight tonight and he opted for packing a bowl to himself despite his better judgment. She pushed him lightly and told him he smelt nice in a bit of an uncertain tone, asking what he had on.

Ax shook his head, “I don’t know. It’s not mine it’s Carson’s. He left that shit in the car probably his back up for dates.” He shrugged, lying back on the blanket and tugging her with him. She squeaked as she fell back and he instantly reached over to brush his fingers through her soft hair like he had before. “You smell like strawberries again.” He mumbled, the words slurring and sounding lazy as he laid on his side to fidget with her blonde locks.

She pulled away from him slightly and he pouted at her, his eyes hooded as he asked why she did that. April questioned if he was sure he was fine, claiming that he was acting different again like he had the first time in class together. “Shh… It’s fine. I’m fine.” He whispered, his hand coming to rest over her abdomen and she pushed it off, a movement he didn’t fight, letting his fingers crash on the ground instead.

 

April's heart sank as Axel insisted he was fine, her suspicions from weeks ago finally confirmed for sure. There were a few times when they texted at night that she was certain he was in a different frame of mind and this time was even more evident than it had been that day in class, he was clearly under the influence of some kind of substance, probably weed going by his behavior and the fact that he'd doused himself in strong cologne which he hadn't done before trying to mask any other smells his clothes might've picked up like from smoke.

He tried to dismiss her concerns, slipping his hand over her middle and she pushed it away, more upset that he was trying to lie to her face than the fact that he was high itself. "Axel, please." She said with a little more force, her heart pounding in her chest because she didn't want this to blow up in her face when things had been going so well between them but on the other hand she didn't want to be lied to. 

The blond's features fell and he seemed to realize that she wasn't going to let it go, dropping his eyes from hers and absently running his fingertips over the quilt beneath them. For another long moment he stayed silent and so she tried again to get him to admit what she already clearly knew.

"I need you to tell me the truth... Please." She insisted in a small but firm voice, dipping her head down to catch his hooded gaze. He still avoided making eye contact and the blond scooted a bit closer on the blanket, resting her smaller hand over his on the quilt. "You got high before you came here, right? Smoked weed or something? That's why you're acting different... Why you acted different before." She state more than asked, not in accusatory tone but more a sad one, wishing that this night hadn't taken this turn.

Axel looked at her when she pleaded with him, clearly wanting an explanation for what she knew to be true. He didn’t want to say it to her, not even in this state. He knew he had done something wrong. His face fell and he completely avoided even looking at her for the moment, playing with the quilt beneath their frames instead until she sat closer, placing her hand over his on the blanket and asking him outright.

“I’m fine.” He insisted again but she snapped his name out at him, shaking her head and calling him out on his bull. He shifted and rubbed at his forehead feeling almost confused by her questioning, unable to tell if he was in trouble or not. “I ruined it didn’t I? Ape… Please. Please don’t be mad at me.” He mumbled in a low tone just loud enough that she could hear him.

Her fingers flexed around his and she shook her head just asking again for him to be honest with her before she could tell him anything. He nodded in response to her earlier questioning, “I smoked a bowl before I came here.” He admitted quietly, “Just a little one… A little itty tiny bitty teensie one.” He pinched his fingers together in indication of how little weed he had though it was clear both of them knew that to be a lie.

She spoke his name again in the same manner she had been previously and he yanked his hand from beneath hers. “What?” He groaned out, letting his head loll back as he rolled over onto his back instead. She asked him if this was a common occurrence for him. He took a while to answer, staring at his hands held up in front of his face. “It’s like… It’s… Like daily once or twice. Not always daily. Mostly daily but like barely even that much.” He answered the blonde beside him, trying to make it sound like no big deal but even as he said his amount out loud he knew it was bad.

 

April's heart quailed, she hadn't expected to hear that Axel smoked nearly every day and sometimes more. Her small hands bunched in the fabric of her dress in her lap, her heart racing and her stomach feeling like it was twisting into knots. She grasped for the right words but she didn't really think there were any, amazed how different she felt now compared to when she'd been waiting for him to arrive only a short time ago.

"So... Those times you... You said you were too worn out to spend time together, you were really getting stoned." April more stated than asked, her voice wobbling as she realized that Axel gave priority to his smoking more often than not over being with her. Axel opened his mouth to speak but no words came out and he bowed his head once more, his lack of response more than answering her question. 

They sat in tense silence for a moment, April was torn between wanting to reach for him and offer him comfort and simply getting up and leaving, feeling hurt and afraid and not prepared to handle something like this. She was broken from her stewing by a Axel finally uttering out a broken question, asking her if she was going to break up with him now.

April swallowed hard, her eyes pricking with tears as she thought about how happy she was when she spent time with Axel before, hearing the kind words he spoke that no other guy had ever said to her before. She didn't want to lose that, didn't want to lose him, but... She wasn't sure she could deal with having a boyfriend who was floating in another world half the time.

"Break up? Does that mean you... You consider me as your girlfriend?" She asked hesitantly and he nodded, which both lifted and crushed her spirit at once. "I don't want to break up with you Axel. But... If we are going to be dating officially... I mean this isn't how boyfriends and girlfriends should treat each other. You've been keeping this really big secret from me since day one, and... I need to be able to trust you." She responded simply, leaning forward a bit hoping he'd find the courage to face her, to respond.

“Does that mean you wanna break up with me already?” Axel mumbled out the words a little brokenly thinking he already ruined what he had so what was one more thing really. He nodded at her own question in regards to him thinking they were actually dating. He thought that for a while now but maybe she didn’t. He wasn’t in the proper state to be holding serious conversations like this or really much of any intelligent conversations at all for that matter.

April told him she didn’t want to break up but that this was a pretty big thing for him to keep secret from her. That wasn’t really his intention, not at first anyways. He was pretty open about the fact that he smoked to most people because he just didn’t care, it was his life but with her it felt… he felt guilty? Like he shouldn’t be spending time doing that but then his visions and his work sparked him to slip up again and he was so accustomed to doing so he couldn’t simply say no.

“You can trust me.” He muttered but she shook her head, gently trying to prompt him to sit up so they could discuss this. The blond sighed heavily and got up at the feeling of her hand on his shoulder and then his back, asking him to face her without saying anything in regards to it. “Ape… you can trust me.” He said again, looking at her directly this time though his eyes were still hooded, the light in his gaze was drawn out and he felt worn, not only because of his smoking but everything else entirely.

“I didn’t… You make it seem like I picked weed over you but I didn’t. Sometimes you’d ask me to hang out when I was already high and so I just saved you the heartache.” Axel explained, slouching forward to try and look at her more closely. He could sense her worry and he reached up and cupped her face, “Don’t be mad. It’s okay it’s just how I am. I always try to time it good but sometimes I can’t.” He shook his head, hardly really realizing what it was he might be saying to her right now anyhow.

“We all make mistakes. We all fuck up I just do it more than most or like… extreme level fuckin’ up.” He murmured, “No, shh.” He shushed her when she started to speak up about him, shaking his head at her again and his hand on her cheek flexed, his fingers pushing back into her hair. “It’s somethin’ I have to do. Smokin’ helps me, okay? I like it. I’m sorry…” He kept shaking his head vigorously. “It’s okay I swear. Unharmed, still the Ax-Man.” He smiled at her, leaning a little closer when she asked him why he liked it.

His eyes opened a little more to look at her, “I don’t have to think. It puts me to sleep and I… everything goes away when it’s the good shit.”

 

April felt a little like she might be sick, her stomach doing flips and her her whole body tense with worry and apprehension. She was getting into a lot deeper of a well than she ever imagined liking Axel Black. All of this was so overwhelming, and she wasn't even sure how much of what he was saying was concrete in his current state.

"You... You have to do it? You don't have to think? Axel... What is it that's so terrible that you feel like you have to forget? What's so bad in your life that you don't want to think about it so much of the time?" April asked, blinking back the tears threatening to spill over her long eyelashes. Axel finally met her gaze full on, the bald fear and hurt in his blue orbs making her heart stop.

"Axel... Ax please, let me help you." April pleaded, not resisting the young man slumped forward and buried his face in her shoulder. Her arms automatically wrapped around him out of comfort, more shocked than anything feeling him wetting her shoulder with tears as he clung to her. It was more than a little difficult for her to support most of his weight like this but it was obvious he was too wrapped up in what he was feeling to notice her struggling to hold them both up.

"Ax... Sweetie it's okay, you can tell me..." She soothed, patting his back gently but he pulled away to shake his head adamantly, cursing and repeating over and over that he couldn't talk about it and that there was nothing she could do to help. April's watery eyes searched his distraught features, her heart bleeding for him but she didn't know what to do if he wouldn't open up to her.

"Ax, please I'm not going to think any less of you, I just want to be there for you I promise, I-" She tried to reason with him, show him it was safe for him to talk with her.

Axel slumped against April in his out of it state, not really sure what to say to her because he knew no matter what she wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t talk about it, for years he was told he wasn’t allowed to talk about it or say anything in regards to his family, himself or what any of them did or were. He silently cried into her shoulder as she tried desperately to soothe him but nothing helped because she hardly knew what to say.

He shook his head when she mentioned that he could tell her but he shook his head because he couldn’t, he wasn’t sure that he ever could. He pulled away from her grasp and half startled her with the movement suddenly. “Fuck. I can’t… April I can’t talk about it. I can’t.” He repeated over and over, their mirrored blue gazes meeting again and he fought back his tears this time.

She kept on insisting that she was there for him, that he could tell her anything but he refused adamantly for how he had been raised. You didn’t just trust people and voice these things because you either sounded crazy or you scared them off or worse, they believed you and something went wrong for them in the end. “April.” He snapped suddenly at her, his voice dropping down low once more when he got her full attention, staring at her and shaking his head again. “I can’t.”

“There’s just… there’s things that happen and that show up… in my dreams and it’s—“ Ax started but he couldn’t do it, seeing the way she was worriedly looking at him. He feared losing her over telling her something about himself, the biggest part of himself. He pulled away from her suddenly and got up to his feet, catching her off guard again when he all but jolted away from her. She stood as well, barefoot in the grass and jogging over to him with tears in her eyes, pleading with him to tell her where he was going. “I have to go.” He mumbled down to her, cupping her face and drawing her up to kiss her hard. “Go home, okay? Please. I’m sorry just forget about it. Ape, please.” He begged her, holding her face near his own and making sure she at least understood the words though if she would stick to that he wasn’t sure.

He pulled away and started down the hill again and she asked him if he was walking or driving. “Don’t make it another problem. I’ve drove worse.” He called over his shoulder, pulling out his keys, “I’ll see you at school.”

For a second it almost seemed like he was going to open up but it was fleeting at best, he was completely shutting down and no matter what she tried to say apparently that wasn't going to change, at least not tonight. April felt completely out of her depth but all she knew for certain was that Axel bore a great deal of heartache every day, and seemed to see no other relief from it than the oblivion that drugs could provide. It both frightened and saddened her.

Axel abruptly stood up making her squeak a little from surprise and involuntarily reach her hand out to him as if she could snatch him and keep him in place. It was clear he was bolting and she quickly chased after him only to be stopped, kissed, and dismissed all in a handful of seconds. Her supposed boyfriend left her frozen on the grass, her mind reeling and her skin cold and clammy where his tears had marked her.

\--  
Axel didn't show up for class the next two days, and of the ten or so text messages she sent asking if he was all right and if they could talk he responded to only two of them, saying he was fine and he'd talk to her at school only to not show up. April wasn't sure if he was avoiding facing the issue brought up between them or just her in general, maybe he had decided she wasn't worth the trouble after all.

On the second day April was getting a book from her locker when she happened to look over and saw Carson, Axel's older brother down the hall. She slammed her locker shut and forced her way through the crowd, not really sure what it was she was doing exactly but she saw a small chance at maybe getting to Axel through his older brother so she had to take it while she had the courage or perhaps the desperation built up.

"Um, Carson! Hi..." April called as he began to turn with his group of friends to round a corner. The tall dark haired young man smiled at her, calling her by name and her cheeks flushed, she didn't realize he knew her by name. He waved his friends off and stuffed his hands halfway in his pockets, giving her a curious look.

"What can I do for you?" He prompted, his tone kind and April clutched her books to her front, a million things crossing her mind at once: What if Carson didn't know about Axel's drug habit? What if he did know? What if he somehow contributed to the reason Axel was so upset the other night? But it seemed so hard to believe with how approachable and nice he was at school. Everyone liked Carson, she could trust him with this... Right?

The petite blonde felt even smaller next to him than she did to Axel, looking up at him and clearing her throat nervously, "I'm sorry to bother you but, uh... Is Axel... Sick? I haven't seen him or heard from him much for a couple days and I'm just sort of... Worried for him." She stammered, not diving directly into everything she knew on the small off chance that she couldn't trust him after all.

The older boy's features grew suddenly grave with concern and he glanced around them as if to make sure no one was listening to their conversation, "Axel is... Well he's had a couple rough days. I'm really sorry that he hasn't been a gentleman and kept in touch with you, but it's not because he doesn't want to talk to you, he's just... He has a lot on his plate and it overwhelms him sometimes." Carson responded, seeming to be picking his words quite carefully and she wondered if maybe he was having the same doubts about her that she had about him.

"Listen, I know it's a lot to ask, but... Please don't give up on him just yet April. He just needs a little more time. My brother isn't exactly a casanova but he has a good heart. And he really likes you, I know that much." Carson smiled at her deep blush, reaching out to pat her shoulder reassuringly and she couldn't help but feel a little comforted by him.

"Okay, I will. Just maybe if you wouldn't mind, the next time you see him... Let him know I miss him and I hope he'll come to school tomorrow?" She asked, her tone wobbly but hopeful and Carson readily agreed, shooing her off to class with a warm smile when the warning bell rang.

April went through the rest of her day still worried but at least it was lessened by her little chat with Carson. She finished up her classes and gathered her things, heading out to find her brother at their usual pickup spot so he could drive them home. She waited on the curb listening to the hustle of kids leaving around her, till an odd sort of sensation came over her that she was being watched and she started looking all around till finally she found the source. Axel was sitting in their 'usual' grassy spot they ate lunch together on a good ways off the parking lot, staring right at her and her heart leapt into her throat.

Axel avoided April for a couple days, answering as few of her text messages as he could without seeming like a total ass though no matter what he probably did to her. He already showed up to one of their dates stoned, how could he top that really? He wanted to see her, it wasn’t that he didn’t but he also felt guilty for wanting that right now when he acted like he had and told her as much as he did.

He didn’t show up to sixth period or to their lunch dates beforehand but that afternoon he waited for her, knowing what her last class was, having memorized the path she took to get to the parking lot as well as where she stood off to the side waiting for her ride from her brother. He watched her arrive from across the lot and with the way she almost immediately turned to face him she must have felt his eyes on her.

She watched him for a second or two but seemed to be contemplating what it was she wanted to do, run over to him or simply let him be. He didn’t move for now, nodding when she gave him a little smile that was just as hesitant. He pulled out his phone because it was easier for him to request her presence like that right now, typing out a text and hitting send.

I know Brandon will be waiting for you but can you give me five minutes?

He watched her again as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket where it was most always housed, reading the message over and she slowly made her way to him. April tried to force a smile but he could see the worry in her eyes that he was going to tell her they were done or something along the lines. He waited for her to realize he wanted her to sit and she did, dropping down on her knees before him and hugging her books to her chest. He reached up and pulled them out of her grasp and she said nothing when he sat forward to kiss her slow and deep, cupping her face in his free hand while the other held her books off to the side.

They broke apart and she asked him in a shaky voice if he was okay, “Don’t worry about me right now okay?” Ax requested but she spoke up again about how she heard he had a rough couple days, asking him if it had anything to do with his nightmares. He wondered absently how she knew he was struggling or maybe she just assumed. “Ape, I’m serious. We’re not going to talk here right now about anything I just wanted you to know I’m sorry. I’m trying… I know nobody believes that because they don’t see it but I am.” He told her insistently.

She nodded and accepted that, taking his hand softly and asking him as her phone buzzed and Brandon’s car pulled up to the curb like it always did, if she would see him in class tomorrow. Ax shook his head, “I don’t know.” He admitted, watching her read her text and he handed her books back. “I wish I could fix it.” He said, nudging her to go see her brother when he saw Carson coming out to his own car. “I’ll talk to you later.”

\---

Only Axel didn’t talk to her later, not much. He didn’t show up to class for the rest of the week and when the weekend came he could hardly stand much of anyone or anything. He was fidgety, spending his time with his new puppy, Obi Wan but outside of that he felt like shit. He felt like shit every time he even had the urge to smoke but most days it was so strong that he caved anyways and dealt with hating himself after as well as the looks Carson gave him every morning when he came to get Obi from his room.

Sunday night he promised himself he was going to go to school, was going to force himself to attend sixth period so he could see her and stop avoiding the situation but he couldn’t. Ax didn’t sleep that night or he thought he didn’t, staying up on his laptop until late at night and about midnight he gasped, his heart racing and his body felt on fire a scream echoing in his head. His eyes widened before snapping shut as the heat engulfed him and he couldn’t do anything to fight his way out of his own mind.

He was gasping for breath, his lungs burning for want of clean air, coughing and sputtering and arching off his bed where he was lying down. The timeline in his head went black and he saw nothing for a moment or two, gasping and suddenly he was standing in the same spot on the grass where he met April for lunch, watching her cross the lot to get in the car that belonged to her older brother. Axel already felt the sense of needing to chase after her, to pull her from the vehicle as that same heat started up in his chest. She looked as pretty as ever, seemingly happy for the most part as Brandon pulled out of the lot and in the same second Ax was brought into her mind, seeing what she saw through the window of the car.

Brandon was listening to his radio and talking to his sister about his next wrestling match but he could feel her discomfort. He tried to make her look, to make her tell Brandon to stop because that felt like the thing to do and nothing came out, he wasn’t in control here she was. Then her head slammed forward against the dashboard, tires screeching and the warmth of blood trickling down his head or rather hers, their breathing picking up as the car flipped and she was screaming in pain as her seat belt yanked against her, nearly crushing her frame and pulling her shoulder from its proper place.

She was screaming, ear shattering screaming… Feeling her pray in her own mind that she be okay, that Brandon walk away from this, the sensation in his lower half gone as he felt her back crack with the movement of the car. The smell of gasoline starting to leak and she scrambled to get herself out of her belt but the pain was too much and when the car lit up, his mind went blank again and the only thing he still sensed was the sound of her begging to survive, pleading for help and muttering his own name.

Axel gasped and jolted upright, startling Obi on the foot of the bed and the pup yapped at him. He quickly gathered himself, getting up and grabbing his furry companion that was still small enough to carry around. He put him in Carson’s room, knowing he would do better under watch and the man darted out to nab the keys to his car, taking it to April’s house because he had to make sure she was okay. Nothing else mattered to him, not the consequences, not the fact that he had been so cruel to her, maybe she didn’t want to see him but he was frantic to make sure she was still breathing. The details of his own dreams and visions were often inaccurate and she very well could have already been in trouble just as he was watching.

He made it to her place by simple memory, guessing by the floral sticker in the window and the purple lights surrounding the top of her head board from what he could see, the back bedroom was hers. He hopped the fence though he knew he shouldn’t, racing to it and tapping his finger on the glass frantically. “Please. April please.” He chanted in little above a whisper, begging that she still be in there.

April was curled up on her bed in her pajamas amid her many stuffed animals, text books and notepads open on her bed but she was completely ignoring them in favor of messing with her phone. Her eyes were misty with tears as she scrolled through the handful of pictures she had of her and Axel, he didn't much care for having his photo taken but he'd relented a few times because he knew she wanted it.

She hadn't seen or heard from Axel for days now, he wasn't responding to anything he sent her and she had to figure it meant he was done. No matter what he'd said that day when he kissed her goodbye, it seemed he either had bigger things on his plate for him to be able to deal with her or maybe he just didn't want to deal with her in the first place. Today was the first day she had finally not sent him a single message, as much as she didn't want to give up on him, on them, it seemed she had no choice.

April had never been in a relationship before, but she never pictured that even a short one like this could hurt so bad when it was over. Maybe it was especially bad because she just wasn't used to having someone in her life that she genuinely believed when they called her pretty or smart or fun, and so not only was she mourning the loss of Axel himself but also of that new found timidly blooming confidence he'd given her that was now dashed in a thousand pieces. 

She got to the beginning of the photos and her thumb hovered over the 'delete' button, her eyes welling over as she remained frozen torn between the need to forget and move on and the heart wrenching desire not to let go of this guy she had come to care about so much.

A soft tapping at her window made her jump, at first she wondered if she was hearing things but the sound only got more insistent and her heart began to race with panic that maybe someone was trying to break in to her room. April set her phone down and stood up, her heart pounding and her arms wrapped instinctively around herself but just when she was about to yell for her father a face suddenly popped up in her window and she felt a new jolt of panic but for a totally different reason.

April rushed around her bed, looking down at Axel who was mostly hunched out of view of her window perhaps to make sure he wouldn't be noticed if she wasn't alone, but when she got to the window and unlatched it he straightened out waiting anxiously for her to crack her window open. She started to push it to one side and he got to work on his side quickly and silently popping her screen out which if she hadn't been so awash with other emotions she may have questioned why he could do that so quickly and quietly.

"Axel? Wh-what are you doing here? How did you get in did you climb the wall or someth-" April sputtered as he set the screen down but he cut her off by grabbing her face and kissing her ravenously. Her whole body jolted and she pressed her hands to his chest to push him away, but found that she could hardly think let alone move as he kissed her deeply. They stood a bit awkwardly with the sill between them for a moment but neither seemed to care, hands gripping tight and mouths exploring, pleading.

Finally he released her and April gasped with a mixture of a dozen different emotions, chiefly shock and confusion but desire as well. "Axel!" She whispered harshly, glancing back to double check that her door was all the way closed and facing him once more. "What are you doing here? I don't hear from you for days and then you just... Show up here in the middle of the night and- and..." April stammered, her eyes welling with tears of frustration. 

Axel didn’t answer her at all as to why he was here to see her, needing something other than that to ensure she was still standing her in front of him. He was shaking and half panting from his run here, the gated community was a little easier to break on into than they might have suspected. His lips crashed to hers and he kept her pinned there to him despite the window sill between their frames. He gripped her tight and his eyes grew moist as he heard her screaming for him in his own mind again.

He let up on his hold on her despite how badly he didn’t want to, watching different emotions play out on her face. She turned and he cupped her face in his hand to draw her attention back as she asked what he was doing here, muttering on about how she didn’t hear from him after all he had said to her. “Don’t cry, Sweetie please.” He pleaded with her, his own eyes welling up but he couldn’t decide if it was out of relief to see her alive or sorrow that he had hurt her and that he even saw her in his visions at all.

It wasn’t the first time April was prevalent in his mind even when he wasn’t simply thinking about her. He sometimes had dreams about her, nothing usually bad like this and why he finally connected to something so deep with her this time he didn’t know. She stared at him in shock when he told her not to cry, telling him he had no right to tell her how to feel and while she was ranting to him in a hushed whisper he climbed in through her window quick enough that she didn’t have any chance to protest.

He pulled her to him, stepping into her space at the same time and his lips crashed to hers again. “I can’t lose you, Ape. Please… Please don’t give up on me.” He begged against her lips between wet sloppy kisses from a mix of their mouths together as well as the tears slipping past her lashes and his own dripping down his cheek. She pushed at his chest and cried openly, saying she felt like he was the one who had given up not her. Ax shook his head adamantly, “No… No April that’s why I’m here. Fuck I… I had to make sure you were still here.” He muttered shakily.

April asked him what he meant and he looked at her seriously, his eyes still welled up and full of tears that threatened to keep spilling over. “I fell asleep and I—“ He started and she pulled away from him, asking if he had been high, lingering close to seem to be trying to decide if he smelt of weed or not. “God is that what everyone just thinks is that’s all I do? I haven’t at all today, April I swear to God I haven’t just—I saw you in one of my dreams… In a nightmare.” He shook his head as he tried to tell her what had happened.

“I just… Can I—April I need to be with you. Please don’t kick me out I know I didn’t talk to you but there’s a lot of things I can’t tell you and believe me I want to but I can’t decide which is easier. I’m trying to keep you safe, that’s all. Please—Please trust me?” He prompted, squeezing her hands in his own and keeping her within reach. April looked uncertain but she seemed to believe something had bothered him to be in this state, that he wasn’t high in fact. She encouraged him to sit on her bed and he did, brushing off her apologies when she started repositioning her stuffed animals so he had room and wouldn’t lie on them. He might have commented or teased her normally but not right now, waiting briefly until she guided him into a seated position. He followed and dropped down onto her bed, his head falling into her lap and against her abdomen as she positioned herself cross legged beside him.

April didn’t ask any more questions for the time being, simply starting to run her fingers through his short hair and massage his scalp in comfort, promising he was okay and she was okay. “I don’t wanna have nightmares. I can’t do it… April I can’t watch you in them.” He whispered, sniffling and hearing her do the same, apologizing that he had bad dreams but it was clear she was confused a little by the fact that he was as upset as he was. He was quiet for a while longer, his eyes starting to open and he spoke up, “Baby will you lie with me? Please? I’ll behave I swear to God I will I just—“ He laughed a little embarrassingly. “The way you smell and feel and just everything comforts me about you.” He admitted sheepishly and she giggled at him but nodded, shifting up onto her mattress nearer to the top.

The blonde gestured for him to join her, getting herself settled on her pillow and he gently laid next to her, as close as he could manage, staring at her in the darkness. “I’ll leave before morning I promise.” He muttered softly, draping his arm around her middle and nudging her to lie flush against him. Her hands came up to brush over his scalp again and he rested his forehead against her shoulder, letting her soothe him through touch.

 

April relaxed back into her pile of pillows, her slender figure aligned seamlessly with Axel's, the warm and pressure of his arm across her stomach oddly comforting in turn the way he said her presence soothed him. She brought one hand up to simply rest across his shoulders while the fingers of her opposite hand trailed absently through his thick blond hair.

He muttered that he would be sure to leave before morning and she smiled softly, hushing him trying to encourage him not to think anymore but rather to simply rest his weary overstressed mind and body. April let her head loll back and rest against her headboard, eyes fixed on the ceiling above her and the rotating shadow cast on it by her slowly rotating ceiling fan.

April focused on keeping her breathing even and slow while she tried to process the roller coaster of events and feelings she'd just been on, she knew relationships had their ups and downs but the girl never could have imagined it'd be this tumultuous. Axel had begged her to trust him, but as much as she wanted to she wasn't sure she could do that with his pattern of behavior thus far... Still at times like this when he was around and was telling her that he cared, he seemed so sincere it was impossible not to believe him.

And then there was this issue of his nightmare that she apparently had had a starring role in and ended in tragedy though he didn't seem willing to share any details at the moment. April definitely knew how scary bad dreams could be, how vivid and unsettling. But... He seemed to be experiencing something that went beyond a nightmare, beyond even full blown night terrors to get to a point where he felt his only respite was to drug himself into oblivion. How could a dream be so terrifying he drove here in the middle of the night, snuck over a brick wall, a fence and in through her window after not talking to her for almost a week...

April shook herself mentally and made herself regulate her breathing again as following that train of thought started making her heart pound once more. If his nightmare was as bad as all that and he apparently had them regularly, maybe he didn't have some kind of hidden tragedy or problem at home like she'd first thought, maybe it was all coming from this issue of his night terrors. Surely there had to be some kind of help for that other than taking illegal drugs nearly every day, right? Her mind ran in circles for over an hour, inwardly abuzz with emotion and worry but outwardly remaining calm and still for Axel's sake.

It was clear that he had only come here because he was truly, desperately worried for her and that made her heart flutter, but was it really a good idea for her to involve herself with someone so volatile? Axel groaned lightly and his head shifted on her chest, capturing her attention and she realized that he had fallen asleep in her arms.

He looked so peaceful now, his breathing even and his expression totally relaxed. She couldn't help but smile at him, taking in the small details like the long shadows his eyelashes cast on his cheek and the miniscule movements of his full lips. April's heart melted watching him sleep, wishing she could keep him safe and at ease like this always. No matter what other doubts or concerns she held, it was clear to her that above all else her heart went out to him, she wanted to help him.  
Axel ended up staying the night with April that evening, much to his surprise she allowed him to stay as long as he liked so long as he was quiet and made his own way to school since she had to ride with her brother. He complied and with a long lingering kiss or two he finally managed out her window, promising like he always did that he would see her at school, only this time he actually showed. Every day after that he went to class, watching after her and doing his best to ensure she did in fact trust him.

He spent the next week and a half sober without even thinking it over. Most of his nights he snuck out to see April, leapt in through her window and stayed a couple hours just because they wanted to be around each other. She didn’t seem to realize that he was deliberately walking her everywhere as though that might keep her from disappearing. And then finally on Wednesday afternoon he saw her coming out of Brandon’s car, bounding over to him wearing the baby pink cardigan he recognized but it wasn’t something he remembered seeing her in before.

His eyes widened and the smile she gave him was familiar too, the kiss she offered, the way her hair was pinned out of her eyes and braided in a fishtail over her shoulder ever so neatly. His heart raced and he knew where he recognized all of this from, ensuring he was extra careful around her today, meeting her outside her classes for fear she might go home early or something, he didn’t know. She didn’t note or question it, in fact she seemed quite happy to have him carrying her book bag to each door for her and offer her far more attention than he ever had.

The end of the day came and when she said goodbye he couldn’t let her go, gripping her tight and insisting she let Carson give them both a ride. Brandon stared at him and while he still didn’t love the whole idea of his friend being with his sister, he must have been able to tell by the tone in his voice that something seriously was wrong. “April my dream. Please let Carson drive you guys home. I’ll take your car, Brandon.” He pleaded with them both, feeling Carson shifting beside him a little awkwardly as he smiled and gestured for April to walk with him. He knew it sounded crazy and they had to think so too but they eventually offered over the keys and Ax to Brandon’s car about ten minutes later, following Carson into the gated neighborhood before letting his friend have his keys back.

After he helped them and his vision stopped occurring he managed to relax. It only took nearly two weeks for that to happen but it was worth the stress to know that now April was going to be okay at least as far as he could tell. Carson must have noticed the difference too and for the first time in years they started spending time together again.

“Cars are your thing, Carson. The fuck does this even go to?” Ax grumbled, leaning into the hood of the old Chevy that they had just bought. Carson chuckled from the toolbox he was hunched over, straightening and tossing his little brother a socket wrench, indicating to a couple bolts they needed to undo in order to get the… something or other. “These?” He questioned, pointing his finger into the car and watching Carson nod at him in response, encouraging him to do so.

Axel pulled apart the few bolts, “Why’d you buy a clunky piece of shit like this anyhow? It’s gonna cost you more than it’s worth to fix it up isn’t it?” He mused, grunting as he finished off the last bolt and pulled his head up again to look at the rusted car. It wasn’t even that old but it had to have been some old farm truck, the mileage was low on it but the wear and tear from the terrain definitely did a number on the inside of the vehicle. Carson was nothing if not determined by the challenge, rather insistent upon teaching Ax the things he knew.

They worked for awhile before Carson brought up April, asking how things were going and if she had any questions in regards to his weird behavior the other day. The blond shrugged, his face smudged with dirt and grease, “We’re good I think. She probably thinks I’m a little crazy but I suppose I am right?” He muttered, getting a little fidgety and then Carson asked about if he still was sneaking off to see her when he left Obi in his room. Axel knew what he was really getting at, wondering if he was still smoking every evening. He sighed, “Going on two weeks now. I hadn’t even had the time to think about it. She’s more important to me, y’know? I had to be sober to make sure she stayed alive but… I’ve still had the urge to a few times. I know if I do, then I can’t sneak in through her window that evening.” He stated with a light chuckle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this next bit is more about Axel and April and his struggle with drugs. Just a warning, there's quite a bit of drama.

Carson chuckled a bit at his brother's response, pleased and relieved that Axel had found something to occupy him beyond getting high. He could only hope that it would last, if Axel was still having urges to smoke he was afraid it would only be a matter of time till the blond gave in to temptation.

The brothers continued to work on the old Chevy truck, though much of the time was spent with Carson wrangling his brother's short attention span trying to get him to focus on the repairs they were doing and learn to do them himself. He did pick up some of what he told him, but Carson was pretty sure once they finished this project he wasn't going to be able to cajole his brother into another like it again.

Parker ordered a few parts and they brothers continued to work on the beast of a vehicle for another week or so, and Carson continued to try and work the younger man's relationship with April into their conversations. He was so pleased to see his brother enjoying being in his first relationship, and even more pleased that so far he was still smoking less frequently in favor of spending time with the sweet little blonde.

Finally the Saturday after they started on the truck, it was all finished and Parker was looking over the boys' handiwork. Parker trusted Carson's skills but the more experienced man still wanted to give it a once-over considering just who was going to be driving it from now on.

"All right... Looks good guys, looks real good." Parker finally commented, turning back and grinning at his sons. Carson seemed pleased by his assessment while Axel appeared more bored, asking if he was going to get a cut of the money if they managed to sell it since he'd put in part of the work. Parker laughed at his youngest and shook his head, palming the keys and tossing them to Carson who caught them easily.

"I don't think you'll wanna do that, Ax." Carson warned with a little chuckle. He had been in on the real reason Parker had bought this old truck from the get go, and he was pleased that his dad was giving him the chance to be the one to reveal the surprise. The blond looked at him suspiciously and he tossed the keys at him. Axel caught them but only looked more confused.

"It's yours, man. We fixed it up for you to drive." Carson explained, grinning widely as his words sunk in and Axel's blue eyes went wide with surprise. The younger Black sibling looked from his brother to his dad and then to the truck, gazing at it excitedly as if for the first time.

“Are you serious?” Axel asked, darting over to the side of the truck and for the first time he actually admired the vehicle. “Like it’s all mine? I don’t gotta fight for the keys and ask mom to take ‘er out and all that right? It’s totally mine?” He confirmed, watching his brother and father both nod in response.

“Alright!” He hollered, clutching the keys and heading back over to bump fists with his older brother before thanking his dad for even buying it and the parts for it in the first place. “Thanks. I just thought Carson was trying to make me do shit…” He laughed, feeling a little bit guilty now considering he didn’t really deserve such a gift. He could almost see in Carson’s eyes that he knew the places Ax would be driving his new truck to and it killed him to only have to confirm that soon enough.

Parker told him to give her a test drive, asking if he wanted a passenger but Carson butt in and pointed out that Ax was likely going to see someone in particular. Parker’s brow arched in question and Axel fidgeted at the look he got, “It’s no big deal. Just a girl.” He muttered, brushing off both of his family members and patting his hand on the back of the truck in admiration of it’s new paint job.

Their father let that little matter go for the moment and told him to have fun and as he spoke, Axel whistled around his crooked fingers. “OBI!” He yelled over the other man’s voice, “I will. And I know, be home by midnight and all that good stuff. She kicks me out before then anyhow.” The blond laughed, watching as his young dog Obi came barreling around the corner with a branch in his mouth that was far too big for him to be carrying even though he was nearly fully grown now, dragging it along the ground and crashing into Parker’s legs.

Axel chuckled as Obi looked confused and tried to pass again only to hit his father’s legs once more, “Obi, drop it dude, we’re going bye-bye anyhow.” He prompted, popping open the passenger side door and the red fox lab left his large stick behind, jumping in without hesitation and sitting in the cab happily. “Once I get my girl in there… we’re like a movin’ country song, huh?” He laughed, shaking his head and thanking his family again, telling Parker to thank Mari as well.

He wandered a little ways away and picked up the dirty tennis ball that belonged to his furry companion, patting Lucy’s head softly where she laid a few feet away from Carson’s feet. She was far calmer than Obi Wan was which made her easier to train and she happily obeyed when she was told to stay in place. Axel rounded the front of the truck and headed to the driver’s side, pulling the door open and setting the ball in the front seat with his companion while he started up the truck that sounded far more smooth and calm than when they first started working on it.

He waved to his family outside one final time and backed out, taking off down the back roads with the windows rolled down and testing out the new stereo system they had installed, the radio blasting and Obi was hanging his head out the window happily. It wasn’t often the dog got to go for car rides considering Ax didn’t have his own and about the only time he really drove was to school or to April’s. “Hey babe.” He said into his phone after dialing out to April, hearing her soft voice on the other end asking him what he was up to.

“Well I was just heading your way with a friend. Could you meet me at the gate, I’ll be there in like five minutes or so.” Axel requested of her, the smile evident in his voice and he wasn’t even sure why he was so happy but he was. He drove the last few miles to her gated community and sure enough she was just coming out of the walking trail gate, pushing it closed when he pulled up. The tiny blond looked around, brushing her hair out of her face and seeming a little confused until he leaned over Obi who ruffed at her, “Hey Gorgeous, you need a lift?” He smiled, putting his truck in park as he eased up to the curb and she giggled as she walked on over.

Axel nodded encouragingly for her to open the door and she asked about Obi who was still in part trying to lean out the window to lick at her face as she tried to open the door. “Dude. You’re stealing my thunder here.” He scolded, tugging on the Star Wars collar his pup wore to get him inside, “Sorry. He’s a fan of people and he’s got the attention span of a rock, don’t you Obi?” He pat his companion affectionately with the opposite hand, allowing April time to get into his new car and soon she asked where the truck came from. “It’s mine. You like it?” He asked, “Carson and I rebuilt it for like a week. I’ve never done anything like that.”

As he spoke Obi whimpered, inching towards April and tugging against Axel’s hold on him, his tail whacking against the seat as well as his owner’s legs each time that she looked over at him or said anything. “Oh right sorry. This is Obi.” He smiled again, leaning over and nabbing as kiss from his girlfriend first before he let his dog have his own attentions.

At first April didn't realize that the truck pulled into the gate drive was in fact Axel waiting for her, but when he poked his head out the window she approached and smiled brightly at his cheesy line. "Where did this come from?" She asked, half distracted by the energetic reddish young dog trying to climb in her lap and give her sloppy kisses. Axel informed her that the truck was his and she was happy to hear that fixing it up had been a project he and Carson did together.

"Wow, that's really great Ax! It's awesome!" April ooh'd and awe'd at the vehicle, but the dog Axel was holding back was getting more and more insistent so he finally introduced the pup and let him loose after stealing a quick kiss. 'Obi' as he called him bounded into her lap and April laughed at the pup's enthusiasm, petting him and trying to keep up with his his flailing head and paws.

"So this is the cutie pie I've been hearing about! So nice to meet you Obi!" April cooed at the dog who only wagged his tail harder at the endearing tone of her voice. Ax had sent her a couple pictures of both his and his brother's dog, but seeing the real thing in person was far better. The puppy was hardly able to sit still in her lap he was so excited, but she still managed to keep a pretty good hold of him as Axel backed his truck out of the drive and back out onto the road.

They drove back into town and Ax pulled into a grocery store, telling her to stay in the truck with Obi and he'd be right back. April furrowed her delicate brow in confusion but agreed, giving her full attention to the furry bundle of energy once Axel was gone playing a bit with him with the ratty old tennis ball she found on the seat.

A thought popped into her head while she waited and the blonde started rummaging through her purse for her wallet, pushing Obi back every couple seconds since he was very interested in stuffing his head into her handbag. She took out her pink leather wallet and pulled out the small picture she'd taken of her and Ax on one of their lunch dates out on the grass by the school, both of them making silly fish lips and it made her giggle every time she looked at it. April glanced around the cab and dash, finally settling for wedging the edge of the picture into the edge one of the vents that was in easy view of the driver, smiling absently as she adjusted the photo. It was the only physical copy she had but she could always print off more.

April sat back and started playing with the puppy once more till Axel finally came back out, both arms laden with grocery bags and she looked at him curiously when he climbed back into the cab of the truck, stowing the bags by her feet out of the dog's reach as long as he was kept up on the seat. Her boyfriend started to explain even before she got the chance to ask, telling her he'd picked up a few items for an impromptu picnic lunch at the park.

April smiled brightly and nodded when he asked her if she was hungry, poking curiously through the bags and seeing a couple prepackaged deli sandwiches, a little tub of potato salad and some grapes, as well as a bottle of soda for each of them and a chocolate cupcake. She smiled warmly at that, knowing he'd gotten that especially for her since Axel wasn't really a big sweets fan unless it was ice cream.

They drove back out to the park by April's house and April kept Obi wrangled as best she could while Ax carried their supplies, laughing and calling his pup's name now and then to keep him from wandering too far. They got settled on the sun-warmed grass and Obi was suddenly less interested in running off to explore the area when the food started coming out, sitting practically in April's lap trying to butter her up for a morsel or two which she gave once she asked Axel if it was all right.

Ax chided the dog a bit, tugging him down from her front more than once and apologizing about how 'overly-friendly' he was. April giggled and shook her head, "No, he's fine really. I adore him, my mom and dad never let us have a pet so I've always just had to make due with stuffed animals... He's perfect." She assured him, feeding the pup another little corner of her sandwich bread.

Axel tugged at Obi again when he started to climb over April’s lap, his tail batting at his owner’s arm and he whimpered at the blonde girl to give him another bite, licking his chops eagerly. “Sorry about him. He’s overly-friendly, doesn’t really get out and around people much besides the family. He sort of knows the rules at home but apparently not here.” He chuckled, pulling at the dog’s collar lightly to keep him at bay but she assured him it was fine and he released him a bit.

“I think I remember you telling me that when I noticed your buddies on your bed.” He commented with an amused grin, making her flush in the same manner she had when he first spotted them and was awake and focused enough to really notice. She mumbled about how she knew it was dumb and she was too old for them and all of that but he shook his head, cutting her off as he swallowed down a large bite of sandwich. “Stop. Babe it’s cute. I think it is anyways.” He assured, smiling at her and scooting closer to kiss her sweetly.

April smiled back up at him and scrunched her nose a little, “Oh mustard, sorry.” He laughed, pulling away and grabbing his soda, taking a swig and grinning at her. He remembered she hated the taste, more so hated the one he liked and almost every time they had a picnic like this at school he had to wash his sandwich down with something or other before they continued. “I like your dress.” He complimented, leaning his forearms on his knees and sitting forward a bit, playing with Obi when they were both done eating and the food was gone so the dog could relax.

She smiled and smoothed it out, sheepishly admitting that she had changed into it just for him. “For me? Why’s that?” He laughed through his nose, looking her over and she flushed, saying she remembered he said he liked her in warm colors like red and pink best so she chose the floral pattern with him in mind. “I like you in warm colors or whatever best because your cheeks match.” He teased, leaning into her again and slipping his arm around her waist to pull her down in the grass, making her giggle at him as he kissed at her cheeks for emphasis. “But you know I think you’re just as beautiful when you’re wearing my batman sweats or Brandon’s sweater.” He smiled, pressing his lips to hers sweetly and he could see in her eyes how his words affected her.

April tugged at him by the shirt, pulling him to hover over her slightly and she took the initiative to deepen the kiss this time, their tongues sliding together intimately and they kissed like that for only a moment or two before Obi’s excitement got the better of him. Axel groaned more out of disgust than anything else when he felt the dog lick at his cheek and ear from the side, trying to break them apart. He pulled up off of her and she was giggling beside herself on the grass, sitting up as the blond wiped off his face with a disgusted look. April made kissing noises at the puppy and scooped up his old tennis ball, getting to her feet and delicately brushing off her short dress of all grass as she took off running, kicking off her flats so she could move more easily.

Axel smiled up at her as she interacted with his dog on her own a bit, tossing the ball and he happily ran to retrieve it time and time again. “You don’t realize what you’re in for until he’s still trying to bring it to you four hours later.” The young Black sibling called to his girlfriend, “He doesn’t tire, I’m telling you. And it’s unfair he uses his cute to get his way!” He got up to his feet as well, leaving the rest of their stuff in the grass for now and running to try and beat Obi to the ball, he was fast, he had always been a fast runner but the dog was certainly faster, catching it and growling at him when he made it to him.

Obi took off with the ball in his mouth but instead of giving it to April again he ran past her and started playing with it on the ground by himself, challenging his owner to come take it from him, his blue eyes darting up to the man as he inched closer. “Hey Obi.” He cooed, reaching out slowly but the dog grabbed the ball just in time and took off again, getting distracted by running through a flock of geese. Axel chuckled and headed on over to April, hardly out of breath as he slipped his hands along her hips and stood in her space. “He’s like havin’ a five year old with never ending energy.” He laughed, turning around and giving his back to April, his good mood effecting her clearly with the smile she wore. “Come on.” He encouraged, bending and helping her with a tug of his hand to get her to get on his back.

April laughed and did just so, ensuring her dress didn’t ride up and show anything off as Ax hauled her past their little picnic site. He scooped up her shoes and carried them with him, hardly holding onto her as her legs wrapped around his waist from behind and he took her over to the swings and set her down just by her shoes he dropped. He smiled at her, jumping up onto one of the swings and gripping the chains, standing on the seat and starting to make himself sway. “At least he’ll be worn out.” He commented in regards to Obi who was still running around with his tennis ball in his mouth and chasing the birds. “I knew you two would get along.”

April laughed and nodded, wriggling her toes in the warm sand under the swings and pushing off a bit making herself swing as well. Obi made sure to keep the pair of them in sight at all times but seemed content for the moment to romp and chew on his ball by himself. The pair played on the playground equipment then ran around with the puppy some more before finally settling on the grass again. The afternoon seemed to fly by and April hardly realized that a few hours had gone by until her phone buzzed and she saw she had a text from her mother asking her to be home for dinner in twenty minutes at most.

She sighed and informed Axel of her summons home and he made a loud noise of disapproval, making her laugh as he flung his upper half over her lap, telling her she couldn't go yet. April looked down at her boyfriend and affectionately ran her fingers through his hair, reminded of they way she had comforted him some nights ago with a similar touch only now he looked so different with a bright playful smile on his face.

"Sorry Ax, I can't be out much longer. But I had a really good time today, thank you for thinking of me like this." April responded, scratching her nails through his hair one last time before pushing at him to shift his weight off of her. He groaned and made a fuss but started gathering up their trash from lunch anyway, tossing it all in one grocery bag to take with him and April tugged her sandals back on. Axel whistled for Obi and the puppy picked up his tennis ball, trotting over happily with his tail wagging as it always seemed to be.

They walked back down to the truck and piled in Obi immediately plopping down in April's lap and Axel chuckled and called the dog a traitor. April scratched the pup's head and bent to give his furry head a few kisses, "Don't listen to daddy Obi, he's just jealous that you're gonna get more kisses than him that's all." She said in an obvious stage whisper, feathering more kisses over the dog's head until Axel made a fuss about that not being fair and that he wanted love too.

April giggled and rose up to meet her boyfriend when he stretched over closer to her, their lips meeting in a sweet kiss. The contact only stayed light for a moment, Axel prodded at her lips with his tongue and she couldn't help but oblige him, craning her head to give him better access and they stayed locked like that for several moments until they were forced to come up for air.

Axel smirked at her and leaned in again but April made herself pull back this time, making a tsking noise at him and tapping her wrist where a watch would be if she wore one, "Hey now, I'm on the clock here Romeo let's go." She chided playfully, her voice a little breathy from their kiss but still she knew they needed to get moving or she'd be late.

They pulled up to her gate once more and Axel took her hand, drawing it up to kiss her fingers making her flush at the way he was looking at her. "Will I see you tonight?" April asked softly, they both knew that what she actually meant by that was Axel sneaking over in the dead of night to her window so they could spend more time together. The blond eagerly agreed and April giggled happily, leaning in to quickly peck his cheek because she knew if she allowed anything more she'd linger here with him too long.

"Goodbye Obi. It was nice to finally meet you." April cooed at the puppy when he tried to keep her from pushing him out of her lap, patting his head and managing to slip out of the truck without letting the dog bound out after her. She waved at Axel and then hurried in to get back to her house so she wouldn't get in trouble with her parents.

Axel reached over and tugged lightly at Obi’s scruff, “Come on Buddy, Ape’s gotta go. You’ll see her another day okay?” He cooed, patting the puppy’s head when she closed the passenger door and he shifted forward to look at her through the window. “I know. You’ll survive. I promise.” He chuckled, patting his leg so that Obi would sit beside him and the pup wandered over the couple steps to lay his head in his owner’s lap, letting him scratch his head as they drove home.

\----

Over the next few days things were going really well between Axel and April and every night he would show up at her place just as promised. He managed to keep her as his focus for quite some time and even showed up to his sixth period as well as their lunch dates beforehand on a regular basis. He even showed up for wrestling practice every day that week without issue.

Not until about midafternoon on that following Wednesday did Ax feel the need rather strongly to slip up. Last night had been a rough one to say the least, he followed his usual ritual of seeing April for an hour or two before they both parted ways and actually went to bed but when he came home around eleven or so he found he couldn’t sleep, not soundly at least. Another vision had him stirring and while it was about no one in particular it was the context that had him shaken. Watching a woman get raped and torn to bits by a man hungering for human flesh was certainly no dream to keep you rested.

It didn’t connect to him in any way but that was part of why it bothered him as much as it did, how could he stop it without any sort of signs or indication of when it was occurring though with the way his visions worked it often happened within a day or so he saw them or sometimes he would find out he was watching someone as it was truly happening. For all he knew he just witnessed a crime that was happening that very second he lay in bed doing nothing but petting his dog.

That afternoon he was meant to meet with April as always on their spot on the lawn just outside of east campus but he made a detour beforehand, veering off to the outbuildings that looked like little more than a couple trailer cars. He shook hands with his dealer and examined the weed he had been contemplating buying, “Been waitin’ for your call man, thought you quit on me for good. Without you smokin’ and spreadin’ word, my business been hurtin’.” The taller man said to Axel.

“Yeah my girl’s not the biggest fan of the stuff so just been milking what’s left of my stash.” He lied, when really he hadn’t smoked in over two weeks. “How much?” The blond asked, reaching in his pocket for his wallet and rifling through his bills to count out how much he had and what he could afford right now. He tugged out a twenty when the man answered so, rolling up the bill and switching their merchandise quickly but not quick enough. Ax had almost forgotten they weren’t completely out of sight either that or his voice carried more than he thought.

April came around the corner along the grass and started right up to him without realizing she could be endangering herself. He gripped her slightly, not completely trusting the man he bought from to not make a grab for her out of anger for being interrupted. “Ape.” He said simply and she looked up at him with tear filled eyes, asking what he was doing.

“She better be cool, man or we’re gonna have a problem.” The dealer across from them said, fidgeting with the low waistband of his pants.

Ax blocked her slightly, “She is. Look I’ll call you for the next batch alright?” He prompted, both men nodding and with that the third party left them be. He turned to April, gently trying to take her hand but she pulled away, asking what he was doing. “What do you wish I was doing? You’re not stupid, Ape, you know what I’m doing.” He stated in a slightly irritated tone but it was more out of disappointment in himself.

The blonde looked up at him pleadingly, shaking her head and mentioning that she thought he had quit. “I did but—“ She cut him off and questioned him again, asking why he was self-medicating when they were doing so good together. “It’s… Baby it’s really not that easy okay? The nightmares are getting bad again and it’s easier like this. I don’t know what you want me to say.”

 

Axel had been showing up on time and even early for their lunch dates and classes lately so it stood out to April when he was late today. She waited for a few minutes trying not to get anxious but as time ticked by she started getting sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was wrong. She caught movement off in the distance, but she knew Axel's tall blond topped visage so well even from so far she knew it was him walking out towards the outbuildings where a stranger was waiting for him.

The two males started exchanging money and bags and April's heart sank like a stone as she put together what was going on. She rushed over without thinking, worried that if she didn't confront her boyfriend right away he would just lie to her again. She got to them and asked what he was doing, not because she didn't know but because she simply didn't want it to be true. Axel did his best to herd her away from the angry looking man and she put up little fight at being moved, too upset to really dig her feet in.

"Axel... What are you doing?" She asked again out once the dealer left, her voice wobbly with emotion and tears slipping past her dark lashes. Axel berated her for asking again when it was obvious, his irate tone making her insides twist. "But why? I thought you quit... I thought things were going really well between us." April stammered, searching Axel's face when he brought up his nightmares being bad and even in her affected state she could tell he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

"No, no there's something you're not telling me, Ax! Something you've been keeping from me this whole time, I just keep letting you use this 'nightmare' thing as an excuse! There has to be more going on here!" April came close to yelling, her voice strained and raw with emotion and she didn't miss the way Axel's features cinched with guilt before he managed to push it down.

He gripped her arms and started to insist again that he struggled with night terrors but she was done with getting this story from him. She yanked out of his grip, shouting at him making him flinch since she wasn't the type at all to raise her voice, "AXEL STOP!" She cut him off, crying and hugging her arms around herself trying to calm down a bit so she could speak coherently.

"Stop lying to me. Please. I want to help you with whatever your real problems are, but I can't do that if you won't be honest with me. People with recurring nightmares go to the doctor and get sleep studies and pills and stuff. This is something else. Something you don't want to get help for but you don't have to face it alone, Ax. I'm here... Let me in, please." April pleaded, reaching out and grabbing his wrist, looking up at him with overflowing eyes.

Axel was a little stunned by the way that she talked to him considering she wasn’t one to raise her voice at all. It was clear to him that she was completely fed up with his lies though they weren’t completely lies just not full truths either. He couldn’t keep hiding from her anymore, pocketing away the weed he just bought so neither of them would have to look at it. His eyes were watery just as well as hers because he knew now he had to fess up to everything.

She took his wrist and he gently shifted it to be holding her hand, his opposite coming up to rest against her cheek. “Okay. No more lies, April.” He muttered, nodding his head, “Sit with me and we’ll talk.” He promised and she seemed a little apprehensive, probably because he had lied to her more than a handful of times but didn’t the last few weeks make up for his wrongs, he thought they had anyways, he thought that he started up a good enough reputation with her.

They both eased down in the grass alongside one of the buildings and out of view again, rarely anyone walked that way during lunch and he wanted the time to talk to her, unconcerned about eating right now. “I do have nightmares but they’re different than what you might see or feel or hear. It just is. They’re… They’re like visions of the future or the present or the past I never really know.” He began, hardly managing to look at her when he knew she was looking at him like anyone else might, like he was crazy already and it bothered him to no end.

He cleared his throat and shifted in the grass, pulling off his backpack and setting it aside so he would be more comfortable where he was leaning up against the building. “I don’t have to be asleep to see them. I see them at school, at home, when I’m with you, I’ve had to pull off the road because I can feel it changing. It happens at random and it’s almost every day, some are worse than other’s but that week I was so focused on making sure you stayed alive… that was the first week I didn’t have any others on top of it.” He explained, continuing when she didn’t say anything at all. “The ‘dream’ I had about you… You got in a car accident with Brandon, you were screaming for help, I felt everything you did, I felt your sternum crack, your leg break, your shoulder dislocate, the nauseating feeling when the car rolled, the fear you had. I heard you pray as if it was all in my own head and then I felt you burn up, die begging to see me and your family again.” He said, starting to cry now as he recalled every part of that particular vision more than the others.

“Last night I watched a woman get eaten alive, quite literally by her own husband or boyfriend or father or whoever he was and there’s nothing I can do. I can’t fix it but I can make it go away, I smoke because it fights it from happening again, my mind is so far gone that the crazy visions I have can’t break through and if they do, I’m too far gone to even remember them.” Axel told her, cutting her off when she started to speak. “Shh—You want all the truth right?” He asked and she stared at him, tears streaking her own cheeks and without a word for confirmation he knew.

“My dad has them too. He’s a hunter of all things supernatural, everything you see in your nightmares is real no matter how much you want to pretend and he fights to keep them only in your mind and not in your life. He was born with it, I don’t know if his dad had the same thing or not but it’s been his drive to try and stop what he sees. It’s how he met my mom, saving her from getting raped by half a dozen guys while she was learning to hunt on her own. My grandfather on my mother’s side is one of the most infamous hunters, having fought against Lucifer himself and my mother… She’s a quarter archangel, descendant of Gabriel.” He ranted on, looking down and over at her, shaking his head and knowing she might not believe him. “Which means that I am too. Carson didn’t develop anything from it but they think my visions are more powerful because I have her blood too that I somehow connect myself to these people or something I don’t know…”

“I’m gone for weeks at a time, you know that… But it’s not for family trips like I said, like I’ve always told you. I hunt too. Spirits, Demons, Werewolves, Vampires, Rugarus, Wendigos, Wraiths, every god damned thing you could think of. We all do. It’s the family business.” He chuckled a little awkwardly at the words, “A business you can’t just get out of. When I’m working I deal with the live versions of some of the things I see… When I sleep it’s just an extension that I can’t stop, when I come to school it all follows me. This…” He dug in his pocket and pulled the baggie of marijuana out to indicate, “This is my coping mechanism. You want the truth, that’s it. I see and hear things, I hunt and have killed people and creatures alike and I smoke weed every damn day to forget about it.” He grumbled through his teeth.

April's eyes went wide as Axel talked, of all the things she had imagined that her boyfriend might be struggling with... Well. She never would've put 'visions' or 'werewolves' or 'Lucifer' on the list. The blonde pulled her hand from Axel's grasp, subconsciously wrapping her arms around herself apprehensively as she struggled to process everything he had just laid out.

Her first impulse was to write off what he told her as yet more lies, an even more elaborate way of avoiding telling her the truth. But the hopeless look in his eyes and the defeated sound of his voice made it impossible to think he was just making this all up off the top of his head. But it couldn't be true, there were no such things as monsters... Maybe this was wrapped up in his night terrors somehow, maybe he dreamed about all these terrible supernatural things and had started to believe...

April shook her head, fresh tears burning her eyes. She could believe or didn't want to accept that her boyfriend was... Crazy or something like that. It just didn't add up against everything she did know about him, the way he acted when he was with her. 

"Ax... Baby please, what you're saying isn't making any sense, you don't... You don't have to make up stories like that this to try and cover up what's really going on..." April faltered, not wanting to think her boyfriend was unstable and so falling back on that he must still be lying to her in the face of information she couldn't possibly accept or process. Axel growled in frustration reaching down and snatching her hand again, towing her forcefully out into the parking lot towards his truck.

"Ax, Axel please stop! Ax you're hurting me!" April protested brokenly, his vice-like grip on her wrist painfully tight as he ignored her words and all but dragged her to the bed of his truck, hauling her up with him to kneel in the bed of it and grabbing his keys from his pocket with his free hand.

He growled out something about how he would give her proof if she wanted it, still crying a bit himself as he unlocked the bolted down metal storage box in the back of the truck bed. The blond propped it open and lifted out the false bottom inside it, revealing an assortment of tools, weapons, and all sorts of what April could only equate to demonic paraphernalia: Arcane ritual items, candles, various implements that looked like they might be made of bones and teeth.

Axel started muttering about how these were the tools of his family's trade, rummaging through a few items and finding a black leather-bound binder, flipping it open calling it his 'hunter's journal' that his dad insisted both he and his brother keep to record their hunts. He handed it to April and she held it in her lap with shaky hands, flipping through a few of the pages catching words like 'vampires' and 'exorcism' and 'wendigo.' He'd been recording things in his familiar barely readable penmanship for months, a couple years even, so this was definitely not something he'd just made up on the spot.

April felt even more confused now than before, her brain struggling to wrap around all of this information that she never would have believed in a million years. She looked up at him, her whole frame shaking now and her face going pale at the thought of even a tiny part of what he'd told her being real.

"H-How is any of this possible? This... This can't be real..." April whispered, her watery blue gaze dropping back down to the box full of implements and weapons and skimming over a page of the journal with a photo of Axel and his brother Carson standing over what looked to be a flaming grave of all things.

“It is real.” Axel said insistently, grabbing the book from her and pulling it to himself instead, flipping through it to show her more images, things he had drawn himself, stuff that was actual photos of scenes they dealt with, hexes, sigils, anything for what he saw as good proof. “I-I would have to be pretty fucked up to do all of this don’t you think? Don’t you think I’d be locked up by now if it was fake? My family knows. All of them.” He snapped at her, his eyes flooded with tears of his own as he pleaded with her to believe him.

“I’ll prove it to you.” He said likely for the tenth time that entire conversation. He pulled at her again after closing the tool box in the back of his truck, helping her off of the bed and pulling out his phone. “Get in the truck. I’ll show you.” He typed out a text to his older brother that he needed him to meet him at home because he voiced a few things to April and now he feared losing her for good.

The couple piled into the car or rather Ax forced her into the passenger seat and he made her wait until he got a message back for Carson saying to take the long route home and he would try to beat them there to handle Mari. She begged him to let her out of the car and it took a little of a fight, locking the doors before she could manage to get it pulled open. “Please!” He yelled at her, his voice lowering when he spoke again, “Please. Put your seatbelt on. I’m taking you to my place. I want you to meet my mom and my dad and really know Carson and me.” He informed her, his blue eyes never shifting from hers when she looked back at him.

They drove eventually to get to the bunker and sure enough somehow, Carson’s car was already there in the garage. Ax pulled up and parked the car, “My mom, Mari she’s… She’s very enthusiastic and I’ve only really allowed her to talk to me about you like twice.” He informed his girlfriend or what now might not be. He got out of the car, his eyes flickering over the picture of him and his lover still on his dash from a few days ago.

\----

Mari waited inside with Carson, seemingly a little confused by the sudden information just dropped on her. Carson was calm but mostly she was anticipating meeting Axel’s girlfriend for the first time. She thought he kept everything secret but as it would seem he trusted in her enough to spill the beans as it were. She felt a mix of emotions, fear out of what this girl might think, excitement to know that Ax was in a serious relationship at all and nervousness at meeting her entirely.

Carson put a hand on her leg that was jiggling and she smiled at him, “I know the rules Car. I also know that you had to have been driving at least 80 to get home in the time that you did from when you called me.” She scolded and he chuckled at her, shrugging his shoulders and playing off what she said as the door popped open.

Mari stood and she could see Axel’s eyes were red-rimmed from crying as it would seem and she wanted to dart forward and comfort him in the way she always did for either of her boys when she sensed something was wrong. “Hi!” She practically squeaked, almost startling the girl named April entirely as she was looking around the entrance of the bunker with complete apprehension. “Sorry. Hi Sweetie. I’m Mari.” She greeted, giving a wave of her hand to her, stepping forward despite Carson’s hand and she headed over to hug the girl.

“Umm… So you’re April?” She smiled, glancing sorrowfully at Axel who looked like he might break down and lose it again. He let his girlfriend go into the hands of his mother and Mari pulled out of their hug, pulling her with her arm around her shoulder to come sit down. “I wish I could say that Ax has told me a lot about you but he’s rather secretive in that way but you’re the blondie he got ice cream with months ago. I remember you. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Axel really smile.” She stated, trying not to jump right into the deeper discussion as to why April was even here.

“Mom. I need you to tell her about when I was little.” Axel spoke up, his voice shaky and Mari looked like she couldn’t decide on if she wanted to sit with April or if she wanted to run over and comfort her own son. “I told her about my visions… I told her about hunting I need you to tell her too. You and Carson.” He muttered, not wanting to chance losing April over this and Mari nodded.

“Okay, Ax why don’t you go get April a pop from in the fridge and a glass of ice, hmm?” Mari instructed, trying to busy him as well because she knew if she didn’t he would really break down or throw one of his temper tantrums. Axel nodded slowly, blinking back tears as he walked past them to get to the kitchen doing as he was told without fight much to her surprise. “April I grew up in this mess and so did the boys and sometimes it’s even tough for our own family to grasp.” She stated in a far softer tone, offering a kind smile as she eased down onto the sofa with the young blonde. “It’s a lot more overwhelming on Axel’s part.”

April sat with Axel's mother Mari on the sofa, her pretty face and kind demeanor a welcome reprieve from all the crazy things she'd just been told on top of the rather odd surroundings that the Black family apparently called home. A little warning voice was yelling in the back of her head that going down into an underground bunker with a family of people who apparently believed vampires existed was not a wise plan, but her feelings for Axel just managed to outweigh her natural instinct to panic enough to give these people the benefit of the doubt for now.

The petite blonde sat stiffly on the couch, her hand loosely in Mari's still from the brunette woman leading her to the seating area. Mari sensed her unease and smiled warmly, reiterating that she had nothing to fear holding her gaze with a kind expression though it was clear there was plenty of worry in her eyes as well. 

Axel came back with drinks before Mari could really get started, setting them down on the coffee table and opting for sitting on the floor with his puppy in his lap, absently playing with him while he listened to his mother. Carson sat in one of the chairs opposite the couch with his own canine companion, giving her a sympathetic expression very similar to his mother's. Mari thanked Axel for the soda and asked April if she wanted her to pour it for her, but the blond quickly shook her head and picked up the glass herself, a little grateful to have something to do with her hands and to hold once her drink was poured though she didn't take a sip of it.

Mari looked at each of her boys in turn then back to April, clearing her throat softly and going into greater detail about their family, starting with her own parents feeling it was best to start a little ahead of Axel himself so she'd really have a good understanding of what their lives entailed. She mentioned her 'uncles' as well though only one was technically her uncle, the second man she mentioned was apparently a celestial being named Castiel who had become an honorary member of the family.

The woman went on to touch on her own experiences and that of her husband Parker, which led naturally from explaining his 'gift' to going into Axel's that was along the same vein but different from his dad's in many ways. Mari told her about how from the time he could talk basically and mostly likely even before that, her younger son saw things that were going to happen in the future and had no way of controlling when or where he saw them. She looked at Ax and gave him a warm grin when she mentioned how proud she was of him for handling his power which was both a gift and a burden, but the younger boy brushed off her praise and Carson watching him with a certain amount of tension that hadn't been there before.

It suddenly dawned on April that Mari and most likely her spouse as well had no idea that Axel was using drugs to 'cope' with his... Powers, as strange as that was to say. She spoke all about his visions and the way Parker was helping him try to manage them, speaking very casually about how his temper was sometimes short or his behavior a little wild on account of these things he had to deal with, asking April with a little laugh if she found those same traits endearing the way she did.

April glanced at Axel but the blond was staring pointedly at the floor. Her gaze flickered up to Carson and he shook his head ever so slightly, an unspoken understanding between them and she forced herself to smile and respond affirmatively to Mari's question. So. Carson knew about what Axel really was doing to 'manage' his visions, but their parents didn't. 

Mari squeezed her arm encouragingly, apologizing somewhat that this was so much to take in all at once but expressing her hope that April would give them all a chance and find out all they had to offer and she'd find out it was worth all the extra baggage, that her son especially was worth it. It was clear she loved Axel very dearly, and apart from everything else they'd talked about that was so hard to believe, it broke April's heart a little to see Mari blissfully unaware of just how hard it really was for her youngest to cope with his powers.

 

Axel avoided all direct eye contact with his family as well as his girlfriend. His parents didnt know how he was handling, they hardly knew to the extent he sometimes saw his visions and how much they effected him. April and Carson did though and he wondered if they would keep it quiet even now considering the whole reason he was dragging her here was because she caught him buying.

April seemed to be taking everything in stride but the look in her eye told ax that she was more focused on him and his issues than trusting his family. "I know it's a lot to take in and we sound completely crazy to you but we're sort of sane." Mari laughed, "For the most part anyways. I know Axel cares a whole heck of a lot about you or he wouldn't have even told you a thing."

The brunette smiled and took April's hand again, "Parker will be home in an hour or so and I'm sure he can clear up a little more than I can in regards to their abilities and all of that. If you'd like to stay for a while?" She offered happily, squeezing the young woman's fingers."Don't be afraid to ask questions okay sweetie?"

Mari stood and wandered off to the kitchen with mention that she was going to get them some snacks, coming back out after a few solid moments of silence between the others in the home. She carried a tray of cheese and crackers as well as a couple sodas for each of the boys. Just as she was returning an audible flutter came through the room and Mari simply smiled as she spotted her uncle close to the end of the sofa.

"And yet another party to prove our point." She stated, seeing the startled look in April's eyes as she inched away from the.man who just appeared out of thin air.

Castiels brow furrowed at those around him, sensing the extra presence that wasn't Parker at all. "Hi, Cas." Mari greeted and wandered over to hug him after handing off the foood to Carson. He returned it stiffly and smiled a little tense at the people watching him. "April this is Castiel. Cas be gentle with her... she's just learning and I think you scared her..." she muttered, turning her attention to April.

"I had not realized you were having company that didnt belong. I did not mean to startle you but it is far easier to 'zap' in here than using the door. I find them quite tedious." Cas started, sitting down on the opposite end of the sofa without tearing his gaze from the tiny blonde.

April gasped sharply when a man suddenly appeared out of thin air before her very eyes at the other end of the sofa. Mari introduced the stranger as Castiel, the angel she'd talked about earlier. The petite blonde inched away involuntarily when the tall dark haired man seated himself, her eyes round with amazement and her stomach doing flips.

The whole time Axel, Mari and even Carson had been telling her about all these supernatural things she hadn't really believed it deep down. But now seeing a man simply appear out of thin air like this... That wasn't exactly something she could just deny. Castiel stared solemnly at her, his gaze not wavering for an instant and April found it deeply unsettling. It was as if the man was seeing right through her, taking her measure and from his expression... Found her wanting.

Mari chided her 'uncle' telling him to stop scaring their guest and say something nice to her. April blinked owlishly at the angel as he adjusted himself somewhat awkwardly in his seat, looking her up and down once and then meeting her eyes again. Castiel told her in a monotone voice that he sensed her to be in good health with the exception of being approximately eleven and a half pounds underweight for her relative size and metabolic rate.

Carson laughed and Mari berated the angel further, laughing a bit herself telling April not to worry that her uncle wasn't exactly the smoothest talker but he meant well. April sputtered out some sort of response, not really sure what to say to all of this, her world had just been turned totally upside down.

Now that the focus had shifted somewhat from himself to the newest arrival in the bunker, Axel seemed able to rally himself enough to tend to the flustered blond girl. He climbed up off the floor and plopped Obi in her lap, giving her something else to split her focus with that wasn't out of the ordinary in any way. He put his hand on her back, asking her softly if she was all right and putting in his own two cents that she didn't have to be afraid of 'uncle Cas' calling him more weird than dangerous.

The angel looked curiously at the young boy but turned his attention to Carson when he spoke, the elder sibling suggesting that he give a little demonstration of his angelic power. Castiel neither agreed nor disagreed to the idea simply watching as the boy stood and took his pocket knife out.

April was confused as she watched the elder Black sibling stand near Cas and hold out his hand for them all to see. The petite blond jolted and yelped a bit with surprise when Carson suddenly drew his sharp little blade across his palm leaving a seeping red line though he hardly flinched at the wound. Castiel seemed to understand what the boy's angle was, reaching out and lightly placing two fingers on the side of Carson's hand.

April gasped again when quicker than thought Carson's wound was suddenly gone without a trace and she was left with the feeling of goosebumps over her skin and the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Axel shook his head calling his brother a showoff and April couldn't help but feel a little relieved at the sound of her boyfriend's laughter despite the circumstances.

She looked back at him and he asked her softly if she believed that what he'd told her was real now, and April had to swallow hard before responding. "I... I don't really have any other choice, do I?" She spoke in a wobbly tone, still overwhelmed but at least now she really felt like Axel was being honest with her, no matter how... Strange and difficult that truth might be she still preferred it to lies.

Axel stood up off the floor, lifting his growing puppy up with him as he wandered over to sit on the couch with April while Cas positioned himself on the opposite end. He plopped down beside her and handed off Obi who was waggling his tail from the moment he even saw that April was here but as fidgety as he was he always seemed to sense who needed him more and in the beginning that was Ax. He slipped his arm around his girlfriend’s back and lightly ran his thumb over the small of it as she pet Obi’s head.

“Don’t be afraid of Uncle Cas. The dude’s more weird than he is dangerous. I’ve heard stories and seen it myself.” The blond told his lover beside him, his lips close to her ear and his tone low. He caught Castiel’s attention but only for a moment as Carson began to speak up and sort of volunteer himself as a demonstration dummy for Cas’s abilities. The angel sat overly patient waiting for either brother to do something probably drastic to prove their point, just as anyone with Winchester blood might.

It was no surprise when Carson tugged out his pocket knife and flicked open the blade casually drawing it over his palm that he left open for everyone in the space to see. Mari smiled and sat down on the chair opposite the couch where Carson had been. He hardly reacted to the blade pushing into his skin at all which was no shock to his family considering most all of them had been through far worse. Castiel reached out just as calmly and pressed two fingers to the side of the boy’s hand, healing the wound right before everyone in mere seconds, the blood cleared from his palm that had pooled there and not a single line was visible.

Axel shook his head and laughed at his older sibling, “Showoff.” He quipped, extending his own hand and slapping the backside of Carson’s to get it out of sight. He reacted and lunged forward as though he just might start to fight Ax back in earnest. His older brother dropped down into the seat with their mom, the woman small enough that they could manage to fit together fairly comfortably. “So do you believe that what I told you is all real now?” He asked his girlfriend, listening to her answer and again he gently rubbed her back knowing it was all a little much.

“Well I’m glad Cas did the trick I suppose.” Mari chimed in across the room. “Take a breather for a while, April then maybe we can get him to show a few more of his magic tricks.” She laughed, winking at Cas who seemed a little uncomfortable himself.

“Umm… Mom is it okay if I show Ape around a bit?” Axel requested, looking up at her and catching her nod. She seemed to get that he wanted time alone with his girlfriend to really talk to her himself again now that she seemed to get he was being honest and true… finally. He offered his hand to April and ordered Obi to get down so that she could stand up with him, the couple getting to their feet and he gently lead her by the hand into the library.

He stood at the tall wall lined with book shelves that were in turn covered in books, papers, files, anything they could use for research. “It’s sort of like the archives of all things paranormal. It’s actually pretty cool. This place… home… it’s called the bunker and it was a sort of safe haven for a group called The Men of Letters’.” He started on, his hand shifting in hers to lace their fingers together more intimately. He wanted to focus on the main thing and that was the situation of his family, the start of it all really and the reason he had the job he did and the visions he saw. “The Men of Letters were some of the first to hold information on the supernatural world and things like alchemy… magic you know. They knew more than hunters did, only let in certain people and my like great great grandfather was one of the Elders, Henry Winchester. They practiced here, some of them lived here and they trained and fought and developed spells all right here. It’s pretty cool I think…” He muttered.

Axel glanced over at her, seeing that it was still a little much for her when she was forcing a smile on her face that he was well aware was faked. “I’m not trying to scare you, April. Look why don’t I show you my room and like the gym or something a little more neutral? I think you’ll be surprised to see it’s normal in there.” He offered, letting go of her hand now out of self-consciousness, feeling like even the touch he offered wasn’t enough to help her out of the state she was in. “Come on, Obi.” He pat his thigh and the dog followed after him, trotting away happily out the door and down the hall.

April followed him and lightly jogged to catch up, chewing on her lower lip as he pushed open his bedroom door. “You should feel really special ‘cuz I hardly let Carson in here anymore.” He stated, bending and picking up the trail of clothes from the night before off the ground, tossing them to one corner of his room and moving to drop down on the bed. Obi plucked up his squeaky toy, tossing it in the air for himself and catching it again, running by and shaking his head as he growled seemingly trying to get someone’s attention somehow.

Axel’s room was fairly clean for the most part but that was mostly because at night now he busied himself with stupid things like picking up and actually folding his clothes and all that. Posters hung on his walls, some of random games he played, others of movies and a couple of chesty models to which he now… hated himself for not taking down. He kicked the playboy he had left out and open on the ground and pushed it under the bed, not entirely ashamed of it but hoping April didn’t notice it. “Sorry about the… the posters. They’ve kind of just been up there for years and I uhh—never really thought I’d have a girlfriend y’know but I’ll take ‘em down.” He stammered out.

April shook her head and avoided his gaze, looking around the rest of the space seeming to take all of that in as well. “I know it’s a lot and I… I know it’s gonna be like really hard for you to process and for us to move on from and all of that and maybe you don’t want to be with me but whether you do or don’t you can’t tell anyone okay? It’s really important that we’re just left to do our jobs and that be that.” He requested, looking up at her from on his bed as she brushed her fingers over the couple unframed pictures he had out in his room. “Mom printed out a bunch of stuff for me and Carson to have in our rooms. That’s my Grandpa and his brother, Sam and then in between them is my Grandma Aleah. I kind of always wished I could have met her she just has that face that’s like… she seems comforting I guess.” He shrugged, trying his hardest to get her to talk to him in some manner.

When she finally did speak up it was to quietly ask about his own frame of mind, questioning if his family knew just how he managed his stresses. She must have smelt the dank odor in his room that often lingered but it was rare as he got older that anyone just came in here unannounced or without invitation. Ax shook his head, “No they don’t know about that and they likely never will. Carson knows and he doesn’t like it but he also doesn’t get what it feels like and you never will either. He looks down his fuckin’ nose at me for doing what I do.” He grumbled to his girlfriend. “I’m kind of figuring that one part of my life or the other is going to push you out isn’t it? Either the weed or the hunting. It… kind of seems like you still think something’s wrong with me.” 

April bit her lower lip when it began to wobble at Axel's words that held an accusatory tone despite the vulnerable look in his blue eyes. She took a deep breath, needing to be calm to say what she had to say to him. She wasn't sure what all this meant for them as a couple, but whether what was on her mind made Axel reject her or not, she knew she had to get it out there.

"It's not aspects of your life that are pushing me out, Ax. It's you. I mean, you kept this from me and I understand why, you couldn't trust just anyone with secrets like the fact that you're related to an angel and your family hunts monsters, and please believe me when I say I'll keep them for you to my grave. But... Now that it's all out in the open, it makes it even clearer to me that you're not just pushing me away, it's everyone." April responded slowly, making herself look the taller boy in the eye despite how much she wanted to cast her eyes downwards out of fear of how he might take what she said.

"There's nothing wrong with you Axel, you're a lot stronger than you think. What's wrong is that instead of putting that strength to use, you're hiding from your problems by getting high. You kept me at a distance, you keep your parents at a distance, not letting them see how much your visions really are effecting you. Not giving them a chance to help you find a real, more healthy and permanent way of coping with them. You don't tell anyone, because you're scared to really try. Maybe you don't believe you can do it, but I know you can... There has to be a better way than hiding in drugs to deal with this. There are people around you who will help you find a way." April continued in an even tone, her heart twisting as tears began welling in Axel's eyes and finally spilling the longer she spoke.

He didn't say a word, just kept staring at her with tears rolling down his face that was flushed with a mix of anger and sadness, and April sighed softly, reaching out to brush her fingertips over his hand before wandering back to his door feeling like it might be best if she left for awhile. "You're right Axel, none of us can really understand what it is you go through. But your parents, Carson, and me... We all know you're capable of defeating your demons rather than just hiding from them." She added, opening his bedroom door and slipping out of it.

"I'll just... Give you a minute." She murmured as she shut the door, feeling like he didn't want her to see him crying this way and her own heart was about to crack from the strain. April took a few deep, shaky breaths, clearing the tears threatening to spill at the corners of her eyes before going back out to the living room area where Mari and Carson were discussing something that the dark haired angel seemed only vaguely interested in.

Mari caught sight of her as soon as she appeared, taking note of her barely holding composure and the fact that Axel wasn't with her, quickly standing and going over to her side, cooing at her asking if everything was all right.

"I- I'm not sure... I should probably just go home I guess, m-maybe Carson... Could you give me a ride?" April asked, her control over her sobs faltering when she forced herself to speak. The brunette woman shushed her and shook her head, insisting that she not leave in such an upset state, offering to fix her something to eat in the kitchen and apologizing for whatever it was Axel had said or done to upset her. April couldn't bring herself to respond again without breaking down completely and so Mari simply guided her toward the kitchen with promises of her famous lasagna for dinner and some chocolate cake afterwards.

Carson caught April's teary gaze as the women turned toward the kitchen, only able to speculate at this point but fairly sure he had a good idea of why the girl might be so distraught. He sighed roughly and headed down the hall where his brother's room was, rapping his knuckles lightly on the door and poking his head in with a warning call of his brother's name, stepping inside and shutting the door when the younger blond sitting on the end of his bed with his head drooped said nothing in response to him.

"So. I don't really know what your expectations for telling April about us, about you were... But I don't know man, she didn't run screaming from the bunker at least. Could've gone worse." Carson commented in a matter of fact tone, leaning against Axel's dresser and idly picking at his fingernails with his small sharp pocket knife.

Axel sat on his mattress openly crying, quietly letting the tears in his eyes fall down his cheeks without even a fight against them. Maybe he needed it for a long time, to hear that and feel all that he was, to let go and realize a few things she said were right. Hell all of what she said was accurate in some manner but what people didn’t seem to get was he had been ‘coping’ for years now since he was twelve maybe thirteen he couldn’t recall but here he was going towards being seventeen and into his Junior year of high school within the next few months. This was all he knew now and going those two weeks without his ‘coping’ was amazing in and of itself.

He didn’t even look up or react to Carson knocking on his door and simply entering his room without him being let in, not that he really waited usually anyhow. He shook his drooped head at his older brother’s words, laughing a little despite his sorrowful state. “I don’t know what I thought she was gonna do. Maybe I thought it would scare her enough that I’d stop letting her down.” He muttered, his eyes never leaving the floor and he could feel Carson’s gaze boring into him from where he hovered.

The eldest Black sibling asked what brought all this about to begin with and Axel scoffed, “I thought you had a knack for this shit. I thought you like trained your nose and Lucy’s to just tell if I got shit on me.” He looked up finally, glaring at him just as harshly as he was doing to him. He reached in his pocket and tossed the baggie on his bed, “She caught me buying again.” He was trembling from the urge to light up then and there even with his brother watching, the overwhelming need to just forget about everything even if only for a few seconds but he knew even if he did he would still end up breaking down like this but perhaps ten times worse.

Carson looked at the baggie on his bed and shook his head in disappointment, mentioning how he thought he quit that stuff. “Nope. But that’s what you’ve been waiting for. All fuckin’ week you’ve been watching me and hopin’ I’d slip up right? Look. You get to stay the star fuckin’ student, Car! Good job.” The blond snapped at him bitterly and the other came right back at him about how he was talking bullshit right now. Ax got to his feet and pushed up into his brother’s face, his chest firm against the other’s and his jaw tight. “So tell me what’s right then? Tell me how it could’ve gone worse? Yeah she believes me now, she believes what I am, what mom is, where we come from, what we do but in terms of me she’s scared. I can see it. I’m gonna lose her because of this one way or another aren’t I?”

“Everybody thinks it’s sooo damn easy to just be okay. To just… learn to cope, to ignore it. What do you have to do? Straight A student, next big hunter, gets all the girls, never does any wrong… It’s all me right? Do you want her too? Be the better man and take the girl.” He pushed at Carson in attempts to get him out of his room. “You know what I want for you to get the fuck out of my face, for you to stop looking at me like I’m broken, to stop babysitting me! And then coming in here… rubbing it in my face afterwards?” He grumbled out to him, his eyes still teary. “Get out.” He snipped again, tears streaming down his face from a mix of emotions.

 

A hundred things bubbled up and tried to force their past Carson's tightly clenched jaw, but he knew pretty much anything he said right now would just bounce off his brother uncomprehended with the state he was in right now. The elder sibling didn't budge when Axel pushed him, simply staring back at his brother and shaking his head.

"You know all that bullshit isn't true. I'll leave if you want but you should at least do April the courtesy of manning up and going back out there yourself instead of sulking in here like a little kid. Grow up Axel." Carson said in a curt, clipped tone, refraining from going off on his own emotionally charged rant like his younger brother had as much as he wanted to. Axel was in his own shit so deep he didn't see that he wasn't the only one with crap to deal with, didn't even see how much it had hurt Carson to hear him say he was hoping Axel would slip up again when really what he wanted more than anything was to see his younger brother succeed, see him obtain real happiness.

The elder Black sibling turned to leave but saw Axel rear back for a sucker punch out of the corner of his eye, dodging it just in time and wincing at the loud thwacking sound as the blond's fist connect with the dresser behind him and his subsequent stream of cursing afterwards. 

"What the fuck is the matter with you?" Carson hissed, holding his hands up in a gesture that said he didn't want to fight but if he was totally honest with himself the excess anger and adrenaline in his system right now was begging for Ax to throw another punch. Axel's growled response was barely intelligible but it hardly mattered because in the next second he was lunging at Carson, raw anger and pain painted across his features in equal parts.

The dark-haired young man pivoted quickly and grabbed Axel's arm, using his younger brother's momentum against him swinging him quickly around into a headlock cinched so quick and so airtight Axel stood no chance of breaking free until Carson was good and ready to let him go.

The blond grunted and flailed a bit, cursing him out and demanding Carson let him go but it was useless, Carson had complete control. "No. Not until you calm the hell down and listen to me." He responded in a stony tone of voice, reminding himself that while he might be angry with his brother, there was someone else here who's feelings mattered more.

Axel didn't listen at first, continuing to struggle but wearing out quickly exerting so much energy on top of being emotionally wrecked. Finally the younger man slumped in his grip and Carson took a deep breath, relaxing marginally to see if Ax was faking and waiting for him to ease up to spring, cinching his grip tight once more when the blond immediately tried to escape at the first slack he got.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Carson chided, cranking his brother's neck a bit for good measure to get him to be still once more. "Look. I know you're hurting. I know you're scared. I know your life is seven kinds of fucked up but man, you've gotta start running your life instead of letting it run you. There is a girl out there in our kitchen right now, a smart, sweet, beautiful girl who just got her whole world turned upside down and the only reason she's being brave and sticking around is because she cares about you." Carson said in a direct tone, easing up his grip again slightly and inwardly sighing with relief when Axel didn't immediately try to yank out of his hold, he was actually listening to him now. 

"She was brave enough to be honest with you even though she knew you might hate her for it. She's still here because she's still willing to fight for what you two have despite the huge load of shit you just dumped on her. Now, I'm gonna let you go, and you're gonna man the fuck up and go out there and face her and tell her what an amazing girl she is for not running away." He finished, swallowing his own anger and hurt pushing it down deep so that when he did let his younger brother go he actually managed not to just deck him outright. 

Axel finally stopped fighting against Carson’s grasp, letting him simply talk to him with his arms tight around his neck no less. He simply waited, grunting a little and panting under his hold but he didn’t fight or fidget just allowed him to hold him until he was finished with his speech. One that for the first time ever he listened to completely. Carson finally released him and Ax instantly pulled away, turning to look at him with frustration still in his gaze but also something along the lines of understanding and comprehension but rather than either of them saying anything else he darted past him and into the hall once more.

He huffed down the hall, rubbing at his throat in irritation at his older sibling but he did exactly as he was told and went out into the kitchen to find April, his hand he hit still throbbing but he shook it out. Mari’s blue eyes darted up to meet her son’s when he came round the corner and in through the dining room entrance to the kitchen. She could tell something was still off between all of them or rather between Axel and April and it wasn’t the nicest of things to feel. “Ax why don’t you help with dinner?” She prompted him while April sat nibbling on the sandwich Mari made for her for the time being.

“Yeah.” The blond replied, stepping towards April but his mother caught him by the wrist, pulling him back in her direction. She looked over the injury to his hand, she had always been good at noting those kinds of things with three men in the house.

“What’s this?” She asked, arching her brow, “What were you two doing in there? You and Carson?” Mari demanded, brushing her fingertips over the broken skin that was bleeding and starting to bruise. She pulled back and took off her talisman she always wore, watching Axel roll his eyes.

“Mom you don’t have to do that.” He insisted but she hushed him, looking to April with a smile and ushering Ax closer to where she sat asking her if she wanted to see what she could do as well. “I’m sure she doesn’t really care mom.” He grumbled, earning a little slap to his chest from the brunette in front of him just as Carson came in and Mari asked him instead what they had been up to.

Carson quickly covered with a fib about catching Axel’s hand in the door by accident and the blond nodded his confirmation. His older sibling apologized for doing so and Ax shrugged, “Shit happens.” He said simply, looking to his mother and then at April who looked a little bit nervous with Mari fixing up her son apparently.

Castiel joined them around the island in the kitchen to admire what she could do and sure enough in just as little time as it took Cas, Mari had healed his banged up knuckles. April oohed and awed in turn, likely knowing that was how she was meant to react and the woman seemed pleased none the less with her reaction. “Hey Ape umm… Can I talk to you again just real quick?” He requested of her, pulling away from his mom and for the most part ignoring her looks and comments about how they should get some privacy but as it would seem Carson had to be the one to usher her aside and give them space despite her words.

April seemed apprehensive of being alone with him again, not afraid but she wasn’t exactly relaxed either. He reached for her hand and lightly took her fingers in his newly healed hand, tugging her out to the living space again. She faced him and he brushed his thumb over her knuckles softly, “I just want to tell you that I’m gonna try okay? Because I really want to be with you. I need to be with you.” He informed her, seriousness in his tone and truth in his eyes. He watched April’s own blue hues well up with emotion at his promise to her that he would put forth the effort. “I want to be the good boyfriend, the one you deserve.” He muttered, following forward and wrapping his other hand on her hip when she thanked him for his words, saying she trusted he could do just so because she had seen it before.

“Yeah but it’ll be more consistent this time I hope. It’s really… amazing to me that you didn’t run off, that you’re out here cooking with my mom and letting her fawn all over you, sorry by the way,” He laughed, squeezing her fingers again. “All of it just… means a lot to me to know that you’re sticking around and that you believe me. I know it’s a lot to take in but you’re doing a hell of a good job just taking it in stride. Must be worth keeping and fighting for."

 

April blinked back fresh tears as Axel spoke, and while the boy's track record didn't exactly make it easy for her to just believe him one hundred percent, she could see that he at least really, sincerely wanted to do what he was promising her. And she sincerely wanted to believe that he'd follow through on it. For now, in the wake of all she'd been through today, that was enough.

The petite blond squeezed his hand back, smiling and taking a shaky breath, "Thank you, Axel. It'll be hard but I know you can do it. I'm here for you, okay? I wanna help you however I can." She responded warmly, leaning forward to hug her boyfriend tightly. Axel wrapped his arms around her in turn and they embraced for a long moment, it felt good being in his arms like this again. It felt safe, in spite of everything.

They pulled apart and Axel softly brushed his knuckles over her cheek, smiling crookedly at her and April blushed, she could never keep her blushing in check for long when he looked at her like that. He gently tipped her chin up and pressed his lips to hers lightly, making her eyes flutter shut and her heart skip a beat. He didn't immediately deepen the kiss like he so often did, and she didn't either simply relishing the light, tender contact. They were more acknowledging the other's support right now, cementing it with an affectionate touch rather than trying to drive the heat up between them.

"Well this is not exactly what I expected to find when I got a text to come home for something urgent." Parker said in an amused tone, having gotten inside the bunker, down into the living room area and right up behind the couch where his son and who he certainly hoped was his girlfriend were kissing. Both teenagers jolted at the sound of his voice and the slender blonde girl turned a dark shade of red, ducking her head down and fidgeting while Axel began babbling out an introduction of sorts, clearly a little embarrassed to be caught in such a position himself.

Axel introduced Parker and referred to April as his girlfriend which made the elder Black smile wide. He had never been able to have any kind of meaningful relationship as a teenager due to his 'gift' and the life he lived under Ryder's iron fist so he was happy and proud that his son seemed to be faring far better than he had at his age.

"It's great to meet you April, sorry for ah, interrupting, I just live here is all." Parker said with a chuckle, but the girl seemed far too nervous to be able to laugh at his silly joke. 

Axel jolted in his seat at the sound of his father’s voice from behind them on the couch and while he wasn’t embarrassed to be kissing April he was certainly a little awkward about being caught doing so when he didn’t want to. Especially at a tender moment like this. “Uhh… Hey Dad. This—“ He indicated to the blonde beside him with his free hand as he spoke or rather stuttered. “This is April. She’s my girlfriend, y’know. The umm the girl I’ve been hanging out with sometimes.” He started, not missing the grin on his father’s face.

Mari heard the deep sound of her lover’s voice from where she was in the kitchen with Carson, already starting on more prep work for their dinner later when he arrived. She smiled to herself and looked over at Carson who seemed to already realize that the kiddos in the other room might need a bit of rescuing especially considering they didn’t exactly allow visitors here at all. “You’re not interrupting we were just—“ She could hear Ax defending himself but Parker simply chuckled at their son.

The brunette padded out past Carson and into the living room, giving her husband a look from the doorway. “You live here? I’m not sure I’ve seen you around before? Remind me again just what your name is…” She called to him, making Parker look up at her and he laughed deep in his chest at her little game. “Tarzan. The Ape Man. I remember now. I think we’re married.” She continued, padding over to greet him and he happily bent to kiss her much to Axel’s groaning out of dismay.

“Parker this is April, Axel’s Girlfriend.” Mari muttered in a soft tone, the excitement at her own words was quite evident in her voice and Parker mentioned that he could see that with how they were in fact kissing on his couch and holding hands right before their eyes. She gave him another look that told him to stop, sympathizing with April who was the brightest shade of red she had probably ever seen a young girl turn. “Okay Smart Ass.” She pat at his middle and lightly took his hand in hers while speaking.

He asked what the emergency was but it was clear he had some sort of idea. “Well I don’t know exactly where it originated from but apparently April had a few questions and so Axel had some things he needed to explain to her. She’s been very, very accepting so…” Her blue eyes darted up to Parker’s own, “Don’t mess it up.” Mari requested and he looked wounded from those words alone. “I’m just saying be gentle. We’ve told her an awful lot.” She reminded him, almost forgetting that the kids were still sitting there and she made herself grin.

“April’s staying for dinner so you two will have plenty of time to get to know each other.” She patted at him again and lightly tugged his hand. Parker seemed to understand and gave a nod to April in full greeting excusing himself to get washed up and Mari pulled him into the kitchen where Carson was lingering still. “Be really gentle with her, Tarzan I mean that. Her and Axel were fighting and we don’t want to mess it up for him. Did you see how cute she is? She’s so sweet too, she’d be really good for him in the long run so I don’t want to scare her off.” The brunette rambled out.

“She’s gotten a lot of information to take in, in the past hour or so and I can tell things are tense still but she’s trying to understand for him. She’s fighting for him and he’s fighting for her, did you see?” She wriggled despite herself, her grin broadening. “And I’m sure she’ll have a few questions for you considering she knows all about the whole visions thing with you and Axel and my being a partial angel and then there’s that guy.” She pointed to the island in the center of the large kitchen where Castiel was stiffly petting Lucy at his feet.

Parker's dark brows rose the more Mari talked, glancing back over his shoulder at the pair sitting out of earshot now in the living room still, his eyes ghosting over Carson's face before meeting his wife's again. "Is there anything she hasn't been told?" He asked, his tone joking but still he couldn't help but be a little skeptical of the wisdom of laying everything out about their family to a stranger no matter how sweet she appeared to be.

Mari chided him somewhat insisting that they could trust her with the truth and Parker nodded, trusting his wife's judgement. He kissed her brow and nodded at Carson, "You keeping his foot outta his mouth? She's gonna need a crash course on how to deal with Axel's temper outbursts." He asked with a chuckle and his eldest smirked a bit in return.

"Trying to. I think they really do care a lot about each other though." Carson responded, pushing off from where he was leaning against the counter and going to help his mother with dinner where she'd left off.

Axel glanced back at the kitchen door, apologizing with a lopsided grin for his dad saying he just had a really twisted sense of humor and not to let it bother her. April laughed a bit nervously, hoping she hadn't completely blown her first impression with the man and really his whole family in general. April collected herself somewhat, about to tell him that she thought his dad seemed nice, but her phone buzzed in her pocket and reality suddenly rushed back to her, she had left school early and now her brother was probably waiting for her wondering where she could possibly be.

Sure enough Brandon's picture was on her screen and she winced, answering and standing up to face away from the kitchen as she spoke to her brother, "Hey. No I'm just... Running late. You can go home, Axel is giving me a ride. Yes. I'm sorry, yes, I forgot to tell you." April spoke in a rushed, strained voice, not accustomed at all to lying and especially not about something like skipping school which she had never, ever done.

"I'm sorry, okay? Look... Can you... Can you please just tell mom that I'm getting a ride home from Lori or something? I know, look if she asks can you just tell her that please? I'll be home right away. Okay. Thanks." April stammered, her heart beating faster from not telling her brother the whole truth and knowing her lie would go even further to her parents. She didn't like how it felt at all but she couldn't exactly tell them she skipped the rest of school to go see her boyfriend's underground bunker and meet his family of monster hunters.

Axel surmised what was going on just from her side of the conversation, smiling at her and offering to take her home before she could even ask. The blond nodded, relieved that he understood she needed to be getting back and why she'd told her brother to cover for her. Axel stood and gathered her into a hug which she returned, mentioning that he understood she had to head out before she got in trouble but this was going to disappoint his mom more than anyone that she was skipping out on dinner after all.

“It’s gonna disappoint Mom more than anyone I’ll be honest with you.” Axel muttered with a little chuckle, “She kind of gets a little sad to begin with when plans get changed especially since I’ve been kind of… hiding you from her.” He laughed again a little awkwardly as he admitted that. He knew how overwhelming his mother could be especially when she got overly excited and April certainly was one of those factors that got her talking and questioning.

“It’s fine, Babe.” He assured his girlfriend, running his hands along her back in comfort once more and kissing her temple. “She just gets excited more than most. Not really any other girls around besides Lucy, y’know?” He shrugged, “Come on I’ll take you home.” The blond led her out of the living room, grabbing his keys and he was about to go into the kitchen to inform his family he was leaving when he nearly bumped into a rather sad looking Mari.

“Where are you going?” The brunette tried to force a smile at the pair, mostly to April at his side but glanced at Axel in question. “Do you need to go?” She referenced the petite blonde and Ax nodded, nudging at his mother a little and looking into the kitchen for his father or Carson to come to the rescue.

“Yeah her family kind of doesn’t know she’s here right now since I dragged her into the truck and more or less kidnapped her.” Ax stated, looking to his mom and giving a crookedly little grin. “So I’m just gonna take her home quick and I’ll be home for dinner, okay?” He assured her but it didn’t seem to help her much even as she nodded her understanding.

Mari stepped forward and Axel broke his hold on April’s hand, rolling his eyes as his mother hugged on his girlfriend she had only just met a couple hours ago. “Okay sweetie but if you have questions ask Axel and you’re more than welcome to come by again.” She muttered as she squeezed the young woman’s frame until Parker nudged at her to remind her that they probably had to go a little faster than they were. She nodded and pulled away, giving her hand a final squeeze. “I’m really glad we finally got to meet you and I hope that we haven’t scared you off too much.”

April flushed a little and claimed that she wasn’t scared it was just a lot of information reeling around in her mind for the moment and Mari nodded her understanding, lingering a little longer but then April clear her throat and mustered up the courage to say she would happily come to dinner another day so long as her parents knew about it the next time. “Oh of course! Yes, any time.” She insisted, letting her go when Axel started pulling at April’s small hand from the other side.

“Yep any time mom she’s got it.” Ax grumbled, tugging at his girlfriend to get her away and soon enough they were outside. He smiled at her as they drove in comfortable silence up to the gate of her community, holding hands the entire ride out. “So are you gonna let me in tonight or is the window locked for good?” He asked, laughing a little but his tone was serious, wondering if maybe she still might change her mind.

 

April smiled shyly at her boyfriend, leaning in a little closer to him resting her hand on his chest over his heart. "No. I'll be waiting for you... I want to see you tonight." She answered in a low voice, her eyes darting between his own blue orbs and his full lips. She drew even closer, waiting on bated breath for him to close the distance between them which he did. She hummed happily as their mouths met, granting him access when he prodded at her and feeling a little thrill go up an down her spine.

They broke apart and Axel looked more than pleased, promising to see her that night in that case and she nodded, giggling happily. While it was true that mostly she just wanted some alone time with her boyfriend now that they had finally really torn down the walls between them, she also hadn't forgotten the weed he'd purchased and still had in his possession. She knew this was a way she could help him, give him something else to occupy him that wasn't smoking.

April pecked him on the tip of his nose and climbed out of his truck, waving him off as he backed out of the gate drive and hurrying to her house. Much to her relief her brother had indeed covered for her and her mom didn't seem suspicious whatsoever. 

The blonde girl passed the rest of her evening with her family in a distracted far away state, hardly listening to the conversation over the dinner table that all seemed so... Mundane now, so pedestrian. How could she care about her mother's charity art auction appetizers or her brother's upcoming wrestling match or indeed her own practice for the orchestra concert that was fast approaching when she knew there were real live monsters out in the world and her boyfriend and his family fought them.

Her parents prodded her once or twice for her strange behavior, but she wrote it off as being tired, giving her brother a sideways look and he simply shrugged and said nothing, not overly interested or concerned in how his sister spent her time as long as it didn't interfere with his own life.

The blonde put in an hour and a half of practice on her violin, but even that didn't offer the same escape and feeling of enjoyment that it normally did. Her head was too full of everything she'd learned and witnessed today, and honestly most of her thoughts were wrapped up with her boyfriend himself. She couldn't help but wonder what the road ahead held for the two of them, and if Axel really would put in the effort and allow her to walk it with him. 

April said goodnight to her parents and retreated to her room, shutting the door and trying to make herself do some homework while she waited for Axel but as the minutes ticked by she grew more and more anxious and couldn't concentrate on it. Her mind kept running in circles wondering if Axel really would show tonight, if he would rise to this first real test and choose coming to her over smoking the weed he had purchased today.

Axel wouldn't be coming till midnight or so, so the blonde ended up changing into three or four of her pajamas, wondering if any that she owned might be more appealing than the others. Finally she settled on a pair of pink short cotton shorts and a lace edged cotton tank top covered in pink hearts. It wasn't exactly 'sexy' but at least it wasn't the flannel long sleeve and full pants pjs she often wore.

Axel did just as he promised, left April’s house and came right back home to help with dinner and sit down with them as a family. His dad of course having to fight to talk over his mom who was asking just as many questions only in regards to his love life and not what had just occurred. When they finished up and it grew later into the evening, he disappeared into his room catching sight of the baggie still out in the open on his bed. He plucked it off the mattress and contemplated it briefly before carrying it over to his top drawer and packing it away in the tin canister he had special for his stash whenever he had one.

He sighed heavily, the urge to just take even a couple hits was still strong but he thought of April and his promise to her and at least for tonight he knew it wouldn’t pass, not when he wanted to see her as badly as he did. He stuffed away the baggie just in case for later but there was a part of him that hoped he could hold back and not reach that point. He and April texted a few times through the evening, nothing of importance but it didn’t matter much when he had plans to see her in a couple hours.

When midnight crept up on the clock on Axel’s phone, he got out of bed and showered quickly to rinse away the sweat and dirt from the day as well as his work out down in the gym after dinner. He washed off and towel dried before dressing again quickly in a ratty old band shirt and the same pair of jeans with holes in the knees and grease stains here or there that would never come out but they were his ‘relaxed’ jeans, the pair that were most comfortable to him.

He drove into town and pulled off to get gas, going inside and paying with cash, adding a Butterfinger to the total for April knowing they were one of her favorites. He smiled to himself absently, taking the chocolate bar and going out to pump gas in his truck before climbing back in and heading to April’s house. He did as he always did, parked outside the complex and hopped over the wall then over her fence and into the backyard, heading to her window and giving a light rap with his knuckles against the glass.

April came to the window and they did their routine of quietly opening it up while he took off the screen to get inside. He hopped in through the window and grinned at the sight of her, “I thought for a second you might be asleep. Just hanging out with like no lights on?” He questioned, his eyes roaming down over her legs and he was almost positive he hadn’t seen that much of her thigh before, swallowing harshly when his mouth started going dry. “You have—Uhh… You have really nice legs.” He mumbled, coughing softly as if he might be able to cover up the tone in his voice.

He realized he was staring and forced his gaze up to meet hers again but again his eyes were slower than his mind and they locked on the tiniest bit of cleavage he got to see peeking out above the top of her lace tank top. Axel could see her flush even in her chest and looked up to meet her eyes, smiling gently. April wasn’t a prude but she certainly wore modest clothing, dresses that hung closer to her knee, cardigans and pull overs, well fitted shirts that didn’t offer too much view of her chest and he realized all over again how… tempting she was, how gorgeous she was even with her petite frame. “Hi.” He finally said when he looked at her, stepping forward and kissing her softly in greeting.

The blonde responded in kind to his gentle brush of their lips, stealing another just along the very edge of her bottom lip and she pulled back to mention she was studying but couldn’t keep the light on too late or her parents would come check on her. Ax nodded his understanding, “Sorry I was gonna be here a little earlier but dropped Obi off at Carson’s room then stopped for gas. Oh here.” He muttered, pulling away from her as well and digging in his jean pocket to pull out her treat. “Maybe you’ll split it with me?” He grinned, kissing her again and laughing lowly when she answered that ‘just maybe’ she would. “Rude.” He teased.

 

"Oh whatever, you don't even like sweets that much anyway." She replied in a playful tone, wiggling the candy bar in her fingers and turning on her heel to go start carefully clearing away her books and carefully organized binder, setting them on her desk and then beginning her task of clearing her row of beloved stuffed animals off her pillows since they tended to end up sprawled on her bed watching something on her laptop or just talking.

While she was distracted Axel moved closer and snatched the butterfinger bar off her bed where she'd left it, quickly unwrapping it and biting off the end before she could even open her mouth to protest. Her eyes went big and she scoffed at his pleased expression as he chewed up his mouthful of candy, giving him a mock dirty look.

"I thought you brought that for me." April said in a low tone, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest not missing the way Axel's eyes dipped down to her small but perky breasts when her arms pushed them up a bit. "Hey!" She chided him with a little laugh, her cheeks tinging pink. He chuckled in turn and held out the rest of the candy bar to her which she took, taking a bite herself and humming at how good it tasted.

The tall blond asked jokingly if she forgave him as he watched her take another bite of her candy, she hardly ever allowed herself any treats and so when she got one she tended to make it last and enjoy the experience fully. "Yes. I forgive you." She hummed as she licked her lips, taking one more small bite and folding the wrapper back over the end, setting the other half on her nightstand for later.

Suddenly the light mood between them intensified and Axel cupped her face with both hands, asking if she really had forgiven him and she knew he wasn't talking about the candy anymore. April's eyes pricked with tears and she nodded as much as she could in his grip, her hands drawing up to grip his wrists and she stepped fully into his space. 

"I do. It's all right, Ax. I'm here." She murmured breathlessly, her head craned all the way back to hold the taller boy's gaze and he bent down to meet her, thanking her softly before their mouths lightly pressed together. She slid her hands from his wrists to press up against his chest, gripping his shirt and she could feel the strain flowing out of them from her words and their touch. He angled her head and kissed her deeper, guiding her slowly till the back of her legs hit her bed and they broke apart sitting down on her bed.

Axel stayed close, holding her and keeping his face just before hers and she could hear the way his breath had gotten rougher and it both excited her and made her nervous. They had really only kissed before, but it was clear that the tone tonight was different than them just sharing a few impassioned kisses. She would have to be very careful not to let herself get lost and go farther than she wanted.

Still... Just a little more couldn't hurt anything, right? April thought to herself as she smiled and drew her legs up over Axel's lap. "So... Nice legs huh?" She giggled airily as her boyfriend looked down and let his large warm hand run slowly up from her ankle over her slender toned calve and up to the middle of her thigh before slowing and running back the other way. She shivered at his touch and reached up for him, kissing him entreatingly and meshing her fingers behind his neck to tug him down along with her as she laid her back on the mattress.

Axel's hand continued to ghost over her bare legs as they kissed, his touch leaving goosebumps over her flesh and making her heart race. The blond gripped her hip and trailed his lips down her throat, murmuring against her skin how beautiful she was and April couldn't help the little mewl of want that escaped her parted lips as he let his teeth scrape down the soft skin of her throat.

Axel traced his hand up her leg, touching and wanting and forcing himself for the moment to rein it in a bit and enjoy her. Carson said he would know when she was ready to do more. “Very nice legs. Smooth…” He muttered in response, running his hand back over her leg the other direction and giving her a grin as she shuddered in his lap. She hooked her hands around him and gave a light tug to his neck, encouraging him to settle over top of her and he followed her down without hesitation.

He gripped her hip and settled over her on the mattress, burying his face into the crook of her neck and lightly brushing her flesh with his lips at first. “You are so beautiful April. Legs and all.” He half growled with want as she mewled at his words mixed with his touch. He dragged his teeth over her neck and down until he reached her collarbone, his lips pressing to her skin. Her fingers wrapped around his head scratched over his scalp and he moaned, trailing his lips to the very front of her chest.

Ax’s hand roamed her hip to her side, remembering the curves of her body and aching to know even more. Inch by inch until he pushed up her shirt, brushing his fingers over fresh and untouched skin, finding it rather endearing to know he was the first anywhere near this territory. The very tips of his digits brushed over the edge of her bra and just as he thought he was going to get somewhere she reached for his wrist, pushing his hand down and away from her chest. It didn’t stop him entirely, lifting his head and grinning at her before meeting her lips in another kiss, cupping her face instead and positioning himself in part over top of her.

His fingers tangled into her hair as they kissed deeply, hungrily and far more than they ever had in even one day let alone a few moments. The want he felt was hard for him to pull back on, to remind himself of Carson’s words not to push her but when you craved something as much as he did, watched someone else take time and time again and he was patient… He felt he deserved it in a sense but still he remained slow, let her call the shots for the most part and again her frame beneath his upper half relaxed.

They tangled their bodies together again and kissed like they had been for a good while until they were both breathless and Axel was feeling the effects beneath his jeans as he imagined tearing off her pjs and taking what he wanted. Once more when their lips collided his hand slipped up to push at her shirt, his lips leaving hers and trailing down her throat again this time he lifted his head, kissing at her belly and muttering his craving. “God I want you so bad, April.” He huffed against her flesh and yet again she reached out for him, shoving at his head and the wrist of his hand that had made the attempt to feel her even through her lightly padded bra.

“What?” Axel panted out, lifting his head to look at her and she snatched the hem of her shirt, brushing it down over her flat abdomen once again and he could see in her eyes she was wanting just as badly but yet she held apprehension in her bright blue eyes. She tucked her hair behind her ears and sat up, her cheeks flushed and she groaned as he leaned forward to kiss her along the edge of her mouth. “What’s the matter?” He asked in a softer tone, doing the same with his hands as before and running them up and down her legs, hoping to evoke the same response that he had before but she mumbled for him to stop.

His brow furrowed as he met her eyes when he pulled back to look at her, “Okay? I guess I kind of thought that you wanted to…” The blond pulled his hands away from her completely, “Just sort of seemed like it?”

 

"Axel... Please stop." April whispered breathlessly, pushing at her boyfriend despite her body's baser protests telling her to hold him tighter instead. There was no doubt that she wanted him badly, but... She didn't want things to get out of hand here, she wasn't ready to go as far as Axel clearly was. 

He questioned her putting a stop to their activities, expression his confusion thinking that they were going farther down this road and she realized that they really hadn't had a chance or rather an opportunity to really talk about boundaries and her comfort level with getting physical. She didn't blame him for being a little confused, she supposed it was harder for him to think about taking things slow than it was for her. She had always been taught not to do more than kiss a boy she liked at least while she was in high school, she already crossed lines she never thought she would with Axel. It was just so hard to say no when she liked his touch so well but she knew she had to draw clear lines early or she might end up in deeper water than she felt up to swimming in.

"I'm sorry, Axel... I didn't mean to make you think we were gonna... That is..." April stammered, blushing deeply not even able to bring herself to say something like 'have sex' aloud with him staring at her like he was. "I really like being with you, kissing, touching and stuff, but... I'm not ready to go all the way yet." She continued, her stomach fluttering with nerves hoping he wouldn't be angry with her or think she had led him to believe otherwise accidentally.

The blond lying over top of her seemed to almost visibly deflate, clearly a little disappointed but he quickly offered her a warm smile and shook his head, telling her it was fine, that they wouldn't do anything she wasn't comfortable with. She smiled shyly, sitting up quickly when he did, her heart still racing partly from what they'd been doing and partly out of fear that she'd upset him. She reached out and gripped his arm, leaning forward trying to encourage him to linger.

"Its not that I don't like want to keep doing what we're doing, or that I don't want to... Go farther after awhile, I just-" April babbled, her eyes flicking from side to side nervously as she tried to put her jumbled thoughts into words. "I just want to make sure it's the right time, you know? It's something that's been really important to me for a long time... You're not mad, are you?" She asked, uncertainty making her mouth dry and her muscles tense.

Axel stared at her as she spoke to him, seeming even too shy to say the words of what he thought they were just about to do or rather he hoped they might be leaning in that direction. He sighed lightly, feeling disappointed to know that things weren’t going to get any further than they had been for them which meant only hot and heavy kissing with nothing else coming along with it during or after. His hands were okay apparently as long as they roamed everywhere but where he wanted them to be.

He sat up, not upset or angry with her but a little saddened… if that was the right word, by the fact that it meant he had to behave. She said ‘yet’ which implied to him that there was chance someday she might wanna give into him if he was good enough or patient enough that she felt comfortable to do so. He sighed lightly, looking over to her when she snatched at his arm to try and keep him from leaving her bed which he didn’t really have any intention of doing so anyways.

The blond smiled at his girlfriend as she spoke to him and asked if he was mad. “I know Ape. I’m not mad okay?” He assured her, shifting on the bed and tucking his legs up so he was cross legged beside her, reaching and taking her hand from his bicep. He pulled her fingers up to his face and kissed at her knuckles, “I can’t be mad about that. Disappointed? Sure. That’s just cuz I’m a guy and ‘cuz I want you so badly but I’m not gonna make you do anything you’re not comfy with, Babe.”

April flushed once more and tugged at his hand lightly to try and keep him there still though he wasn’t moving anyhow. “We’ll wait for the right time then. Whenever that’s gonna be. It’s okay.” He hushed her when she apologized to him again, cupping her face and drawing her to him, pressing his forehead down to hers and shaking his head even with their faces pressed close together, chuckling softly. “Stop. This is stuff we gotta talk about, you gotta voice things like this to me, what you want, how you feel, where you’re comfortable. April I care a hell of a lot about you and I think that’s pretty clear or I’d never have trusted you with any of my own shit, and I wouldn’t even be here at all tonight. I’ll happily wait for you but… Of course I’m going to hope it’s sooner rather than later.” He smiled, his thumb brushing over her rosy cheek with their foreheads still together.

Ax tipped his chin up and pulled back, kissing her nose and working down to her lips, letting them brush together softly. “I think a further discussion needs to happen then huh?” He asked, breaking their gentle kiss to look down at her, leaning up against the headboard of her bed, tugging her to him and putting his arm around her shoulders, letting her lean into his frame. “Why don’t you… y’know… tell me what you’re good with?” He requested, clearing his throat because this honestly made him a little uncomfortable now as well but he was hoping he could help her work through it at the same time as him.

April worried her lower lip with her teeth and mentioned that she didn’t really know what he wanted her to say. “I want you to say what you’re thinking… I want you to tell me like… if it’s okay for me to touch you, use my hands, kiss on you or if that’s gotta stay strictly above a certain mark, like your neck or something? Just whatever you need to tell me.” He shrugged, reaching over and hooking his hand around her knee, pulling her legs and prompting her to lie with her legs across him again, his body far calmer than before as their night took a more serious note.

April felt much calmer hearing his understanding words in such a patient tone of voice, but still she felt more than a little awkward dictating the specifics of what she did or did not feel comfortable with physically. They reclined back against her pile of pillows stacked up against her headboard and Axel pulled her legs over his lap again, leaving his hand hooked in the crook of her knee, his thumb just lightly brushing her calve and even that simple contact was enough to get her heart beating a little faster with how she was feeling right now.

The petite blond cleared her throat and nodded, snuggling in closer to him and letting her head rest on his shoulder, her hand pressed to his firm chest feeling calmed by his steady heartbeat. She didn't know that she'd ever really considered the nitty gritty of what she was okay with, she hadn't ever really had to before but she knew he was only asking for specific guidelines because he cared about her and her comfort level.

"Well, um... I of course really like kissing-" April began, blushing pink and smiling shyly even from just beginning this line of conversation. "And when you were kissing my neck just now, that... Felt really nice." She admitted, her heart doing a little flip in her chest.

"I don't mind some touching, like legs and waist and back, and... As long as it's above clothing, you could um, I mean I guess a little bit on my chest is all right too. But just above the clothing though." She reiterated for emphasis, making Axel chuckle and murmur that he understood.

She shifted a bit and finally tipped her head back to look at him again and she couldn't help but smile at the affectionate way he was looking at her, looking back down again self-consciously, "What are you looking at me like that for?" She asked in a sheepish tone of voice, giggling a bit out of nerves but Axel cupped her face making her look at him again. He murmured simply that he was just happy to be with her, telling her again how beautiful he thought she was and April's heart melted at how sweet he was.

"I'm happy too, Ax. There's nowhere else I'd rather be, no one else I'd rather be with." She responded sincerely, leaning up and timidly pressing her lips to his, a little part of her still worried that she'd let him down somehow with the 'guidelines' she'd laid out. But when he responded to her light kiss, tipping her head back and deepening the contact she melted with a combination of want and relief that he didn't seem stiff or uncomfortable keeping what she wanted in mind.

Axel broke from her lips and began wandering down her jaw to her throat again, asking against her skin if what he was doing was all right and all April could do was hum affirmatively in response as he made a trail of searing kisses up and down her neck sending shivers over her body. Her hands splayed over his chest and around to grip at his shoulders as he shifted above her, his hand roaming over her torso but this time staying carefully on top of the fabric of her tank. He palmed her small, perky breast through her shirt and thin cotton bra cup, but even with the layers between them April gasped and leaned up into his touch instinctively. He asked again if it was all right how he was touching her and the blonde gasped as his thumb circled around her stiffened nipple through the fabric, her whole body tingling from the contact.

"Yes... It feels good..." She mewled, her face flushed and her breathing shallow as he continued to explore her.

Axel traced his hands over her sides to her breasts, testing out his newly laid down boundaries and hoping she might not still push him away despite her words. She mewled at his touch and he couldn’t help but smirk a little at the response he was earning from her. It was torturous to know he had to rein in his want to keep her comfortable but it was worth it to him in the end he supposed, tracing his thumbs over her pert nipples that he could just barely feel beneath the layers of fabric she wore.

She arched up into his touch as he brushed over her nipples in slow circles, each one evoking a tiny moan from her. “Is this okay, Babe?” He muttered, his lips still close to the warm flesh of her neck and he kissed at her again until he had her wriggling beneath him and panting desperately. He knew that she wanted and craved more or at least her body did considering the response she gave but her mind was nowhere near ready to have sex with him and for now he would have to wait.

They touched and kissed like that through the night until it got to be a little much for both of them and they broke apart but still lie on the bed. April nibbled at the candy bar that Ax brought her, absently talking to him about their class together and while he didn’t really care about what it was she was saying or asking him in regards to school, he did enjoy the sweet sound of her voice slowly lulling him to sleep. She giggled as again his eyes closed in the middle of chewing the little bite of Butterfinger she had given him, looking up at her again with hooded eyes.

“What? I’m just resting.” He defended, shifting in bed and settling his head into her lap so she could use her free hand to brush her finger through his hair. April scratched at his scalp making him sigh lightly in contentment as he relaxed with his lover in his grasp. Not until she moved and put her chocolate aside, bending to press her lips to his and he could taste the lingering sweetness making him hum did he really respond. She cupped his face and muttered down to him that he should probably go before it got too late and he couldn’t manage driving home without falling asleep at the wheel. “Okay okay.” He mumbled, sitting up and offering another slow kiss before he had to depart.

\----

The next week at school had gone over surprisingly smooth for the couple, Axel wasn’t really using much though he did every now and again and April either didn’t know or she knew better than to tell him not to. Sometimes the fights weren’t worth it especially if he had a bad night. Unspokenly he wouldn’t go to her place when he had anything or smelt like he had been smoking but he tried to time it well enough that if he was going to use then he would do it right after school, be coming down from it by dinner or use right after dinner and be sober for seeing April later that evening.

It wasn’t often and not near the same amount as he used to but April must have seen the difference in him at least. “You’re sure they want meto come for dinner? I mean maybe you just wanna use like a substitute boyfriend.” Axel suggested to his girlfriend as he walked with her out to Brandon’s car after the last bell. She gently nudged at his arm and said she didn’t, if they really knew she was dating she wanted it to be him they would be meeting, not anyone else. “Are you sure? Have you seen me?” He argued again and this time she pinched his bicep. “Ow?” He chuckled, “Don’t start with me little lady I can take you out.” He warned playfully and she giggled at him as he tightened his grip and slipped his arms around her.

The young blonde looked up at him, her arms pinned tight to her side from Ax’s grip and she asked him again if he would come just to meet them. Ax sighed but nodded, “Okay I’ll come. Just your dad sounds scary.” He laughed, kissing her lightly, “But I’ll come just give me a time. I got training with the coach for next season for the next couple days but shouldn’t be late.” He told her, his hands running up and down her hips to her sides as he let her arms go and she slung them around his neck so he could lean into her against Brandon’s car.

April hummed as he started kissing at her flesh but she patted his chest and he broke away to listen to whatever it was. She shifted her weight and looked him over making him arch a brow at her when she started on about his jeans. “Umm… what?” He asked, laughing again. She poked her finger into one of the holes in his thigh and asked him if he had anything to wear without torn seams, holes in the knees, or grease stains. “Not really. Ratty clothes is kind of my style, Ape. Does it like… bother you or something?”

She shook her head insistently saying it didn’t bother her but… her father might bring it up. Appearance was important to her family apparently as she mentioned he would want to wear something nicer and maybe borrow something from Carson. “He’s got a bigger waist than me.” He argued, pouting a little because dressing up really wasn’t his thing, he never had to, not for school and not for ‘work’. She stood on her toes and kissed him, murmuring that she would help him shop if he needed her to. He groaned, “Babe I’ve been the same height for like three years, same pant size… I’ve had my jeans for a while and they’re comfy and broken in.” He whined, making her giggle at him as she scratched at the back of his head with her nails saying she understood but it still wasn’t helping his argument, her father would be far more relaxed seeing him at least in nicer clothes.

Axel agreed or he did his best to do so, huffing lightly and kissing her lips one final time. “Okay we’ll figure something out but I’m not wearing slacks. I’m wearing jeans and I don’t do the whole…” He gestured a little wildly to his front half and his arms and then mimicked like he was putting on a tie. “It’s too much.” He waved his hand to show he wasn’t going to do it or anything of the sort.

April giggled, happy that her boyfriend was willing to compromise at least a bit on his normal dress code which was... Casual at best. She didn't mind him wearing comfy ratty clothes but she knew her father especially and her mother to some extent would not approve if he showed up in his usual torn up stained jeans and a threadbare concert t-shirt with holes in it. And as much as it pained her to acknowledge it, the better of a first impression Ax made the easier her parents would be on him and on her for dating him.

He agreed to let her accompany him to the mall and she towed him through the men's department, brushing off his complaining noises as she picked up item after item for him to try. She tried to reign herself in somewhat, and Axel made it a point to give her a price limit which she dutifully stuck to even though there were several pairs of designer jeans that she knew Axel would look great in.

He tried on a few things and seemed to warm up to the whole experience when she started cooing and praising how he looked in the various items she had him try on. He was even doing little turns for her now and then, making ridiculous 'blue steel' faces at her making her laugh and attracting the attention of other patrons going in and out of the dressing rooms.

April narrowed down her favorites to two pairs of pants, unable to choose between them and even though Axel had started off this little trip insisting he'd only buy one pair specifically for tonight he ended up taking both anyway. They checked out and wandered through the mall for awhile till Axel pulled her aside and asked her if she wanted to split a soft pretzel and a lemonade which she happily agreed to.

They sat eating their snack talking about nothing in particular when suddenly the tall blond went stiff and April looked at him curiously, "Are you all right Ax?" She asked, looking over her shoulder trying to see what he was staring at and he quickly hushed her, telling her not to look where he was and she turned back to face him without question, getting worried now with how serious he had suddenly become. "Ax... What's going on?" She asked in a tense whisper, and he leaned a little closer murmuring in response that there was a vampire some distance away, looked like a newly created one judging by how disoriented he looked and the fact that he was stumbling around in daylight with little more than a hoodie and sunglasses to protect himself from the harsh effects the sun had on him.

April's heart thudded with alarm in her chest and she stole another look over her shoulder, seeing who Axel was looking at, a tall, gaunt and very pale boy who looked about their age, stumbling along the shop fronts shrinking involuntarily now and then as if the noise and sounds of the world around him were dialed up to eleven.

"Wh-what should we do?" She asked nervously, glancing back at her boyfriend who looked a lot more calm and serious than she'd frankly ever seen him be.

Axel sighed lightly at her question, keeping his calm demeanor out of habit and also to try and relax her mind a little further as well. He reached across the table and put his half of the soft pretzel down, chewing up the bite in his mouth and casually reaching to take a sip of their drink. “Well we’re not doing anything. I’m gonna go outside and… talk to the guy. He’s lurking for a reason.” He started to stand but April seemed worried, getting up as well and asking him what he meant.

“Ape. He’s a vampire. A newborn, if you will. All these people sound to him like sizzling meat. He’s out here for one of two reasons, to feed or he’s been tasked with finding the next for their pack.” The blond explained in a low tone, his hand brushing over her upper arm softly and he bent to kiss her forehead. “Either way I have to deal with it. Wait here and finish up eating, watch my stuff and if you see anyone else lookin’ similar you leave okay? I’ll come get you as soon as I can, Baby.”

April looked worriedly at him, gripping onto his shirt and he could tell she was nearing tears right now so he smiled and cupped her cheek in his large hand, kissing her deeply until her calves hit the chair and she dropped back into it. “We’ll be fine.” He muttered, pulling away from her and starting his trek down the line of tables and chairs filled with people. He bumped right into the guy, “Sorry, man.” He said, drawing his pocket knife and dragging it along the crease of his own palm while he passed, the scent baiting him in and sure enough the vamp turned quickly to follow after him.

Ax pretended not to notice, keeping his pace normal as though he was merely leaving from his shopping trip, hearing the quickened foot falls behind him and catching up to him. He tucked his pocket knife away as he rounded the corner of the building and headed up to the loading docks at the back of the mall. He stopped and bent down, tugging up the leg of his jeans and gripping the handle of the large hunting knife his father had gotten for him years ago. He waited and in little under a moment or two the creature came hissing around one of the trucks to find the source of blood.

“Sucks don’t it? Here.” He jutted his hand out for his new ‘friend’, squeezing his fingers tight into a fist and letting blood trickle out and onto the pavement. “Don’t go for the shit on the ground man. Got the real thing right here.” He urged, watching his hunt carefully as he neared, letting him get just close enough that his other hand hidden at his side could reach across and take him out. Ax lunged and slammed the newborn vampire into the side of the dumpster, keeping him from biting at him. He lifted his arm and hung its head over the edge of the can, slamming his blade down in nearly the same second and it drove into the vamp’s neck, cutting through flesh and bone and decapitating him.

The blond spat as blood flicked up onto his face from his own blade, drawing back again to cut the rest of the way through. His blue eyes flickered over to the loading docks ensuring he wasn’t being watched, angled just out of the way that no one would catch him on camera having come in here nor his companion who was now slumped against the dumpster without a head. Ax lacked any way to clean his blade except by wiping it off on the dead man’s shirt, bending with difficulty as he tried to keep as much of the body off him as possible and keep it from dripping blood onto his clothes considering he had to retrieve April.

“Shit.” He curse, losing his grip and having no option but to let him fall against his leg. He backed up just enough to avoid the entire mess as he put his knife away in the holster against his calve something he always wore when out in public and he was now glad for being trained to do so. He shifted and gripped the vamp’s shirt, lifting him up as best he could and disposing of the creature in the dumpster that had been left open. The movement and task was as casual as ever, just another job though it was one of few he ever had to do alone.

He wiped his hands and didn’t know what else to do, ducking his head as he headed back out of the docks and towards the entrance of the mall where he left April in the food court. He tugged out his phone, calling her number and she answered before it could even fully ring once. “I’m fine.” Ax chuckled into the speaker when she didn’t even say hello simply asked if he was okay, rambling out question after question about where he had gone, what he did. “Ape I’m out front. Just grab our stuff and come out. I’ll talk to you in the car.” He stated softly still as sweet as ever to her despite what just happened. He knew she was likely worried to begin with but maybe even more so now that she had more or less seen his work up front.

Axel waited, avoiding anyone trying to enter the building and leaning against the wall just outside the doorway. He heard the familiar sound of April’s wedges against the concrete and her muttering his name. He reached over and startled her when he snatched her hand, tugging her away instantly and taking the bags from her as she questioned him. “Shh. In the car.” He said again, glancing over his shoulder and putting his arm around her, carefully holding the one that was bleeding from the palm away from her. She nodded and sniffled a little, seeming frightened by the entire event and he leaned over to kiss her temple.

They got to his truck and he let her in first, handing off the bags for her to take before getting into the driver’s side. “I had to lure it out and kill it.” He told her, running his unmarked hand over her leg and up her thigh. She breathed heavily but nodded at him in understanding. “You okay?” He asked, making her laugh as she pointed out that that was what she should be asking him not the other way around. “I’m fine. It’s kind of you know… routine for me.” He told her, shrugging his shoulders and taking her hand in his. “Come here.” He encouraged, letting her shift over on the bench seat and lean against his chest that had stayed clean.

“Only injury is the one that was self-inflicted.” He said, opening up his palm a little and she gasped at the gash in his hand but he shushed her repeatedly. “You saw the kind of doctors and nurses I’ve got on hand at home, Beautiful, I’ll be okay. I just wanna make sure that you are too.” Axel kissed the top of his girlfriend’s head. “Wanna come home with me? I’ll get cleaned up and we can hang out a bit tonight, sound good?”

April's instinct was to keep worriedly asking her boyfriend questions, but his reassurances calmed her and she realized that Axel knew exactly what he was doing and she didn't need to question him further about what had gone down. She had never seen him so collected and confident before, his usual bravado and craziness shelved in favor of simply getting right to doing what he needed to do. It was comforting and nerve wracking at once, knowing he did this work and could do it well.

They drove back to the bunker and Mari was ecstatic to see her, hugging on the slender girl and quickly ushering her into the kitchen to help her with dinner and have 'girl talk' which ended up mostly being the older woman asking the younger one questions about her love life and making her blush enough to get a little lightheaded. Soon enough Axel and Carson came in and broke up the conversation somewhat, and April enjoyed watching the good natured way both young men teased and doted on their mom.

Later that night Axel drove her home, pulling into the gate drive and leaning forward to offer her a kiss in farewell. April met his lips and took the initiative, prodding at his lips and surprising him a bit with her ardor. They broke apart a little breathless and Axel asked her what that was about and she giggled airily.

"Well... It's just that... You're kind of a hero, Ax. You're my hero." April replied, craning up to lightly peck his lips again before drawing back and hopping out of his truck with a last farewell and promise to see him again later that night.

\--  
Finally the night of the family dinner arrived. Axel's first time meeting her parents, his first time seeing more of her house than just her bedroom and attached private bathroom. April changed her outfit four times and finally settled on a pink and red sundress with a cropped cream colored cardigan, curling her blonde hair in loose waves and lightly dotting her neck and wrists with the warm vanilla cupcake perfume Axel told her he liked. 

Her mother came home from work early to work on dinner, very excited that her daughter had come out of her shell enough to have a boyfriend, supportive in her own quiet way which was a welcome reprieve from the already obvious suspicion her father held about the concept from the first moment they approached her already seeing through her 'odd recent behavior' as her trying to keep the fact that she was involved with a boy from them. At first she had panicked, worried that they knew everything about Axel sneaking in but fortunately it had mostly just come from her suddenly wanting to be out and about more and her mother seeing her phone lock screen was a blond boy feeding a french fry to a reddish labrador. 

It was getting close to the time that Axel would arrive at the gate and need to be keyed in. She walked down the road to wait at the gate ready to punch the code in though that was more for show for her parents since she'd already told it to Axel before. Sure enough, only a couple minutes later his truck rumbled down the road and turned in, the blond poking his head out the window asking if he had to pay a toll to get in to 'rich people land' and April laughed at him, shaking her head as she punched in the code to open the gate.

She did so and hurried over to ride in the rest of the way with him. She climbed into the truck, looking her boyfriend over and her features lit up with delighted surprise as she took in the sight of him in his new jeans and a crisp solid black button down with the sleeves rolled up nearly to his elbows. "You... You wore a dress shirt? For me?" April exclaimed, giggling and leaning forward to feather kisses over his face.

Axel spent a little more time getting ready today than he had probably ever in the past. April wanted him to look nice so he made himself look nice. He had every intention of ensuring that he did what it took to make a good impression but even in his new attire he didn’t feel any more confident or any less nervous. He pulled up to his girlfriend’s neighborhood and smiled as he watched her type in the code and quickly hop on into the cab of his truck.

He greeted her sweetly as ever, wanting to avoid the topic of the clothes he wore but she seemed to notice them just as quickly as she got into the car. He chuckled as she leaned over instantly and started kissing all over his cheeks and jaw, rounding to up to the edge of his mouth until she met his lips in a kiss. “I wore it for you Dad actually. I hope he thinks I’m pretty.” He teased, laughing when she rolled her eyes at him. “Of course I wore it for you, Ape. You wanted me to make a good impression so I gotta do my damnedest to get close enough to good.” He chuckled and she kissed him again, deepening it a little out of her excitement that he had done something like that for her.

It was simple but a lot coming from him really, “Alright. Put your belt on so we can drive five feet, I don’t wanna find out your dad’s outside watching us through binoculars or something.” He stated, waiting for her to do so and she slipped her hand in his on her lap as they drove the last little way up to her house. “Mom called me out on it actually, reminded me adamantly that I in fact had a button down in my closet. Buuuut you’ll be proud to know that I ironed it myself. Pretty damn good huh?” He indicated as he parked outside her house.

April smiled and nodded, seeming nervous and so he squeezed her fingers in his own, “Best behavior, Baby I swear. Stop stressin’.” He muttered, resisting the urge to lean over and kiss her again for added comfort. She nodded once more and he got out of the driver’s side, moving round to open her door and take her hand once more, walking a half pace ahead of her to the door and before she could even get her hand around the knob it popped open, revealing an older gentleman who was as clean cut as ever and suddenly Axel felt self-conscious all over again.

His stomach was churning, he hadn’t even met her family through Brandon but he was pretty sure he remembered seeing them a few times at their wrestling matches. “You must be Mister—“ His face went white and his smile drooped a little at the very corners, not meeting his eyes any longer as he realized that he… didn’t know April’s last name. Just as he was meant to continue April spoke a little louder over him so his pause wasn’t noticed quite so much, gesturing to her father and introducing them quickly to get past the fact that he didn’t know her last name. Ax internally berated himself for never asking something as fucking simple as that, shaking his head slightly and making himself smile again. “Sir, It’s good to meet you. I uhh—really appreciate the invite for dinner.”

April moved on to her mother who was wiping her hands on her apron, apologizing for even having the thing on over her dress. He very quickly realized that her whole family was the cliché high society type of folk and he wasn’t sure if that made him feel damn good that of all fools she could have April chose him over some polo playing, tie wearing, overly gelled hair douche bag or if it made him feel bad that she was with someone quite the opposite. “Meh it’s cool. Mom’s usually in her pjs and one of my dad’s old shirts to cook, aprons only exist on special occasion.” He chuckled, extending his hand to firmly shake her mother’s own. “I’m Axel but yah both can call me, Ax or Ax-Man.” He laughed again, looking to both her parents and neither seemed all that amused by it.

The blond cleared his throat and while her mother seemed to be far gentler for certain she didn’t seem too keen on him just yet. “Umm…” He pulled his hand away and shoved them in his pockets instead, standing a little slouched until April nudged at him to head into the other room. “It smells good in here, Misses Cunningham.” Ax complimented and the woman smiled and thanked him in a quiet tone very much like April in that manner. Her mother asked him if he wanted something to drink and he nodded, “Pop’s good. Whatever yah got.” He answered but she stared at him and apologized that they didn’t keep soda in the house.

“Oh well whatever’s fine really. I’ll eat or drink pretty much anything that’s put in front of my face. That’s meant to be eaten of course!” He emphasized with another awkward laugh, sitting down beside April and when he started anxiously tapping his foot she coughed for him to stop doing so and he did, silently understanding. Her father pointed out his fidgeting tendencies and chalked it up out loud to him being overly caffeinated. “Yeah probably. Could be the pint of ice cream I had like five minutes ago too. I have a problem.” He said in a mockingly shameful tone.

April watched her father's stern brows rise at Axel's comment and she quickly laughed, gripping her boyfriend's arm and shaking her head, "He's only teasing daddy." She assured him, leading Ax further into their home and sitting next to him on the couch opposite the chair her dad often sat in which was paired with another her mother took once she brought the drinks in. Her mom called for Brandon who shortly emerged from his room, giving Ax a bit of a crooked grin before sitting on his other side on the couch.

April felt like she and Axel were walking on eggshells, under her dad's scrutinizing gaze and being drilled with his relentless questions. Her father was a master of masking any and all emotions, so it was impossible to tell what he thought of the various answers Axel gave concerning what he was doing in school, what colleges he was planning to apply for and what careers he had in mind. April tried to deflect most of the questioning but there were still a few awkward silences when Ax didn't really have an answer to give.

A timer buzzed in the kitchen and April's mother perked up, standing and announcing that she had to go get the last of the food put together to serve asking if Axel would be a dear and come help her. April gave her mother a small smile of gratitude, knowing the woman was trying to spare Ax from more of her dad's interrogation in her own quiet way. The tall blond all but burst up from his seat, agreeing eagerly and following her back into the kitchen leaving April to handle her dad as best she could.

"I'm sorry about Lewis." April's mother Margaret said with a little smile as she scooped the baked sweet potatoes she'd made from the oven dish to a hand painted china serving bowl. She handed Axel a serving spoon as well to start doing the same with the cornish game hens she'd roasted. "He's really not an unkind man, he's just... Very protective of April and wants what any dad wants for his daughter, a secure future." She mused, not missing the way the young man's features fell a bit as he agreed that April deserved the very best.

She stopped what she was doing to gently pat the boy's hand that had paused in his task. "She does. April is a very special girl. And I think she has good taste." Margaret commented with a gentle smile, glad to see the young man perk back up a bit at her words.

Dinner went a little smoother than the initial meeting, but it was still a little tense especially when April's dad didn't seem to want to let go of the subject of Axel's prospects for the future and telling him the rather long-winded story about how he was a self-made man who had worked three jobs to put himself through law school and become a successful lawyer who eventually helped build one of the most prestigious private universities in the united states.

He was clearly trying to impress up on Axel how important having a plan for his life was, it was a point he had driven into both his kids since they could barely walk and speak and it didn't surprise April much that he was going down this same vein with her boyfriend. She knew that in his own way he had good intentions, but... He didn't exactly have the nicest way of sharing his opinions and experiences all the time.

Once again April's mother came to the rescue, mentioning that she had heard from her daughter that Axel's favorite dessert was ice cream, but she hadn't had time to make it to the store for any, asking her daughter if she and Axel would be kind enough to go and just get them some shakes from the local place not far from their neighborhood. April's father didn't seem to think such a trip was necessary but she all but rushed them out the door, handing them some cash and requesting their usual orders which April knew.

The pair of teenagers climbed into Axel's truck and drove off, April turned to her boyfriend, cringing as she shifted to face him more fully in the seat and asking, "So... Is it too terrible so far? I know my dad can be kind of... Abrasive, but-" She stammered, fidgeting nervously with her purse when Axel cut her off with a light chuckle.

Axel chuckled at her starting to say stuff about her family and if anything it was kind of amazing that she was more worried about him leaving now than anything else. “You’re funny.” He muttered, patting April’s knee lightly where he could reach while he drove down the street and towards the ice cream place, the same little shop that he had taken her to when they went on their first date together. April didn’t even look at him, watching his hand instead and fidgeting with her bag as she asked him why he was saying that. “Because you think that I’m gonna just book it ‘cuz your dad’s a little hard on me after I just introduced you to my family of monster hunters and psychics and not to mention a couple angel’s all thrown in the mix.” He laughed again.

He gave a little shake of his head and glanced at her from his seat, not missing the red tone to her already naturally rosy cheeks. “You have given me and my family a hell of a chance so I’m doing the same.” He shrugged, pulling out onto one of the main roads and for a little while they were quiet. “Obviously you think we’re worth fighting for… And I do too so that’s what I’m doing. I want your dad to believe I’m good enough for you but he also has no idea, y’know? I’m a pretty big fuck up, Ape. You and I both know that and you deserve a hell of a lot more than that but that’s why I’m working on it.” He smiled over at her once more, feeling her linking her fingers with his own.

The couple drove comfortably to the ice cream parlor, ordering milkshakes for everyone and headed back to the car with a drink carrier full of drinks for every member of her family including her dad who claimed he didn’t really want one but they both opted for buying him one anyhow just in case. Ax got into the truck and sighed as he settled on in with his lover positioning the drinks on the floor by her feet to keep them upright. She glanced over at him and he smiled, making her in turn ask what it was he was grinning about.

“You.” The blond answered, “You’re pretty amazing, April Cunningham. Tolerant of a boy who didn’t remember your last name, hunts monsters for work, hardly goes to school, smokes weed and there’s probably a whole list of reasons you shouldn’t be with me. Yet… Here you are.” He muttered, his eyes catching sight of the picture of them April had taped to his vent finally after it started to fly off every time he put his windows down. “You’re amazing, April. That’s all.” He told her, giving another smile and making her blush deepen.

She put her drink away and shifted to kiss him softly and instead of continuing he reached over for his own milkshake but she giggled at him and asked in a playful tone what he wanted. “My drink.” He whined, trying to grab it but she snatched it up quicker than thought and just like the Butterfinger incident all over again she took control over the treat and started sipping at the thick liquid, humming at how good it tasted. “Heeeey! Rude.” He laughed, fighting her and reaching for it until she was giggling despite herself. “I earned that damn shake.” He teased.

April laughed and relented, starting to hand it over and calling him a baby for the way he was whining but he didn’t care. “You know… I think I have a better way to make sure my drink was right without too much fault.” He muttered, tugging at her face when he gripped it with one large hand and made her turn to look at him. Ape grinned as he leaned forward to capture her lips with his, kissing her slow and languidly, tasting the sweet and chocolaty treat on her soft lips and along her tongue as he ensured to be as thorough as possible.

The blonde girl mewled at his contact and he groaned in response, pulling back and licking his lips in an exaggerated fashion, “Seems like it could be right… Hard to tell.” He murmured, growling as her lips crashed back to his instead of the other way around, her hand running up his knee to his thigh as they drew closer to one another.

A spring of tension had been gradually tightening up in the pit of April's stomach all evening, from sitting under her parent's scrutinizing stares to having to field her dad's probing and often unforgiving questions, she had worked herself up to the point of believing that making Axel face her dad in particular had been a colossal mistake. But when he reminded her that he cared for her and especially when he told her if she was willing to accept his family for who they were, he could do the same for hers it was the biggest relief she'd felt in a long time.

Axel kissed her teasingly to 'sample' his ice cream she'd stolen and the sensation seemed to be dialed up times ten in the wake of all the stress and tension she'd been feeling tonight suddenly being lifted. April felt happy again and that made her enjoy her boyfriend all the more, gripping onto him and surging forward to kiss him once more when they broke contact the first time. Not only did it feel amazing to touch and taste him but it was like a reaffirmation of the words he'd spoken that she mattered to him and he was willing to put in that effort for her, for them.

The petite blonde slid her hand up Axel's leg as she drew closer to him in the seat, yielding to her boyfriend's prodding letting him explore her mouth with his once more. His large hand wandered up her thigh up to her narrow waist, gliding up and down her side and she felt his touch in every corner of her body. He gripped her with both hands and dragged her over into his lap and for the moment April could think of nothing else but getting more contact with him so she moved with him to straddle his lap on the bench seat of his truck oblivious to the fact that they were parked in a public lot and could very well be seen.

Axel tugged her closer and swept his hands up her sides over to cup her pert breasts, rubbing and tweaking her sensitive peaks through the thin material of her sundress and bra. April moaned into his mouth and leaned forward hungry for his touch, not thinking about anything but how good he was making her feel. Axel's mouth broke from hers and he continued touching her chest as his lips wandered down her throat and back up to nip at her ear, sending shivers up and down her slender frame.

April's head craned back to give him better access to her throat and he nibbled at her flushed skin, venturing down to the small amount of cleavage her dress revealed and her breathing hitched as his lips grazed over her sensitive skin. "Axel..." She breathed his name wantonly, leaning into him and scratching her nails through his short cropped blond hair, her desire building and her body aching for more. This point was as far as she had ever allowed things to go, and maybe it was the backlash of her built up tension but April found herself unable to stop, she wanted so badly to venture further.

The blonde gasped but didn't pull back when Axel gripped her thighs and tugged her forward in his lap, canting their hips together and she could feel his arousal against her center, the feeling of him pressing into her was enough to make her heart hammer in her chest. Her impulse to shy away from such obvious... Evidence of his want for her tugged at her mind but her lower brain functions were in control at the moment.

Axel grunted her name against her skin, gripping her hips and guiding her to grind against his hardness and April moaned airily at the sensation, she had never felt anything like the delicious tingling sensation building up at the apex of her thighs as she rocked against the bulge straining in his jeans and it both thrilled and panicked her.

"Ax... Ax please, we need to stop, a-ah..." April whimpered even as her body kept instinctively rolling into him but she made herself scoot back and meet his darkened gaze when he tipped his head up to look at her. Her face was flushed and her body trembled in his lap, this was exactly why she was so hesitant to try more things because it felt so good, a little toogood.

Axel nodded, roughly clearing his throat, smiling up at her mentioning that she was right and they needed to get back before they were missed. "Yeah, don't want the ice cream to melt..." April panted, climbing off of his lap and smoothing her dress a bit trying to cool down and regain her composure.

 

Axel groaned when much to his surprise April started taking over the motion of their hips rolling together in the front seat of his truck. He gripped her tight and followed the same motion easily desperate for just a little more and he would take whatever she was comfortable with even though in the back of his mind he was pretty certain she would pull in the reigns a bit and end their fun. “April…” He growled against her throat, his mouth parting and lazily kissing at her flesh as she kept up the motion of their bodies together.

Just as he thought and his pleasure was building more and more, turned on to the point of near pain she muttered his name in a different tone, pointing out that they needed to end this. He panted heavily, his fingers tightening around her waist and he wanted nothing more than to refuse to let her up but he respected her wishes always, tipping his head up to meet her eyes and giving the slightest of nods in understanding. He cleared his throat and tried to find his voice, doing his best to hide his rough want for her in his tone but to no effect.

“Yeah. No you’re right we need to stop and… and… get back to your house…” The blond panted out up to his girlfriend above him. “Don’t wanna be missed.” He said, offering a hand to help her out of his lap and when she was moved his head dropped back to the back of his seat, his breathing ragged as he tried his best to steady it. He could hear the same effect in her own tone when she agreed.

Axel grinned as he looked over at her and she was flushed completely pink once more, asking him if he was okay and he nodded. “Yeah just… Uhh… I just need a few minutes to calm down a bit, y’know.” He answered albeit a bit sheepishly. April smiled and ducked her head down, tucking her hair behind her ears in that same shy manner she always did as she seemed to understand what he meant. She nodded slightly and they sat in quiet for a bit, the sound of their breathing evening out about the only thing around them.

After a while she reached over and touched his hand on his leg and his eyes flickered open, the thoughts of a more recent and rather bloody hunt was closest to his mind if only by force as he tried to forget what she felt like in his lap like that. Her touch pulled him back and his pupils dilated slightly again as he looked over at her, nodding his head in response to her asking if he was sure he wasn’t upset and lacing their fingers to keep her from touching too much or too close to undo all the work he had just done. “Yeah Baby that’s not what’s going on right now. I’m not mad at all. Don’t worry. Just keep your hands to yourself on the drive or I’m gonna lose all sense of control.” He chuckled, leaning over and lightly kissing her cheek when she followed forward.

They drove back to April’s house with their ice cream in tow, dishing all of them out to her family and they sat in the front room talking a little while longer until it grew closer to nine o’clock which apparently was bed time for the Cunningham household. Axel smiled at his girlfriend’s family and shook her dad’s hand one final time firmly, looking him dead in the eye this time and he hoped that the man at least saw a little something in him that was worth letting him be around his daughter. “Thank you again for dinner, Mrs. Cunningham. It was great and the ice cream too.” He pat his stomach and grinned broadly, making the woman smile in return.

He turned to April when they reached the door and she offered to walk him out to his car though they both knew it to be likely they were going to be watched from the window. “See yah, Brandon.” He called over his shoulder, letting the blonde take his hand and pull him out the door as he waved. April happily swayed with him down the walk way to his truck in the street, leaning into his arm and asking him when they got to the door if he had a good enough night. “Yeah. Your mom’s great and your dad’s just protective. I can get that. I’m kind of… that way too.” He shrugged, smiling down at her.

“Don’t worry about it just kiss me huh?” He prompted, bending and wrapping her arms around his neck which she took his cue and did just so, kissing him softly and they kept it to a minimum just in case. They broke apart for air and he brushed a thumb over her cheek, “I’ll see you soon then.” He winked at her and she giggled, mentioning that if he was tired from the day that he didn’t have to come sneaking in through her window. “Mmm… Yeah pretty sure I will.” He said, pulling away and heading to the driver’s side door, popping it open and waving to her when she started back peddling up the walkway to her door again.

Axel followed his same routine after talking to his mom for a good couple hours about his time with April’s family until his dad finally pulled her away. It was nearing one o’clock when he finally managed to get away, parking his truck up the street and sneaking down the block to her house, hoping the fence and climbing in her window when he noted it was left cracked open. It was their signal that she was waiting for him, if the window was cracked he was still welcomed to tear off the screen and join her. “Hey.” He whispered but she wasn’t in her bedroom. His brow rose and he noted the light on in her bathroom beneath the door.

Ax smiled and climbed into her bed, careful not to disturb her stuffed animals and he laid himself out in a playful manner, hand on his hip and one leg bent at the knee as he waited for her to come out and meet him. The strung lights in her room were enough to show his presence but when she came out in her pjs and spotted him she still jolted just a little, berating him for startling her. “What? I’ve been doing this for how long now? Come on I can’t go to sleep before I’ve seen you again. You gotta be the last thing in my head.” He muttered, reaching over and tugging at her hand to urge her onto the bed with him. "Did you miss me?"

Axel texted ahead that he was coming just a little later than normal due to not being able to get away from his mom's questioning about their dinner, which made her smile. She decided to go ahead and change into her pjs, simple gray yoga pants with a pink cotton tank top and get her make up off and teeth brushed. She finished up in her bathroom, ruffling her hair which still held a little of its curl from earlier. She exited her bathroom and nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected presence of her boyfriend stretched out on her bed.

"Ax! You startled me!" She berated him as she took a breath to calm herself, smiling despite her words anyway out of happiness at seeing him again. She crossed the short space over to her bed and he chuckled at her, asking if she had missed him as he took her hand trying to pull her onto the bed with him.

"Of course I did. I always do." April responded softly as she clambered over him to kneel beside him on her bed, making a sudden squeak of protest as she noticed Axel's shoulder covering her favorite purple stuffed cat. "Hey you're squashing patches!" She chided with a little pout, extracting the stuffed animal from beneath him and laughing off his apology that he made sound overly dramatic on purpose. He sat up and handed her animals to set carefully on the floor by her bed, helping clear it off so they could relax without 'squashing' anyone else.

April reclined down onto her side facing her boyfriend, propping her head up with one hand and idly playing with Axel's fingers resting on his chest with the other. He shifted onto his side as well, brushing his hand under hers and up her arm to settle on her side, his thumb slowly moving back and forth over her waist and she expected him to pull her closer to kiss but instead he began to speak. He mentioned in a bit of a hesitant fashion that they had gone a little farther this afternoon than before, smiling as he told her he liked it and had been wondering all day if they would get to do it again or not.

April blushed, recalling how swept up she'd gotten in their little tryst this afternoon, and especially the delicious sensations she'd felt that she'd never experienced before. If she was being totally honest with herself, she'd been craving more of that same feeling most of the night as well. "Well, um..." She murmured, biting her lower lip with her teeth and trying to fight down the butterflies in her stomach. Axel interpreted her hesitation as a no, quickly working to reassure her that it was fine, he wasn't upset if she wasn't comfortable with doing more and she had to press her fingertips to his lips to quiet his rushed almost apologetic words.

"Ax... What I was going to say was, I think I'd like that very much." She corrected his line of thought, giggling at his surprised expression. He asked her if she was sure and she nodded, leaning forward to capture his lips in a sweet almost entreating kiss, nipping lightly at his lower lip trying to entice him to give her more and convince him she really did mean what she said.

“I know that today we kinda went a little further than we usually do.” Axel started off, looking over his girlfriend and idly brushing his fingers along her frame. He kept thinking about it since he left the house, how much he enjoyed it and he was pretty sure that she did too based on her response but they didn’t exactly have a chance to talk about it. “So I just was wondering if that was gonna happen more often.” He muttered softly to her.

Almost instantly after he said the words he sensed her nervousness and he shifted a little closer shaking his head already and starting to reassure her it was no big deal. “We don’t have to. I mean if you don’t wanna do anything close to that sort of bumping and grinding kinda thing then no worries. I don’t mind kissing you and that being that.” He told her and again he started on up trying to apologize, feeling like it was his wrong doing since he sort of was the one to pull her in his lap.

“I’m sorry I know I shouldn’t have just pulled you over without like asking you first and I thought you liked it so I didn’t stop you but that probably also pressured you in a way and I’m sorry, Ape I didn’t—“ He stammered but her fingers pressed to his lip hushing him suddenly and shaking her head a little as she spoke instead. She mentioned that she liked it actually and he sighed a little out of relief to hear it directly from her that she did enjoy herself and he was in awe that she would admit to wanting to go that far again.

She giggled and leaned forward taking the initiative and kissing him lightly only to nip at his lower lip. Ax groaned softly at the bite and followed her prompting forward, pulling her body against him as he pressed further into her, his hands starting to roam over her hips and down to her rear, tugging her lower half against him. She moaned into their kiss as he deepened it, his tongue tracing hers and much to his surprise her lips broke from his own to kiss and bite along his throat, something he wasn’t so sure she had really done before. Usually it was mostly him doing the work and he never minded when she tasted and felt and smelled as enticing as she did.

Axel growled at the sensation of her teeth, rolling onto his back and pulling her weight with him, making her squeak softly and break contact as he urge her to straddle him. April followed his guidance and he found he liked her weight over him in this manner as well as any other, gripping her hips and starting the same motion as before above him. She followed and canted her hips forward, slowly and almost experimentally as they got going. He traced his hands up her sides and cupped her breasts in the same fashion he typically did, brushing his thumbs over her pert nipples above her shirt of course and making her moan in return as she braced her hand on his chest and watched him watching her.

He smiled but it quickly morphed as his body stiffened with his desire, his lips parting and she asked him if he was okay in a tone that told him she worried she was hurting him. Ax nodded, and kept her from moving, “Yeah baby I’m fine… Don’t stop…” He pleaded with her, grinding up against her in return and moaning harshly as she quickened her pace above him, their lips crashing together just as before and they devoured each other in earnest.

April felt reassured by Axel's words and even more so by the moan of pleasure that escaped him when she started moving again, grinding her center along the hard bulge in his jeans. She tried a few different angles, finding what felt best by tipping her hips forward so his erection rubbed her clit firmly, sending tremors of sensation from between her legs out to the top of her head and the tips of her toes. 

The new rush of feelings she was experiencing on top of Axel's ravenous mouth against hers and his hands playing with her chest was quickly building, dialing up into something she wasn't sure she could stand much longer if something didn't give or break the delicious tension coiling in the pit of her stomach. The blond understood from an academic what desire was, what an orgasm was supposed to be but she had no idea it would feel this intense and even less of an idea of how to quench this rapidly building need inside her.

They broke apart for air and April looked down at her boyfriend, his eyes screwed shut and his full lips parted with his labored breathing. He murmured her name like a prayer over and over, his hands slipping from her breasts to grip her hips and he began thrusting up into her motions in earnest. He cursed roughly, his added movement driving her own pleasure up another notch. April gripped his shoulder tight, crying out softly as she neared what she felt was a breaking point. She wanted so desperately to fall over that edge, feeling an amazing rush surge through her knowing that Axel was responding this way because of her body, because he wantedher.

Axel's blue orbs suddenly flew open and he tensed up beneath her, gripping her hips tight and panting out that he was going to come and April hardly had the time or sense of mind to process his words before he was rapidly thrusting against her and grunting out a few broken curses before collapsing beneath her, his grip loosening and a breathless laugh escaping him in the wake of his pleasure. 

April's delicate brow furrowed a bit with a mix of curiosity and frustration. It caught her off guard how much watching him come undone like that turned her on, but she still was hovering on that precipice of sensation, at a loss of how to find a way to fall over the brink like he had without completely compromising what was important to her.

April smiled down at her boyfriend, leaning in to kiss him sweetly, her blonde locks falling around their faces and she couldn't help but giggle happily at the glazed over look in his eye when they broke apart. He reached up to cup her face and told her how beautiful she was, making her flush but it was still hard for her to give him her full attention when her body was trembling from her unresolved passion.

His smile bent a bit and he asked her if she was okay, to which she quickly nodded and climbed off of him trying to brush off this feeling of being cut off before she could finish, reminding herself that she couldn't compromise what she wanted in the long term in exchange for a little pleasure now. Axel seemed to sense that not everything was quite right and he asked her if she had been able to come, which only made her blush even more furiously.

"N-no, I... That's all right though, what we did felt really, really good. It's fine." She murmured with a shy smile but he didn't seem convinced. He sweetly kissed her cheek, telling her to wait a sec while he went to the bathroom and cleaned himself up a little, assuring her that he'd be right back because he had an idea of what they could do for her. She started to protest but he just climbed off the bed anyway and she was left sprawled and panting on her mattress, trying not to squirm from the intense swirling sensations inside her desperate for some kind of outlet.

Axel got off the bed to head into her bathroom, cleaning himself up to the best of his abilities and coming back out, wiping his wet hands on his jeans on either side. He hadn’t had a release like that in a long time, if ever and he wanted to bring April the same form of pleasure that she offered him just moments ago. He padded back to her on the mattress, seeing how differently she was lying and holding herself and he could guess she was still fairly worked up.

He eased back down on the bed and his hand immediately took to her hip, this time he rolled atop her instead and she giggled beneath him though he could see the apprehension in her bright blue eyes. “I wanna make you feel good too April. Baby you deserve it.” He whispered huskily as he guided her up the mattress a bit to settle her high into the pillows so she was more comfortable. April stared at him and again she said she didn’t want him to feel obligated that she at least was happy knowing he had lost it like that.

Ax ignored it for the moment and kissed at her lips to silence her protests, “Ape, please let me take care of you?” He requested, brushing his knuckles lightly over her cheek as he reached to tuck her hair behind her ear. She nodded and asked him what he was going to do for her and he smiled, kissing her again and again until he felt the tension in her body relaxing a bit under his hold, trailing his lips over her throat and his hand snaked down over her hip and down to her center, caressing her lightly through her yoga pants and he could feel her slickness soaking through the material almost entirely.

April gasped suddenly at his touch and muttered his name as she looked up at him, her chest heaving and he grinned once more. “You’re really wet, Ape.” He panted out, imagining what she really truly felt like and in a way it was a stroke to his ego to know he could get her body to respond like this. She arched up against him and his mouth pressed to the front of her chest, dipping his tongue down between her breasts and up along the edge of her shirt and she moaned again.

Axel smirked a little, palming at her breast with one hand and the other shifted against her center, dipping down beneath the fabric of her yoga pants so he could touch her through only the thin fabric of her panties. He watched his girlfriend as she squirmed beneath his weight and started grinding up instinctively against his hand. He bent over her and against he kissed her chest along the edge of her shirt, working his way down until he pressed his mouth against her nipple and over her top layer, evoking a cry from her. “Tell me what feels good, Beautiful.” He urged as he started working on her chest with his teeth and lips.

April panted harshly as he changed the motion of his fingers a few times to try and get a response from her and when he reached the very top of her entrance she nearly screamed his name in a broken tone. He grinned as he realized he must have discovered it on his own, the motion that got her going the most and that helped her to that peak. She closed her eyes and his own flickered up from where he was to watch her lips part and her lids flutter as he worked her in tiny circles over her clit until she was writhing beneath him. “Are you gonna come for me?”

April fidgeted and trembled beneath Axel's touch, her eyes fluttering shut to better focus on the sensations he was causing in her. His fingers stroked up and down her wet entrance through the thin barrier of her now soaked panties, everything he did felt good but she wasn't quite sure what to tell him to do to finally reach that release her whole body was aching for.

She looked down at him and nodded, trying to concentrate to tell him what she wanted but her body was so wound up it was hard to even form coherent thoughts. April watched his mouth grazing over her stiffened peak through her tank top, shuddering as she imagined his warm mouth against her bare breast. His hand working her beneath her soft yoga pants continued to explore and she felt herself slowly inching closer to the apex of her desire.

"Ah... Ah... Axel!" April suddenly cried out when his fingers drew up higher and began circling her clit in small, rapid circles. The little button of nerves at the top of her entrance was far more sensitive and her whole body tensed and shook as he continued to work her in the same motion. Her eyes screwed shut and she turned her face into her pillow to muffle her sounds, rolling her hips up into his touch to increase the pressure of his fingers on her clit.

"Oh god... I- I think I'm close, ahh!" April moaned brokenly, her whole body winding tighter and tighter till she was sure she was about to shatter apart. Axel urged her to come for him, switching from rapid circles to a rapid flicking motion back and forth over her clit with the pads of his fingers and April's back arched up off the mattress, a thousand fireworks exploding within her. 

"Oh god, oh god baby I'm coming!" April exclaimed with a ragged moan as he drew out her orgasm with his fingers, working her until she sank back to the mattress flinching at his touch a bit from the overwhelming sensation. He slowed his pace and withdrew his hand from her pants, smiling at her with a mix of affection and satisfaction, seemingly just as pleased by her response as she was. 

April sighed deeply as she relaxed against her pillows, smiling shyly at her boyfriend out of the corner of her eye as she tried to catch her breath. He placed a light kiss just above her hip before climbing up to settle at eye level with her. He rested his hand over her flat belly and April hummed happily as she basked in the wake of her orgasm, she had never even come close to sensations like that and now she was starting to understand why people made such a big deal about it.

Axel asked her if what he'd done for her was good and giggled and nodded, shifting closer and nudging her nose against his before kissing his lips lightly. "It was amazing Ax, I've never felt anything like that before." She replied, returning his kisses when he grazed lightly on her lips. He chuckled a bit and told her he was glad, but that she didn't have to upsell him that much when he had never done anything like that for a girl before, feeling he surely had room for improvement.

"No, I... I really liked it. I've never felt anything better." She assured him, her smile bending a bit when he shook his head and offhandedly mentioned that it probably wasn't as good as when she did it and the girl blushed a deep scarlet. "When I? Oh no I don't... I mean I haven't ever... That was the first time I ever had an orgasm." April finally admitted when she couldn't bring herself to even say the word 'masturbate' or something along that vein.

Axel's blue eyes went wide and he scoffed a bit in disbelief, seemingly unable to believe such a thing was possible. He asked her again for confirmation that she'd never ever gotten herself off before, already knowing he was her first boyfriend so it was the only other option. April shook her head, feeling flustered and a little self-conscious but she had always been taught it was bad to do anything of the sort and so she simply never even started down that road even when she started getting curious about her body.

Axel gently cupped her face when she dropped her gaze from him, apologizing and telling her there was nothing wrong with not doing it he was just surprised was all, a sly grin crossing his features as he told her it made him feel pretty lucky that he got to be involved in her very first orgasm which only made her laugh and blush deeper. The tension eased from her form at the silly little smile he gave her and she was able to meet his gaze.

"I'm glad too, Ax. It was... Really nice." She murmured, pressing herself up against his frame and nuzzling her face into his neck kissing his skin lightly.

Axel was panting himself as he worked April over and watched her shatter beneath him, appreciating the way she breathed and spoke as he got her off by his hand alone. His jaw clenched and he eyed her as she rolled her hips up into his hand until she couldn’t anymore and his motions slowed surely, letting her ride out her high until she collapsed against the mattress beneath them.

He smiled down at her, withdrawing his hand from her yoga pants, kissing at her hip and up her tummy a ways before he opted for lying out beside her, sprawling openly next to her with his hand settled over her abdomen. “Was that good?” He asked curiously, grinning at her response and returning her light kiss only to follow with another. “Don’t upsell me too much, baby. I’ve never done that for a girl before so I’m sure I could totally use some classes or something.” He chuckled.

April responded that she hadn’t felt anything better and he couldn’t help but simply roll his eyes at her, already gearing to argue against that statement. He shook his head, “I really doubt that. It probably was nothing compared to when you do it.” He muttered still laughing a little at how adamant she was about him doing as well as he supposedly had but she stared up at him, blushing deep red which wasn’t an uncommon thing with his lover but the words she spoke told him she was being serious in what she said.

She hadn’t ever gotten herself off, not once, not even an attempt? His eyes went wide and he chuckled out of disbelief, for him it was an almost nightly occurrence though he kind of just thought that’s what you did when you got going not that you just ignored it. “Okay… You’re telling me that you’ve never ever gotten yourself off before? Not once?” He demanded to know for certain and she shook her head, seeming a little more nervous with his questioning now. He kind of just assumed that everyone did it at least once or twice, every now and again but with April he shouldn’t have been all that surprised considering he knew how important waiting for most everything was to her.

Ax reached up and cupped her face in one large hand, shaking his head again as he stroked her cheek with his thumb. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I just… I was surprised you hadn’t is all.” He smirked, “And now I feel damn good knowin’ I was the first to cause all that. Your first orgasm I mean. I’m very pleased to have been involved.” He muttered, his free hand tracing up and down her side affection in his touch and his gaze as he looked at her.

He smiled at her, waggling his brow a little and making her laugh as they both relaxed once more. He groaned as she shifted up to kiss at his neck, spurring him on again even if only slightly. He met her lips, ravishing her mouth with his own and tugging her lower lip lightly with his teeth as he pulled back to look at her. “You should one of these days. Or now. I could… coach you?” The blond teased, glancing down at her center and his hand on her hip. April laughed nervously, blushing and shaking her head saying it was fine, what he had done was fine for her and she didn’t need anymore.

“Really? ‘Cuz they always make it sound like you know… girls should get off more than guys or something. Like I thought maybe it just happens easier when you’re… horny?” He shrugged, trying to think about what he knew which wasn’t really much, mostly it was just a matter of Carson’s porn collection and the things he heard his brother say about what he had done. “I mean don’t you like get going at least a little when we kiss and stuff? And you don’t wanna… fix that when I leave or again maybe now?” He chuckled once more as she semi nudged him off of her.

He laid down on his back and pulled her over him slightly, letting her rest on his chest and only half letting the subject go. “I’m serious Ape. It’s just kinda something you do.” He shrugged against her, his hand running over her back. “You don’t have to or anything ‘cuz I guess your ‘excitement’ doesn’t show to the rest of the world.” He yawned lightly, settling down with her and shaking his head as if to get rid of his tired.

April softly asked him if he did that and he glanced at her, “Uhh… Well yeah. Usually after I leave your place. I mean not like right after but you know when I’m home and stuff or in the shower or whatever. Sometimes I do when I’m bored, get myself going just to get off.” He admitted, not really ashamed of it but now he was far more aware of the common occurrence as he spoke with his girlfriend about it. “Like when you wear those shorts… The little purple ones with the ruffle-y edges…” His breathing picked up a little and he swallowed to keep his mind focused on their actual discussion, “That’s a lot of skin from you.” He told her and she flushed red once more.

“Annnnnd this is probably not what you wanna know or hear about. Sorry. I’m just trying to tell you it’s not a big deal if you do it because a lot of people do. Come home, sit back and watch porn…” He gestured as though he was working himself with his hand, shrugging his shoulders again. “You could… think about me or something.” He offered in an almost hopeful manner.

April flushed at his suggestion, smiling a bit despite the anxiety she felt over the subject. Axel spoke about it all so casually as if it was no big deal, and she supposed to him it probably wasn't, or to most people especially guys from everything she'd seen and heard. But she had always grown up being strictly taught to not even think about those kinds of things let alone experiment with acting on any impulses she might feel. 

She wasn't supposed to focus on anything other than getting good grades and being an obedient, sweet daughter. Feelings like what Axel described were not to be acted on until she was older, until she was married according to her parents. They told her it was natural to feel 'urges' but never to act on them until some ambiguous later date.

"I-it's okay, I'm glad that thinking about me makes you... Well, you know." April responded with a shy giggle, hugging him tighter and tipping her head up to meet his face. "This is all so new to me, but I do like it. I just need to take it one step at a time." April kissed her boyfriend's cheek lightly and he seemed satisfied with that answer at least for now, letting her cuddle into his warmth and laying peacefully with her for a long while even though she could feel his heart beating fast against her cheek resting on his chest.

Axel always set himself an alarm for three am just in case they fell asleep together which they often did, it's beeping startling them both out of their cozy slumber. April sat up and stretched, even though they hadn't slept long she felt more rested and sated than she could ever remember feeling. She wondered with an absent smile if it had to do with the pleasure Axel had given her earlier that night. The blond reached up to gently rub his hand across her lower back, asking in a voice raspy with sleep what she was smiling about.

"Just you." April murmured and turned, grinning down at him, stretching herself over his taller frame and kissing his lips languidly, waking him up a bit more with the contact. He hummed sleepily into the kiss, his large hands splaying over her back to hold her close and her heartbeat quickened when she felt his hardness starting to prod at her. She shifted slightly above him trying to pull back but he held her there and she melted, rolling her hips into his making both of them groan softly.

Finally they broke apart for breath and April bumped the tip of her nose against his. "Don't you need to be heading back?" She chided gently, trying with a bit more effort to squirm out of his grip. She giggled helplessly when he turned them on their sides and began tickling her, swinging his leg over hers to keep her from being able to get away as he kept up his attack. April tried her best to stay quiet as she laughed and squeaked, pleading with him to stop before they got caught.

The pair spent a bit more time together softly talking and kissing, making plans to see each other at school and the following night as usual. Axel asked her to wear her purple shorts and she batted at his chest, pointing out it was supposed to rain and he shrugged, promising to keep her warm if she got cold. She sent him off, having a hard time settling down again all the things they'd done and talked about buzzing in her head. She almost worked up the nerve to try getting herself off like he'd suggested, craving that intense sensation again but in the end she couldn't bring herself to do it.

\---  
Over the next couple months April enjoyed the new parameters her and Axel had established, to the point where she was starting to want to push their limits again and while it still made her nervous she felt right about it. Axel made her happy in a way that she never imagined possible, made her feel valuable and loved regardless of her grade point average or how many violin awards she won. He made her feel beautiful even though when she looked at herself she saw only a plain face and the body of a twelve year old boy.

April waited for her boyfriend to arrive at his customary time, her mind buzzing and her heartbeat drumming with anticipation as she contemplated what she wanted to do differently tonight. Sure probably to most teens it didn't seem like so much, but to her it was a really big deal. She finally wanted to really feel Axel's touch, without leaving a layer of clothing between them.

He arrived right on time, climbing in through her window and smiling at her as he offered over a little gift. It was a small leather keychain with a daisy carved into the soft leather, telling her he'd picked it up for her when he'd been gone the past two days on a hunt with his dad and brother. It was still a trip for April to imagine her boyfriend going off to hunt monsters, but she had finally started to wrap her head around it at least.

"Thank you Ax, it's beautiful... I love it." April touched the flower image gently with her fingertip, admiring the trinket and setting it carefully down on her nightstand so she could remember to put it on her keys the next day. Her boyfriend grinned, pleased that she liked his token and caught her up in a hug saying he'd missed her. April grinned, nuzzling into his shoulder and mumbling the same sentiment against his chest, feeling a strange mix of relief and excitement to be in his arms again after not seeing him three nights in a row.

Axel pulled back from her and chuckled, commenting on her wardrobe choice and April blushed slightly as she looked down at her white lacy tank and purple short shorts. "I just... Happened to want to wear these today." She commented, fidgeting with the ruffled edge of her pants. April looked up at her boyfriend, her breathing shallow and her pupils dilated. "I'm glad you got back safe. I really, really missed you baby." April breathed, standing up on her toes and cupping his face, drawing him down in for a kiss. She meant the contact to be sweet at least at first, but she had been thinking about what she wanted all day and evening, so the second their lips met she immediately melted and forced the contact into something far more heated.

Axel groaned into their heated kiss, hardly having time to even think let alone respond with a smart Alek remark. There was something different about their kiss, something about the fact that she wore those shorts that she knew got him going with only the simple sight of her smooth thighs. Normally it was always or almost always him trying to rile her up and convince her to let him touch her or at least get her to grind against him.

He gripped her tighter, his eyes closing and he pushed her back to the mattress instantly, her calves hitting the end of the bed and they tumbled backwards together. He caught himself on his left hand, keeping most of his weight off her as he followed her down. “Missed me that much huh?” He mused, laughing lightly when she hardly let him up long enough to get the words out. “Jesus, Ape…” He panted, her legs parting and raising up enough to hitch around his hips, already offering him the option to grind down against her body.

The blonde broke apart from him suddenly, flushing and looking bashfully away from him as she muttered that they could stop, she hadn’t meant to attack him like that but she really had missed him, had been thinking about him and what they do together. “Babe it’s fine. Just kinda like role reversal y’know? I’m not used to you attacking me. But I like it.” He added quickly at the end, glancing down to her chest and she giggled as his focus ran elsewhere.

“Sorry your boobs were speaking to me. April it’s rude to interrupt.” He teased, making her laugh at him and much to his surprise she took his hand and guided it over her small peak asking him to look with his hands as well. “Mm… Okay.” He agreed, bending his head and just as always his mouth went for her pert nipple through the fabric of her tank, a rule that she had previously written him but then she gripped his hair and he thought maybe he was doing something wrong, his blue eyes glancing up to her face and his mouth hanging open in the midst of his assault in return. “Yes?” He questioned.

He paused, still hovering over her frame and she looked hesitant to say whatever was on her mind. “Baby what’s wrong? We’ve done this like a thousand times, don’t tell me you’ve changed the rules…” He said almost bitterly, not meaning to sound like it did but there was only so much holding back he could manage. April bit her lip and nodded, saying she had changed the rules and he started to sit up with a sigh, “So you kiss me like that and grind up on me like that just to tease then?” He mumbled, “Cool. Thanks.”

April grabbed him before he could get up off her and shook her head, saying she extended the rules in a sense, pushing his hand down to her abdomen and he didn’t fight her as she guided him under the very bottom part of her shirt. He arched a brow at her in question and her breathing was ragged which told him she was just as worked up maybe more so. Suddenly he understood, both hands pushing up her top and she didn’t fight him when he left it rolled up beneath her arms and above her chest to reveal her breasts to him. He couldn’t help his gaze as it casted over her peaks and while she wasn’t curvy she was just as lovely in his eyes to look at.

Axel’s hands brushed over her sides near her chest and his thumbs stretched over her sensitive flesh, circling her nipples with each digit, brushing down over the very bottom of each swell to her chest. The tightness in his jeans was nearly unbearable as now his mind raced with thoughts of taking her. He bent his head again when she nodded at him encouragingly, his mouth closing over one hardened nipple and she gasped harshly at the warm contact along her flesh, his tongue flickering in circles over her smooth skin until that alone had her begging him to continue.

“April…” He half groaned, lifting his head again but unable to resist placing the occasional kiss to her chest and belly. “Sweetheart what’s gotten into you? I mean you don’t have to let me do all this because you think it’s what I want.” The blond muttered and April blushed, starting to pull down her shirt and seeming a little embarrassed but he kept her from covering up. “Well I’ve seen ‘em now. That’s not fair to take ‘em away.” He chuckled, listening to her as she admitted she had just been thinking a lot about him while he was away.

Axel arched a brow at her again, curious to know where this conversation was going. “Oh?” He inquired, “And just what were you thinking in particular about me then?” He asked, wondering if maybe she had gotten herself off and now was a little more comfy with herself. April ducked her head, breaking their gaze as she admitted to having thought about the things he does to her. He nodded, “So… Did you take care of yourself while I was gone then, Gorgeous?” He asked her directly, watching as she shook her head and admitted that she couldn’t get herself to mentally relax enough to do so when he wasn’t here.

“So you just thought about me doing it for you again? Babe you’re working yourself up without release, I’m sure it sucks even for chicks.” He squirmed a little, the arousal in his jeans making his focus a little off but still he tried. “Well I’m here now. I’m no pro but… if you like what I’m doing for you then I’d be more than happy to show you how.” He smirked.

 

April's chest heaved up and down from her labored breathing, her whole body buzzing with want. She considered her boyfriend's words, her heart fluttering in her chest with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. She had thought about giving things a try several times, but she just couldn't bring herself to actually follow through. But... Maybe with Axel 'helping' her it might make it easier, even if she still ended up only doing anything like this when he was with her.

"O-okay... I suppose I can give it a try." She responded shakily glancing down to where their hips were canted together and biting her lower lip and shivering a bit as she felt Axel throbbing against her. Axel grinned and lightly kissed temple, assuring her he wanted to help her be able to make herself feel good, reminding her that it was natural.

"But first, um... Did you want to..." April blushed a little as she glanced down at the obvious bulge in Axel's jeans as he rolled off of her. She knew it could actually be painful for guys after a certain point to get going and then not finish, not wanting to make her boyfriend uncomfortable if he was going to be focusing on her for awhile instead of himself. Axel followed her eyes down to his own excited front and chuckled a bit, telling her he was just fine and not to worry.

April giggled in response to his own laughter, nodding and worrying her lower lip once more with her teeth as she watched her boyfriend's eyes roam over her bare breasts, down her flat abdomen to her purple shorts and down her bare legs. He settled on his side and started lightly petting her belly, his hand gradually wandering lower till his fingers were brushing over the fly of her shorts. He asked her about removing them and her heart skipped, he had touched her plenty now but it was always with her bottoms still on and his hand over her panties, but she reminded herself of how good things had been going between them and besides that just feeling his mouth on her bare breasts made her desperate for that skin to skin contact elsewhere. 

April nodded and rose her hips a bit to push her shorts down after he unzipped them, letting him drag them off her legs leaving her more bare before him than she ever had been and the way he devoured her with his eyes sent thrills up and down her form. Axel prompted her to give him her hand and she did, her chest rising and falling more rapidly than ever now. He guided her to begin slowly stroking her center through the fabric of her panties, his larger hand over top of hers directing her motions and adding pressure to her own touch. This was fairly familiar territory so far so she was able to let go of some of her nerves at least.

Axel murmured sweetly to her, telling her how beautiful she was and to focus on what felt good and do that. April followed his motions, warmth pooling in her lower belly as their combined touch riled her further. Axel pushed her hand up to the edge of her panties and she glanced at him, suddenly nervous. He prompted her gently to continue, telling her it was all right and to keep focusing on what felt good. April swallowed hard and slipped her hand beneath the thin fabric, her fingers brushing over her honey colored curls to her wet entrance and a little mewl escaped her at the increased sensation as she touched herself.

Axel told her to try pushing her fingers inside herself, his own hand still above hers outside her panties and she didn't miss the way his voice had gone ragged with want, her stomach fluttering a bit to think that this might be arousing him. April did as he prompted, dipping her two middle fingers into her wet core and gasping a bit at the feeling, stroking her sensitive walls experimentally and feeling her pleasure much more intensely than when she only felt contact through her panties. Axel asked her if what she was doing felt good, his own hand leaving hers to allow her more freedom of movement.

"Yes... It feels really good..." She breathed, her eyes slipping closed as she pumped her fingers in and out of her body. If she hadn't been so caught up in what she was doing to herself she would've blushed to see him flicking his own jeans open and stroking himself as he watched her. April continued a come-hither motion, pushing her digits as deeply into her core as she could, her breathing hitching and her hips rocking involuntarily into her motions as she drove herself closer to the brink.

Axel told her to try touching her clit like he did, she didn't open her eyes but nodded, drawing her own slickness that had soaked her digits by now up to the top of her sex, swirling her fingertips around the sensitive pearl like he did and gasping loudly at the sensation, her blue eyes flying open and her head pressing back into her pillows as she worked herself. Axel grunted low in his throat, telling her not to stop and to make herself come, his fevered words driving her own pleasure up and April moaned desperately into her pillow as she teetered on the edge.

April kept working herself, panting and whimpering on the verge of her release but she couldn't quite fall over the edge, alternating pumping her fingers into her body and teasing her clit as she writhed on the mattress. She felt the bed shift as Axel scooted up till his lips were against her ear, whispering to her to imagine him touching her, telling her how sexy she was and how badly he wanted to watch her to come.

"Oh God... Baby it feels so good... Ah, Ax I'm gonna come... Ahh!" April cried out brokenly, his words giving her the final push she needed. She rapidly flickered her fingertips over her clit and her hips rose up off the bed as she came. This was nothing like what she'd experienced before. It was like the difference between hearing music being played through the wall in the next room and having a front row seat to a concert. She rode out her orgasm and fell back to her bed shuddering and panting, slowly withdrawing her hand from her panties.

Her head lolled to face her boyfriend and she finally noticed that his jeans were open so he had been 'taking care of business' himself, making her blush and giggle a bit self-consciously. "Ax, were you... I mean did you... Just from watching me?" April babbled, smiling despite her embarrassment, her breath still shallow from her pleasure.

Axel groaned as he watched her touching herself and he couldn't control his own need rising in his jeans. He unzipped his jeans and freed himself just enough to start pumping his shaft, watching her intently enough that he could match her rhythm in the moment.

He shifted on the mattress, eyes never leaving her center covered mostly by her panties. It was enough for him... enough to push him to touch himself and offer his own relief. "Touch your clit baby just like I do. Do what feels good." He muttered against her ear, moaning as he worked himself slowly at first. "You're so sexy April. So fucking sexy..." he half growled out the words as she did as he suggested.

Ax could hardly stay leaning upright but he positioned himself enough that he could see what she was doing, could catch her expression contorting as she brought herself close to the edge. "Imagine me touching you. Deep inside your body just like that." He sighed raggedly and she cried out to him suddenly, her body writhing and squirming beneath her own touch and soon she uttered that she was coming.

He groaned trying to get himself there with her amd he followed not long after she collapsed against the mattress, his seed spurting on his abdomen and dripping down his shaft onto his hand as she glanced at him. April withdrew her hand a little awkwardly and his eyes were glazed over much to the same manner hers were.

He nodded at her questioning, "Yeah Gorgeous." The blond huffed out, milking himself dry as she watched him finish off. April flushed and mentioned how she could get him so worked up by touching herself like that. He laughed, "Baby trust me when I say you don't gotta be touching yourself to get me going."

Axel sat up and pecked her lips, grinning at how she could hardly move without trembling. He grabbed tissue from the box by her bed and cleaned himself up before wiping her hand down for her. "Good?" He asked, leaning over unashamed of his mostly bare body as he kissed her. Though April seemed nervous by it so he broke away and adjusted his jeans on his frame again as she uttered it was definitely good.

"Good. You can do a lot more than me... learn your body, get some toys or something." Ax shrugged, running his hand over her bare abdomen and he couldn't help himself, bending his head and kissing at her chest again and she shuddered beneath him. "God I love your body." He growled again, rolling to lie over her again as he kissed at her flesh and her nails scrapped over his scalp and through his hair as he kissed his way up to her lips again.

April flushed a deep red at his mention of toys and the like, she was still getting used to the idea of touching herself at all let alone expanding her horizons. But she didn't have long to focus on being nervous, quickly being distracted by her boyfriend climbing atop her and kissing his way up from her bare chest to her throat and finally finding her lips. 

April hummed into his kiss, her nails skidding over Axel's scalp and down his back as she clung to him. Her whole body felt alight with her pleasure and his heated kiss combined with his weight pressing down on her did little to quell it. He broke away from her mouth to suck and nibble at her throat and the petite blond couldn't help but moan lightly as her body stirred with want again.

"Axel..." April mewled his name, arching up against him as his hand swept over her small pert breast, his warm skin on hers electric as he teased her sensitive peak with his fingers. She could feel his erection pressing against her once more, the sensation all the more arousing with how sensitive she was from her recent climax. He grunted something unintelligible in response, reaching down to push his jeans down so there was one less barrier between them. He began grinding his hardness against her center which was a bit more than she'd planned on allowing, but in the heat of the moment she found herself unable to put up a protest, it felt so good and she craved the sensations he could give her.

April wrapped her leg around his hip, broken little moans escaping her as his pace increased, her slickness soaking both their undergarments making it easier for him to slide against her. His thick erection stimulated her sensitive clit and April had to fight herself not to plead with him to push the fabric between them aside, burning with the need to feel him inside her as well.

Axel craned his head down to lave his tongue over her arousal tightened nipple, the added sensation pushing her over the edge. April cried out louder than she meant to, quickly muffling her face in her pillow to stifle the sound as she unraveled beneath him. "Ax., Baby please don't stop... Please it feels so good, ahh!" April pleaded even though she wasn't exactly worried that he would stop, she just couldn't help the fevered words from tumbling from her lips as her orgasm swept through her from head to toe. Axel groaned against her skin, his body tensing above her as he thrust against her even faster drawing her pleasure out as long as he could.

Finally her pleasure ebbed and April slumped against her mattress, her grip on him loosening and she felt him shudder and twitch against her, figuring he must have found his own release again himself. Axel rolled off her somewhat awkwardly with his jeans still mostly restricting his legs, panting and grinning from ear to ear at her. 

Axel rolled off her with his jeans at his knees, grinning from the high they just shared. His blue eyes shifted over to her partly covered frame and he chuckled airily, making her smile and ask him just what was funny. "Nothing. Just never gotten off like that and come so hard more than once." He muttered.

April looked at him a little sorrowful and apologized for not being able to offer him more. He shook his head, quickly righting hid jeans for the moment and rolling over to meet her lips in a kiss. "I'm not saying any of that Ape. Whatever you're willing to give is just fine. I promise. I can wait." He grinned again, assuring her he wasnt upset or disappointed.

They spent the night lying together only partly dressed until the alarm she normally set to get him upand remind them he had to be home went off. He stood and yawned, gently patting April's hand to urge her to stay where she was. He bent and kissed the top of her head, then her cheek, promising he would see her at school in a few hours.

\----

It'd been a long while since Axel had any overly bad visions or nightmares if one could call them that considering most ran true. He had used April for a copping mechanism and tried to keep his focus on her but some days were harder than others. Just like any other person with an addiction it was a constant fight with himself but knowing she was waiting for him here or calling him at this time, kept him from being stupid.

At least for the most part. He slipped up about a week after nearly having full on sex with April. Then again every day after that for almost a week. She never knew or at least he thought she didn't considering she usually called him out on that sort of thing. He had meant to quick again after one particularly bad incident where he actually woke up with the sheet wrapped tight around his own neck in bed. But he couldn't manage it. It felt to good to be back and relaxed each evening.

He had a system where he'd clean up before he went to April's each evening and it worked out just fine. Smoke at the right time and she'd never figure it out. Today was different, weed didn't feel as strong as it used to and maybe that was because he couldn't afford anything good so when a buddy of his offered a feel good remedy... Axel accepted.

He glanced in his hand at the tiny blue pills, they were ecstasy from what he gathered, pushing them around with his thumb against his palm. He had already smoked the weed he had left, his eyes still blood shot but already he could feel himself coming down and he didn't want to quite yet. He sighed and patted Obi's head on the floor beside him.

"What cha think Obe?" Ax asked his companion who was high as well from having been around the smoke like he had. The pup heaved a sigh, "Me too." Ax said, tossing the two pills into his mouth and swallowing them down dry. He laid out with his legs sprawled on the floor and his back propped against the side of his bed. He was glad everyone else was asleep, ready to join them as his eyes fluttered closed.

He felt like he'd crashed for hours, his phone buzzing waking him up and he had a text from April letting him know it was lights out but she'd still be up. Axel shot upright suddenly, feeling wired and he frantically rubbed his eyes causing circles and spots to appear. "Obi lets go bud." He roused his dog but he seemed keen on sleep. Ax waved him off and got up, grabbing his phone and keys and taking off like he always would. He didn't feel his high fading out in fact he felt good. Damn good, like he could do just about anything right now.

The blonde drove to April's but when he got there... he didnt even remember having taken his car, parking down the street apparently and going up to her window. His mind flashed to those shorts she'd wear for him, unable to maintain his focus as he noisily tore off her screen. April came to the window asking him what he was doing and telling him to be quiet. His heart raced, eyes darting back and forth rapidly before he reached out and grabbed her, kissing her hungry and deep from the very start. 

April sent off her text to her boyfriend, smiling at the contact picture she set for him of the two of them sitting together with Obi between them. Things had been going really well for them lately and she was really proud of Axel for how he'd been able to maintain his streak of not getting high. There were a couple times the last few days that she'd gotten a little suspicious, but he assured her that he wasn't smoking and she trusted him completely.

Soon enough April heard the telltale sounds of Axel fidgeting with her window screen, wincing a bit when he removed it far more loudly than usual. She sprang up off her bed where she'd been keeping busy making notes on some sheet music and rushing to her window.

"Ax, what are you doing? Keep it down would'ya?" April chided though she was still smiling, happy to see him even if for some reason he seemed to forget the need for discretion tonight. She pushed her window open far enough to allow him entrance, but even before climbing inside Axel grabbed her and yanked her halfway out the window, sealing their lips together in a ravenous kiss. April jolted at the unexpected contact, her heart pounding in her chest at the thrill of his onslaught but at the same time her body began to tense with worry. She couldn't taste or smell weed on him, but something was definitely different about him right now.

They broke apart gasping for breath and April took a hurried step back so Axel could climb into her room, he stumbled a bit getting in and grabbed onto her to keep from falling, almost bringing them both to the floor. The tall blond laughed and April's stomach clenched at how carelessly he was acting.

"Axel! What's the matter with you? My parents will hear!" April hissed, reaching up to grip his chin so she could get a good look at his face in the soft light of her room. Again she confirmed that his eyes weren't bloodshot, but... His pupils did seem blown wide but that might've just been from how passionately he'd just kissed her. She was getting more confused and anxious by the second, if he wasn't high from smoking... Did that mean he was on something else right now? She didn't want to believe that, not when he'd been doing so well lately, when they'd been doing so well.

He giggled again and cupped her face, telling her how hot she was and that he'd been thinking about her nonstop. Axel pressed his mouth to hers again, kissing her hard and deep and April's heart raced with an unsettling mixture of want and fear. She tried to push him back but he was far stronger than her and so she turned her head sharply to break the kiss still held tight in his grip. 

"Axel please, what's gotten into you tonight?" April asked breathlessly, trying again to push at his chest but he walked them back to her bed and practically fell atop her on it, his mouth finding her throat. She could feel his arousal pressing against her and she wriggled and bucked trying to get him off of her but that only seemed to excite him further. "Ax- Axel slow down baby, I wanna talk to you for a sec." April pleaded, trying to stay calm but it was difficult with him holding her down how he was.

Her boyfriend groaned with want, telling her they could talk later, right now he wanted her too badly. Axel kept kissing at her throat, one hand keeping her wrist pinned to the bed by her head and the other yanking her soft yoga pants and panties down exposing her to him. He told her to relax, fumbling with the zipper of his own jeans and April let out a soft fearful cry, tears streaming down the sides of her face as she struggled against his grip.

"Axel! Axel stop! No!" April cried louder, still hoping to avoid waking her parents but he had more than crossed the line by now and she was genuinely afraid he wasn't going to take no for an answer. She shoved harder at him and with one hand working on his jeans she was finally able to get him off of her, falling off her bed in her frantic effort to get away from him. She tugged her clothing back into place as best she could, crying brokenly and shrinking back from him when he bent down nearer to her.

"Get away from me! Get out!" She yelled, past caring being overheard she just wanted him to leave her alone.

Axel’s actions and advances didn’t even register in his clouded mind, to consumed with the want he was feeling for April. He had waited long enough hadn’t he? “Relax baby… I’ll be gentle I swear.” He growled out, pinning her wrist down harder with his hand and quickly fumbling with the zipper and button of his jeans, getting the first layer down and away from his body so he could get to her. His hand was shaky but not from nerves this time, from the adrenaline he could feel pumping in his system.

He was too busy with his pants to even realize that suddenly he was on his side and nearly crashed into the wall, April fallen on the floor and he couldn’t remember if he pushed her or she pushed him. His darkened eyes tracked over her as she pulled her bottoms up and right again. He fiddled with his own, barely managing to get them buttoned and knelt on the floor beside her, or he started to, wincing as she screamed at him to get out. His hand shot out angrily, pressing over her lips and his jaw clenched. “Shut up. All I wanna do is fuck you and you’re makin’ me seem like a bad guy here. What are you like the only girl who doesn’t put out?” He snapped lowly, hearing her whimper in fear of him.

He snatched his hand away and she sobbed quietly, seeming afraid to make another sound. He simply knelt there for a moment or two, losing track of what he was doing until she told him he had to leave her. “What?” Ax’s ears were ringing and he shakily brushed a hand over his face. “Ape come on. I was just messin’ with you. You called me over.” He accused as if this was all her fault though he couldn’t really remember what they were arguing about. His tone got gentle again at least, shooting up from his seat and nearly tipping back over but he caught himself on her mattress.

The blond paced the floor in semi circles, hearing April asking what he had taken or smoked. “I don’t do that! Stop—Stop accusing me! You don’t get it!” He snapped, slowly making his way to the window without even realizing. “Maybe I just feel good. Maybe I’m just tired of waiting for you. I’ll find somebody else is that what you want?” He asked, only faintly seeing her get up and start to urge him out the window. She asked him to put the screen back which he did, all the while muttering to himself.

Axel paced her yard, yelling at her and then no one in particular about the things he had seen, what he felt, his whole body starting to shake from the effort, damp with a coat of sweat. He walked, forgetting all about his truck and his girl and making his way to the golf course towards the center of her community where again he paced. He wasn’t even sure how long he had been out but soon enough he heard his name. He recognized the voice to be that of his brother, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!... Don’t shoot…” He repeated, laughing and then taking off running through a fit of giggles.

Heavy foot falls came after him but he must not have been going as fast as he thought, wincing when he hit the rough around the edge of the green. “Ow! God you’re fuckin’ fast.” He mumbled with his cheek in the ground. “I’m friendly officer I swear. I swear! My girl says I’m too friendly. I was gonna show ‘er. She kicked me out, can you believe that? I think she stole my car.” He continued, his heart racing and he laughed again when the man above him twisted his arm behind his back and forced him to stand.

He knew it was Carson or he did but he’d forgotten in a heartbeat, glancing over his shoulder. “Carson. ‘Ey brotha! Now it’s a party. Have you seen my truck? April kicked me out. Where the fuck are you takin’ me?” Axel kept on as they started walking without him even noticing. He pulled away, fighting the man’s hold and managing to free himself only for a second, taking off running just to have his knee knocked out from under him and he ate it into the grass again. “God! Why are you so mean to me, Car?! I’m your brother you asshat! You’re so quiet. Don’t you got anything to say about your fuck up brother? Did you tell mom and dad? I’m clean dude I swear.”

April collapsed back to the floor by her window after Axel replaced her screen and stormed off. She sat for a few moments simply shaking and crying, torn between feeling hurt and afraid and a nagging sense of responsibility that reminded her if Axel was this far gone on whatever he had taken, it wasn't safe for him to be driving himself home. She could still hear him ranting nonsensically in her yard as though he had completely forgotten or just didn't care that he was in danger of being overheard by her parents.

April crawled over on her hands and knees to her nightstand, reaching up and grabbing her phone off it not wanting to even get in view of the window right now in case seeing her sparked Axel wanting to get back into her room and she couldn't face him right now. She contacted the only person she felt she could trust with this, Axel's big brother Carson. She tried to send him a text at first but her hands were shaking too much and she decided to just call instead, if he was asleep a call would have more chance or waking him anyway.

The phone rang several times and April's heart sank, maybe Carson turned off his phone at night or at least put it on silent, she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't get a hold of him. Finally the other line picked up and a groggy male voice sounded on the other end. April took a deep breath trying to speak as calmly as possible but still her voice was wobbly and thin with emotion.

"Carson? I-it's April. I'm sorry to be calling so late, but..." April stammered, bursting into tears again and the elder Black sibling hushed her, telling her it was fine and to take it slow asking her if something was wrong. "It's Axel, he- He came over tonight and I think he's on something pretty strong." She explained, not wanting to go into exactly what the blond had done or tried to do but Carson pressed her for more information, asking first if either of them were hurt and if his brother was still with her.

His question made her realize that she could no longer hear Axel ranting and laughing right outside her window and April shot up off the floor, hurrying to her window and peering out of it. "We're both okay, he just got kind of well... Persistent and so I had to make him leave. He was in the yard but I don't see him now, oh God Carson he really shouldn't be driving, do you think you can come find him please? I... I really can't be around him right now." April sobbed, worry making her want to go after Axel but fear and hurt overwhelming that impulse.

Carson haphazardly yanked some jeans on as he spoke to April, not liking the upset tone of her voice or the way she was avoiding going into detail about Axel's behavior. He jogged over to his younger brother's room and took a cursory glance, checking all the blond's typical hiding places and finding a few scattered blue pills where he usually hid his weed. Anger flared up in Carson gut but he kept his voice quiet and kind as he spoke to the distressed girl on the other end of the line.

"Don't worry April, everything's gonna be fine. I'll find him, just stay inside and try to stay calm. Are you sure you're not... Hurt?" Carson asked a final time, remembering Axel talking about how he and his girlfriend didn't have sex awhile ago and hoping she'd tell him if Axel had done anything he shouldn't have. He didn't want to believe his younger brother was capable of something like that, but if he was out of his mind on pills there was no telling what he might do. April insisted that she managed to get him to leave before anything happened, but urged him to hurry and find him just the same. "I'll be there as fast as I can. Thank you for calling me April." Carson finished, hanging up with her and slipping out quietly. He sped like a bat out of hell down to April's neighborhood, his jaw tight and grip tense on the wheel the whole way there.

He was marginally relieved to come across Axel's truck parked a good distance away from April's house, at least he wasn't driving but there was no way of knowing where he'd wandered off to if he wasn't in April's yard anymore. Fortunately Carson had started working with his father learning tracking skills since he was a young boy, so he was fairly confident that he'd easily pick up his brother's trail even in the dark especially since he knew in his current state Axel wouldn't exactly be taking pains not to be found.

Carson hopped the fence into April's yard, wanting to see the girl for himself but feeling like tracking his sibling down was a higher priority if the girl wasn't hurt. April saw him through her window and waved timidly but made no move to open her window or wave him over, so he just got straight to work. He shined his flashlight around the grass, picking up Axel's trail almost immediately and following it out to a well manicured golf course in the center of the upscale neighborhood. 

Sure enough, there was Axel down near the putting green, stumbling back and forth in aimless lines and carrying on a disjointed conversation with no one in particular. "Axel!" Carson shouted, taking off at a dead run towards his brother and easily overtaking him. The brothers were a fairly even match in speed but it was a simple matter to catch the blond in his current state. Carson's anger caused him to use a little more force than necessary when he checked his brother hard to stop him, sending the younger man sprawling face down in the grass.

Axel was babbling incoherently about April and his truck but Carson disregarded anything he had to say in the moment, wrenching his brother's arm behind his back and dragging him to his feet. The blond rambled on, flailing and squirming just enough to break free of Carson's grasp momentarily but a well aimed kick to the back of his knee had him down once more. The elder Black sibling gritted his teeth to keep from screaming at Axel as the blond insisted he wasn't on anything, talking nonsense and repeating himself over and over as Carson half walked and half dragged him over to the small greenskeeping shed on the course.

Carson ignored Axel's questioning of what he was doing when they came to a stop next to the small out building, simply sweeping the blond's legs out from under him and going to unravel a length of the hose connected to the building and turning it on full blast. Axel lay prone on his back, giggling and going on about how April had sent him away for wanting to get his rocks off and Carson couldn't help the small growl that escaped his clenched teeth. He knew when Axel was in his right mind he'd never lift a finger to harm or frighten his girlfriend, and that made his behavior right now all the more appalling in the older boy's eyes.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Carson questioned harshly, so angry he wasn't even yelling, using that energy to hold himself back from beating the shit out of his sibling. He aimed the spray nozzle at his brother and opened up on him, spraying him full on in the face and over his torso with high pressured freezing cold water. Axel yelped and sputtered, struggling to avoid the jet of water assaulting him but he was too stoned to even sit up properly let alone stand. Carson killed the water and gave his brother a second to catch his breath, hoping the shock of the cold might sober him up a bit.

"April called me sobbing to come find you. She had every right to call the cops. She had every right to just let you try to get your high ass home. But no. Even after the shit you pulled tonight, she was actually worriedabout you. Where the hell do you get off making a sweet girl like that afraid for her safety? Afraid of you?" Carson berated Axel sharply, spraying him again with the frigid hose water till the younger boy was floundering for air again. 

“She kicked me out! She kicked me out ‘cuz I wanted to fuck around with her. Been like a year of this shit right?! I’m done…. Done.” The blonde repeated himself over and over again until Carson spoke up and asked him something he couldn’t really grasp, his wide eyes darting up to his brother only to be hosed in the face all the sudden.

Axel sputtered as Carson shot him in the face with the hose, making breathing far more difficult than before. He couldn’t react much, spitting out whatever gathered in his mouth and nose and shaking his head but to little affect to keep out of the cold spray. The cold was almost a complete shock to his system, shaking suddenly though he still felt hot internally. He spat again, snot starting to drip from his nose and he felt like he was drowning all the while his older brother was screaming at him.

The cool against his hot frame woke him up if only just a bit, how much of this he would remember tomorrow he couldn’t say. He was coherent enough to understand that he had done something wrong, either that or Carson really did hate him as much as he thought the man did. He opened his mouth to defend himself when he was sprayed yet again, choking and gasping for air only to inhale water. He fidgeted and fought, his hand trying to cover his face but he fell over onto his back, kicking his legs until Carson let up with the hose. “Do it! Drown me! Is that what you want? That’s what you’re gonna do? Do it!!” He screamed.

“I don’t fuckin’ care. I don’t care…” Ax chanted lowly, sucking in a breath of air and lying back completely, his eyes welling with tears. “Stupid. That was so stupid. She hates me. What’d I do to her?” He rattled off, talking to himself again and forgetting about Carson standing down by his feet. He felt his ankle being grabbed and suddenly his older brother yanked him forward so he could hunch over his face, informing him they were going home.

“Make me you asshole. What was it Mom said… Oh yeah, the ‘golden boy’. C’mon Saint Carson, take me home, be the hero.” Axel was back to giggling, lying with his arms up for Carson to pick him up as if he actually might. The older Black sibling slapped at his arms, making him react and try to kick Carson wherever he could reach but then the man gripped his leg and twisted it, using his free hand to hose Axel down a final time. “Fuck you! Get off me!” Ax flailed and kicked and rolled out from his grasp, taking off running when he scrambled to his feet.

He didn’t know where he was going, he was just done being here and when he got to the street he made an error, coming around to the side of Carson’s car and just as he did his body was slammed into the door with such force in his state, Ax thought he actually had just been caught between two cars. Carson reached around him and grasped the handle of the back seat, pinning the younger of the two until he managed it open and forced him in through the door. Axel flopped in the seat, moving his feet so the door could close and he watched Carson travel around to the front seat and open the door, locking him in before he could even sit up.

Axel was jittery the whole time, jumping between simply wiggling his leg to trying to get out of the car, fighting the lock and kicking at the window to whining to Carson about April and his truck. “Where are we going?” He mumbled, wriggling in his brother’s grasp when they got out of the car and he started walking him into their house. “Your hands feel so weird. What kinda lotion do you use? God you’re hairy.” He mumbled until they reached the gym, far enough away from their parents so that Axel’s outbursts wouldn’t be heard.

“Are you gonna beat me up? I didn’t do anything.” Ax insisted for likely the hundredth time. Carson grabbed him and argued that he look at him and say that he wasn’t at fault here. The blond’s blue eyes darted back and forth trying to focus on Carson’s face close to his own, his pupils blown wide and he fidgeted. “I can’t. I can’t, I can’t I can’t… Let me go.” He shook his head vigorously, pushing away from him and starting to pace again. Carson guided him to the speed bag and in a firm tone he told him to work it out on the bag until he could start talking sanely so he did, beating it with his fists until he was drenched in sweat and nearly passing out.

Carson fought to rein in his anger the whole ride home, trying to just ignore everything the tall blond was rambling on about and reminding himself over and over that he wasn't thinking or speaking coherently right now so it wouldn't do any good to react to whatever Axel might be saying. They arrived a little past dawn back at the bunker and Carson sighed deeply as he climbed out of his car, wincing at the way his younger brother was squirming in his backseat, opening and closing his mouth looking for all the world like a fish out of water and the soaked clothes and hair didn't exactly help with that imagery.

Carson hauled Axel out of the car and led him down thru the lower level of the bunker to the gym where he knew they wouldn't risk waking their parents. Axel insisted yet again that he hadn't done anything wrong and Carson's control slipped, he turned on the younger boy and got right in his face.

"Oh yeah?! Look me in the eye and say you're not at fault here. Say it!" He barked, his grip on Axel's jaw tightening dangerously. He had half a mind to abandon his thankless cause of carefully running interference with his parents for his brother, but when he searched his brother's face and saw the stark fear and dejection in his eyes through the haze, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Carson sighed and released his hold on the blond, watching for a moment as Axel paced aimlessly babbling to himself in an anxious tone as he tried to decide what to do.

Finally he opted for the sweat it out approach, guiding his brother to the speed bag and positioning him in front of it. "Here. Just work it out on the bag till your head's on straight again. I'll be right here when you're ready to talk. To really talk." Carson instructed, leaving Axel to assault the bag. The elder Black sibling sent a quick text to April, apologizing for tonight and assuring her that he'd gotten Ax home safe. She simply responded "Thank you. I hope he's all right." 

Carson's expression saddened when he read her response that said little but spoke volumes to the kind of girl April was. He decided to work out his own frustrations, putting his body through his already vigorous workout regime double time while he waited for his brother to sober up. The pair worked out for the better part of two hours, Axel staying where he was planted at the speed bag while Carson moved around to various pieces of equipment and ran on the treadmill full tilt for close to thirty minutes.

The elder brother was staring straight ahead at the wall as he ran on the recycling track, sweat dripping from his muscular body. He couldn't hear Axel's approach over the pounding of his own feet on the treadmill but he sensed the younger man's presence beside him and slowed the speed on the machine down to a cool down pace so he could hear him over the equipment droning on.

"So. How much do you remember?" Carson ventured when his brother didn't speak up right away, still looking ahead hoping that he wasn't going to have to fight for information out of Axel.

Axel worked out his frustrations on the punching bag in front of him until he was so worn out he nearly made himself sick. His heart was still racing but he finally stopped and sat down for a moment but Carson didn’t even notice him at all anymore. His mind was still cloudy but he definitely was more aware and realized now that he really had fucked up.

He pushed himself up, his mouth was dry and he was borderline dehydrated. His body dripped sweat on the concrete floor, walking the short distance to watch Carson but he couldn’t bring himself to ask what they were doing down here, what he had done and why Carson wouldn’t even look at him. It must have been bad then.

He shook his head when Carson spoke up and asked him what he remembered, he couldn’t give an answer because he really didn’t have one. The elder brother repeated the question more sternly, making Axel wince at the venom he could sense in his tone. “Not a whole lot. I remember taking some stuff and going to see April. It’s pretty foggy from there.” He mumbled, sensing that his sorrow for himself only was making his brother angrier.

The dark haired male flipped off his machine and slowed to a stop, getting off and looking at him. “I kinda remember you bringing me home but not really getting down here. I was pretty messed up huh?” He half laughed, trying to lighten the mood but that clearly only made it worse when Carson asked if he remembered actually getting to April’s. “No. I don’t even remember getting in my truck or anything, Car. I just know I was texting her before and then I had a message saying her window was open so I could come by if I felt like it. I said good bye to Obi I think and then I left.”

Carson stood stock-still as he listened to Axel's explanation, the anger and frustration swirling in him threatening to blot out rational thought. He had never been this angry with his brother before. Never felt so powerless to make things right. A cynical voice in the back of his head urged him to think that Axel was just lying about not remembering, wanting to avoid responsibility for his actions but he couldn't just give in to that until he was certain his brother truly didn't remember what he'd done. April had insisted nothing had actually happened, but that didn't mean Axel hadn't run right up to the line and teetered there.

"Think harder. It's important that you own up to what you did before you can make anything right Axel." Carson responded in cold tone, his fists clenching at his sides when the younger man got defensive, insisting that he couldn't remember anything, drawing the conclusion that if he couldn't remember doing anything bad, nothing too bad must have happened or it would stand out in his memory.

Carson had always been the more calm and even tempered of the two brothers even as a young boy, but hearing Axel trying to diminish the seriousness of what he'd done like that made him see red for an instant. He let fly with all his force, landing a right hook on Axel's jaw so hard he stumbled forward a step or two from the follow through. Axel hit the floor hard, groaning in pain and cursing as he spat out a bloody tooth into his hand.

Carson crouched over his brother and gripped him by his sweat soaked shirt, dragging him up off the floor just enough to keep him from being able to brace on the ground and get free. "Stop it. Just stop. For once in your life, cut the fuckin' bullshit. Maybe you really don't remember what you did, but that makes it worse, not better. It means you could have done anything to that sweet, innocent girl who cared enough about you to call me out to get you rather than let your sorry ass get killed in a car wreck." Carson swallowed hard trying to keep a lid on his emotions but it was getting difficult with how upset he was. Axel haltingly asked what April had told him he'd done, the fear in his eyes showing that he didn't want to hear the answer but knowing he had no choice.

"I couldn't get much out of her, but apparently you almost forced her to have sex with you. What the hell is wrong with you, man? Why did you take that shit and then go to her place? You know better than that. Youare better than that, and now look at where you've ended up. What you almost did! This shit is gonna ruin your life, man!" Carson yelled in his brother's face, his voice cracking as tears of frustration with his brother brimmed in his dark lashes. 

Axel stumbled back from the force of Carson’s right hook, falling to the ground with a hard ‘thud’. He coughed and winced at the dull throbbing pain in his jaw. He cursed, pressing a hand to his face and looking up at his brother when he came to hover over him, gripping his shirt. They had fought before but never to the extent that Carson just rammed him with, to the point that Ax had tears welling in his eyes partly out of hurt and partly out of anger but the latter more towards himself.

His breathing was heavy and he stared with his hands up between them, trying to surrender to his older brother which was a new thing for him. “Carson I wasn’t thinking! It wasn’t that bad I mean I just—“ He started but he could see the hurt in his brother’s face, the tears about to spill over in his large eyes. Ax fidgeted and shook his head at him when he claimed he almost forced April into sleeping with him. “No. No I didn’t. I’d never do that!” He snapped at him, pushing at the other man’s chest to get him off him.

Carson hardly budged, shoving his hand in Axel’s face to get him to lie out on the ground and keep him from fighting. “Get off me!!” He screamed at his brother, his own voice breaking with emotion the fight he put up only urging Carson to smack him again. At least this one was far gentler and Axel gripped his older brother’s shirt, tears falling from his eyes. The harder he thought the more details of the evening came back to him, flashes of him forcing April down flooded his mind and broke him completely. “Please. Please let me go. Carson, please.” He begged uncharacteristic of his usual nature to fight back.

He had given up on most everything almost completely, including himself. “I didn’t do it right? Carson did she tell you? Did I actually… Did I make her have sex with me?” He asked, his voice wavering at the thought that he might have gotten far enough. He felt the weight of his sibling leave his chest and abdomen but he still felt heavy, lying on the hard ground and taking shaky breaths. “How could I do that to her?!” He yelled at himself, pressing his fists over his eyes and falling apart. “I’m fucked up. I can’t do it, Car. I can’t. I thought I’d be okay… I thought it’d all be okay.” He babbled.

Carson could see he no longer had to pin Axel down to make him stay put. rocking back on his heels and sitting down heavily on the concrete floor at his brother's feet. He drew his knees up and propped his elbows on them, running his hands through his sweaty dark hair and waiting a few moments to speak while Axel cried out his frustrations.

"I'm not exactly sure. I don't think so though. April's tougher than she looks but I don't think she could've kept it together as well as she did on the phone if you... If things had escalated that far." Carson muttered, his clear blue eyes fixed on his brother's face that was mostly hidden by his hands covering it. The blond cursed a few more times, idly swaying back and forth on the floor and alternating scrubbing at his teary eyes and pounding the floor at his sides with his fists.

They stayed like that for a long while, the only sounds coming from Axel as he tried to suppress his sobs. Carson finally checked his watch, forcing himself to get up and get back into 'big brother' mode. He brushed his hands on his pants and reached out his hand to help Ax up, hauling his younger sibling up and steadying him when he swayed a bit, likely from a mixture of his adrenaline crash and sweating himself into dehydration the past couple hours.

"Dad's alarm will be going off soon. We need to ice your jaw it's already starting to swell. C'mon." Carson prompted, pressing his hand between Axel's shoulder blades to guide him up out of the gym. The blond didn't even have the gumption left to complain about being directed where to go and told what to do, simply going along with it.

The boys made it up to the kitchen and Carson sat Axel down, filling a large glass with ice and blue gatorade. He handed the cup to Axel then turned back to the freezer and rummaged till he found a bag of frozen berries. "Here. Hold that on your face, drink all of that down I'm gonna go get you some aspirin." Carson instructed, leaving the kitchen momentarily and returning with a few small white pills in his hand. 

He set the pills down by Axel's drink that he was pleased to see was already half-drained and took the chair next to his brother, polishing off what was left in the gatorade bottle himself. "C'mon, drink it all I'm serious. We need to get you hydrated again." He prodded waiting till Axel dutifully drank the last of the blue liquid and getting up to fill the glass with water again, handing it back.

"So what then, early morning workout, I called you an asshole, you called me a pussy and I got a good shot in? That sound all right to you?" Carson asked in reference to what they'd tell their parents when the inevitable questioning of Axel's injury began. The blond nodded absently but his thoughts were clearly not on the topic. They sat quiet for several more minutes.

"Don't just sit there stewing dude. Think. You can't change what happened, so what are you gonna do now?" Carson urged, trying to break his brother from the downward thoughts he could practically see scrolling across the younger boy's puffy red-rimmed eyes.

Axel could feel the space where his tooth was no longer there but he hardly cared about that right now. His mouth finally stopped bubbling up with blood but the throbbing pain still hadn’t quite subsided just yet. He said nothing in response to Carson’s questioning, simply nodded since he was all too consumed with his own thoughts to really even care right now. He just tried to rape his girlfriend not even but six hours or so ago or rather the amazing girl who used to be his girlfriend since he doubted she would take him back after that.

“I don’t know.” He muttered at his brother’s next question, being serious when he said that. He finally looked up at the other and he could see the anger still buried deep inside of the man beside him. “I just tried to rape my fuckin’ girlfriend while high on Ecstasy… Kinda hard to think about anything other than that right now.” He grumbled, his eyes starting to water again while Carson asked for confirmation that, that was what he took. “Yeah. Like 300 milligrams…” He answered, hanging his head.

He picked at the label around his drink, avoiding Carson’s gaze for now though he could feel him trying to burn him alive with his eyes. The elder sibling asked where he got them and Ax glared up at him, “Look that’s really beside the point don’t cha think? What are you gonna do knock out my drug dealer’s teeth too?” He snapped at him, getting annoyed with the way he was looking down on him like he always did every time Axel screwed up. “I’m gonna apologize to April if she’ll even let me close enough to do so. I need help Carson, I know that. You can stop looking at me like I’m some insane person or something. God you two think it’s all just easy, toss it aside and forget it all. It’s not. Not for me.” He stated, his eyes flickering over to the entrance of the kitchen.

Parker wandered in first, followed closely behind was their mother, Mari grasping the tall man’s hand. She gasped at the sight before her, starting forward to her youngest which even if he wasn’t in worse condition probably would have happened anyways. Parker was already staring them both down while Mari fawned over Ax’s face, pulling the cool bag away from his face. “Oh my God Ax…. What happened to you?!” She murmured worriedly, her gentle blue eyes darting over his whole form trying to decide where to start.

Axel pushed at her hands that started grasping at his face, knowing she wanted to do what she was best at and heal him. “Mom I’m fine. I opened my mouth too early in the mornin’ and got my ass handed to me by Carson.” He grumbled, trying to sound annoyed like he might normally without getting the boy in a whole mess of trouble. “Mom. Mom stop… yanking on me doesn’t make it feel any better.” He pulled away from her hold.

“Carson Samuel, you know you’re supposed to take it easy on him. I swear you guys are all or nothing. You’re not supposed to—“ Mari started up her lecture, stopping when she saw Axel running his tongue over the empty space in his mouth. Her hands shot out and she grabbed his face instantly, “You knocked his tooth out?! What the hell is wrong with you two?”

“Ow! Mom it’s not a big deal. He didn’t even hit me that hard, just happened to get me just right that he took it out.” Ax insisted, raising a hand when Parker stepped over to inspect him as well. “Dad it’s fine. I asked him to fight me, I wanted to beat him, show him I’d gotten better and I got too cocky.” He hurriedly tried to explain away his injuries, his eyes welling up as he thought about what the truth was. “Look I just wanna go shower and lie down a bit.”

Carson was about to open his mouth to counter what Axel had said about he and April dismissing his problems as easy to handle, but he didn't get the chance because that was the moment their parents joined them in the kitchen and all that talk had to be stowed for now. He automatically sat up straighter when his father Parker entered the room, watching with a carefully veiled expression as their mother fawned over Axel's injured face.

The elder sibling cringed internally when Mari discovered Axel's missing tooth, his blue eyes immediately tracking his father's expression but Parker's features remained neutral as he gently gripped his younger son's jaw and tilted his head up to get a better look at the void where a tooth had once been. Parker offhandedly asked his wife if she thought she could create a replacement tooth with her power or if they'd need to take him to the dentist, and she responded that she felt at least fairly confident she could make Ax whole again.

Parker stepped back and looked to Carson, his expression darkening and the younger boy tensed, knowing what was coming. "What the hell did you think you were doing, losing control like that? If you can't keep yourself in check what makes you think Axel's gonna be able to? You're supposed to watch out for your brother, be an example to him, not take apart his face. I don't care if he baited you, you know why things are harder for Ax. It's your job to help him. I don't think I'm asking too much from you to act right and exercise some fucking self-control, am I?" Parker asked in a stern tone of voice, staring coldly into Carson's eyes until the younger man was forced to look away first.

"No sir. It won't happen again." Carson answered in a quiet, even tone. He caught Axel's teary gaze and the younger boy looked away with guilt in his face, mumbling again that he needed to go to bed and gently pushing his mother back when she tried to make him stay and be healed. He told her she could fix him up later, right now he just wanted to be alone.

They all watched Axel leave and just as the tall blond turned the corner Parker shot another disappointed look at his older son. "You know better Carson. I expect more from you." Mari spoke her husband's name, suggesting gently that he'd chastised their son enough for the incident. Carson stood and hurried out of the kitchen himself, brushing past Axel on his way to his room who was taking a much slower pace with his sore head and tired body. The blond tried to grab his attention as he walked by but Carson was too angry with the situation to acknowledge it, slamming his door as he retreated into his room to hurry through getting ready for school despite getting no sleep the night prior.

\---  
April didn't see or hear from Axel for three days after the incident between them and she was torn between being upset and relieved about it. Carson had checked on her the following morning, texting her and finding her at school to make sure she was all right and assuring her once more that he'd gotten Ax home in one piece and that at least in the older boy's eyes Axel was torn up by what had happened.

The petite blonde went to her locker after lunch to collect her books for her last classes of the day, awkwardly bracing her violin case in one arm and trying to pile up the other with notebooks and textbooks alike. Axel had gotten into the habit of carrying either her books or her instrument for her, and it was yet another little reminder of the void in her life not having him around. 

She felt a pang of guilt for not trying to call or visit him since the incident the other night, but the hurt he had caused outweighed it by just enough that April had unconsciously decided to simply wait and see what he would do first. April wasn't sure what she was more afraid of, Axel simply giving up on what they had and never approaching her to apologize, or him actually taking the step to reach out and mend things, forcing her to choose if she wanted to try and trust him again or not. She never imagined that she would be in this kind of situation, and it frightened her terribly.

April was hardly paying attention to what she was doing as she shuffled her school things, her mind so focused on her and Axel and what had happened. She tried to shut her locker with her elbow and dropped her prized violin in the process, a little yelp of distress escaping her as she realized she wouldn't be able to save it from crashing to the floor. Quicker than thought an arm shot out around her open locker door, slamming it shut and grasping the black case before it could hit the ground. She hadn't even noticed Axel had arrived beside her, and she made a similar noise of surprise when their eyes met and she realized who had just saved her beloved instrument.

"A-Ax! You're here." April stammered apprehensively, at a loss for what else to say. He said nothing at first, holding out her violin to her. April muttered a timid thank you as she reached out for it, flinching involuntarily when his hand brushed hers as he handed the case over. She didn't miss the way his face fell at her response to his touch, but April couldn't bring herself to look at him in the eye directly much less say anything more in the moment.

Axel struggled with staying away from April while he was ‘healing’ or whatever it was he was doing. Moping was what Carson called it from time to time, making a point to remind him that he did all this of his own accord. He spent a little time out of school with the help of his mom writing him notes and making calls so he didn’t have to attend. She didn’t really question the reason he didn’t want to leave the house, seeming to think he was just depressed over all so she let it go for a couple of days.

On the third day Ax finally worked up something along the lines of courage, going to school but he missed all his morning classes just like the old days he supposed. He saw April a few times in the hall, in fact he may have been seen as creepy for the way that he was watching her every chance he got. He wanted desperately to work up the courage to talk to her, even if it was only to say hello or tell her he was sorry. He couldn’t even muster that much up without fearing he would scare her off completely.

That afternoon when he saw her struggling with her things he wandered over just in time, catching her violin case before it could crash to the ground in the same moment he slapped her locker closed. Ax’s eyes met hers but only for a brief second before he chickened out and broke their contact, quietly handing over the case for her to take. Their fingers brushed over one another’s as she grasped the handle and he didn’t miss the flinch the contact evoked from her.

He pulled his hand away instantly and he couldn’t help but feel that same guilt he felt the first hour or two when he was coming to. He reminded himself of the pain he caused her, in some ways he wanted to ask just what he had done, how far he got, if he had hurt her in any fashion outside of just emotionally. “Just to turn in my uniform.” He finally spoke up, hanging his head when he lifted his opposite hand that held his jumpsuit for wrestling. “Not even sure they reuse them but I guess coach was going off of it by principal or whatever.”

April asked him what he meant and he shrugged, “They found stuff in my locker yesterday. Coach was gonna clean it out since I hadn’t been to practice in a while or I don’t… I don’t know. Lost my spot now though so.” He mumbled, “Your brother’s gonna be happy to be captain now. Probably a better influence anyways. If he… heard anything from the other night then I imagine he’s gonna let the team know so probably for the best, y’know?”

Axel didn’t know why he was telling her all of this, “Just lucky they didn’t expel me for possession.” He muttered, seeing the tears in her eyes the longer that he spoke and it only push his own orbs to well up to see her affected by him in such a way. He knew that fear, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand now and blinking rapidly to try and clear them away. “Okay then.” He said awkwardly, moving around her and heading down the hall without finding his voice enough to tell her he was sorry, not that she had reason to believe that anyhow.

April's heart sank when she saw the raw hurt in Axel's eyes as he spoke to her, her own fear and pain put on the back burner momentarily when she saw how clearly upset he was about being kicked off the wrestling team. All the friends he'd made were through the sport, and he'd been a real leader to the rest of them that her brother likely wouldn't be able to completely replace despite what Ax said to the contrary.

She wanted to comfort him, reassure him that things could still get better from here. But even the small simple act of reaching out to touch his arm or speak a kind word was still beyond her with the very fresh wounds of what he'd almost forced her to do in his drugged state weighing on her. April swallowed hard on the lump burning her throat and gripped her books tighter trying to stay composed but tears ran down her cheeks just the same.

They stood in awkward silence for a moment till Axel finally excused himself, stepping around her in the crowded hallway careful not to touch her again and that only made her heart hurt more knowing that he realized he had to tiptoe around her. What they had been to each other, what they'd shared was so horribly damaged now and April couldn't even say if she thought it was fixable or not.

Axel hurried away disappearing into the sea of students and April broke down completely, sobbing quietly with her back facing the hall and her forehead tipped against the cold metal of her locker door.

\---  
Carson rummaged through his toolbox for some tape for the cut he'd just gotten on the side of his hand, wincing as he wrapped the wound tight so he could continue working on his motorcycle without leaving a mess of blood on everything. The young man had been rebuilding his bike nearly from top to bottom and was pleased with how it was coming along, but it wasn't without it's hazards.

He heard the roar of Axel's truck coming up the long dirt drive to the bunker and straightened from his toolbox he had on the ground to watch his brother roll in. The blond hopped out and was immediately greeted by his faithful dog Obi who ran over for a momentary break from goading Carson's own lab Lucy into a game of chase.

"Ax! Hey do me a favor and come help me with this real quick." Carson called out before Ax could go inside, waving him over and pointing out the two engine components he needed held steady while he tightened some bearings. Without wrestling practice to go to after school the past two weeks Axel had taken to just driving around for a couple hours every day, not wanting their parents to find out he'd been kicked off the team. It had taken a fairly elaborate lie and Carson impersonating Parker on the phone to keep the lid on him being busted, and it had mostly just been luck that the coach cared so much about Axel that he went easy on him that had let them get away with it.

"So... What are you gonna do about April man? It's been more than two weeks and you still try to catch every glimpse of her you can, but you're not making any moves. Something's gotta give here you can't go on like this." Carson stated in a matter of fact tone. He'd tried his best not to push his brother one way or the other but he couldn't stand seeing Axel moping around and dragging his feet like this when he clearly still wanted April. And the fact that every time April saw Axel at school when Ax wasn't looking she was acting the exact same way didn't make it any easier for Carson to keep his peace on the subject.

Axel hated the weeks that went by without having anything to do, no April, no wrestling… He spent a good amount of his time driving, partly to keep his parents off his case when they usually thought he was at practice or with April and now they didn’t know about either one, his break up or the fact that he had been kicked off the team for hiding the tiniest bit of pot in his locker at the gym.

He pulled up into the driveway and parked his truck, half-heartedly greeting Obi who came bounding up to his feet for attention. He pat the dog’s head and started towards the door wanting to get inside and probably do what he usually did, go to bed or smoke and… go to bed. He bent and scratched at Lucy just as Carson called out to him before he could make it too close to the door. Ax squeezed his eyes shut and maybe today he was a little more touchy than usual for one reason or another but he sort of owed Carson for a number of things, even if it was what brother’s did for each other, cover the other’s ass.

The blond turned and said nothing, going over and holding up each piece like Carson asked of him, for the most part paying his older sibling no mind. Carson worked slower than he might normally and it was making Axel fidgety because he knew why, he knew his brother was going to ask or mention the goings on of the past couple weeks. Only just recently had he stopped riding him about the mistake he made with April and having taken Ecstasy.

He shook his head and gave a shrug to the other male in regards to his statements. Carson could obviously see that he didn’t really feel up for talking about it but there came a point when the man didn’t mind crossing the line and asking again. He spoke up, telling Ax that he could fix this if he actually tried something, or at least he could see if they would work again. The blond sighed and pulled away when they finished one part of the engine, wiping his hands on his pants and feeling put on the spot yet again. “I don’t know, Carson.” He said in an almost defeated tone, starting to pace the floor and causing Obi to follow like he often did with his owner.

“What can I do? I mean I talked to her for about two minutes telling her about the wrestling team and I wanted to apologize and tell her more and really sit down so she knew but—Carson when you touch a girl’s hand… the hand of an ex-girlfriend and she literally flinches away from you and takes a step back like you’ve just caught on fire and are about to take her with you… it’s—It’s really hard to want to do anything about the situation.” He mumbled, wincing at his own tone of voice as he recalled the incident.

Carson sighed and indicated for Axel to hold up the next part so he could lock it in place and the blond did as he was meant to while he listened to his older brother tell him about how he had caught April more than once gazing at him longingly, just as filled with want as Ax was when he watched her. Ax was a bit in disbelief but the thought also offered him hope, that she still wanted him even if they couldn’t be together quite yet she still had lingering feelings. He could earn that trust back or at least he hoped. His brother seemed to agree with that, bringing up that maybe she just needed a big enough gesture to realize that he was in it for the long haul, that he was willing to fight for her despite his slip ups.

“Like what? Buy her a pony? Write her name in the sky? Carson I’m pretty sure anything I do would just scare her off. She’s skittish and she’s likely always gonna be skittish with me.” Ax stated in a broken down tone, letting go of the part once Carson finished tightening it up for his bike. His brother shook his head and cleaned his hands on the rag he pulled off the workbench, telling him it had to be enough to just get her to talk to him, something simple that at least would make her smile and think about the good parts of their relationship.

\-----

Axel spent the next few days of the week thinking it over on what it was he might get for April so he could express all that he had talked with Carson about. By Thursday afternoon that next week he had gone to the mall with an idea in mind and it took a bit of allowance saving and pool hustling to earn enough for every piece of the puzzle so to speak. He went to the jewelry shop and bought every charm that connected them, that reminded him of her and would remind her of him, tying them all to a single bracelet and having it wrapped up special for her.

He took the gift and wrote her a note, something simple, no apology and not much context to it, it simply read:

April,

Meet me for ice cream after school for one last talk.

\--Axel

He couldn’t ask for more than that, leaving it all up to her on if she wanted this last talk. If she showed up then he knew there was still a chance between them but if she denied him this he would be heartbroken but know to leave her be. Ax popped open her locker with ease and as soon as it opened he paused, catching the scent off her jacket, the sweet smelling perfume she wore mixed with her coconut shampoo. It made his heart race alone to remember, resisting the urge to hold her cardigan close to him instead he tucked his gift atop the garment folded up and slipped the note on top for her to find easily. He pushed the door of her locker closed and now the choice was hers.

April had been wrestling with herself for days since she and Ax had sort of talked the week before, her head and heart at odds tearing her in two over if she should try and reconcile with her boyfriend or not. She supposed the fact that she still thought of him as her boyfriend and not her ex-boyfriend meant something all by itself. She certainly had to do something because all this inner conflict and worry was starting to affect her health and her studies, keeping her up all night and she'd gotten three Bs in a row on tests in different classes and even though her brother might have made fun of her for stressing over that, for her at least that was a fairly severe decline in her performance.

April opened her locker to get her jacket to go home Thursday afternoon, grabbing the neatly folded garment blindly and squeaking with shock when something fell out of it to the floor with a light clattering noise. The petite blonde bent and retrieved a beautifully wrapped box no bigger than a deck of cards along with a note that had fluttered down to the floor as well when she pulled her soft pink cardigan from the shelf.

The note was succinct, but never had so few words had so much impact on her. One last talk... Axel was trying to get one last chance with her to get back together? Or did he just want to apologize and break things off formally? Her heart flipped over in her chest, wanting it to be the former and not the latter. She inspected the box, looking around self-consciously, desperate to see the contents but feeling like it was something she'd rather open privately.

April took her things around the corner of the hallway and slipped into an empty classroom, setting her bags and books down turning over the box in her delicate fingers. She opened it quickly, her heart leaping into her throat at what was inside. It was a gleaming white gold charm bracelet, adorned with more than a dozen intricately detailed charms and every one had something to do with her or things that meant something to her and Axel as a couple: There was a violin and a music note, an ice cream cone, a little labrador, a little enamel leaf, a picnic basket, a heart and an infinity symbol among others. There was no doubt in her mind now, he didn't want to meet up to say goodbye, he wanted to take another chance on what they had.

April's insides where unraveled into butterflies and she smiled brightly even as tears welled up and ran down her cheeks. Seeing that what they'd had together meant so much to him, that she meant so much to him, made her feel that maybe they could make things work out. It would be difficult for her she knew to get back to being able to trust him again, but now she knew for sure that she wanted to give him the chance to try and earn that trust back, and be there for him in return.

April texted her brother to leave without her, telling a partial truth that she was meeting a friend for ice cream instead of going straight home. She walked the couple blocks to the ice cream shop near the high school, knowing that's where Axel meant for them to meet even if he hadn't specified. It had been one of their favorite places to go together.

She grasped at straws the whole walk over wondering what she ought to say to him and how, finally deciding that the best statement she could make that she wanted to try and start again was to simply put on the bracelet he'd gotten her. April paused to clasp the delicate item around her narrow wrist, admiring how it looked on her and taking a deep breath before crossing the last street to get to the shop. 

April caught sight of Axel at one of the more private outdoor tables farthest from the shop itself, he was just getting up with a dish of ice cream in each hand and was heading towards the garbage can and she called out to him, he must've been waiting for her and only just now decided she wasn't going to show up. He looked up at the sound of his name and April waved her hand at him as she crossed the road, quickening her pace and stopping short just before him trying to catch her breath.

"Is that... For me?" She asked quietly, eyeing her favorite strawberry shortcake sundae he was holding in his left hand.

Axel had sat outside at one of the small round tables waiting for at least a half an hour by now and when he checked his phone and realized… she was done with school and violin practice was always Monday, Wednesday Friday. She wasn’t coming and he figured that much by now, picking up the partly melted ice cream sundaes that he had gotten them both a few moments ago and getting up as he decided to throw them out rather than continue to make a fool of himself out here with people passing by seeing him alone with two bowls of ice cream.

He pushed open the flap of the trash with his elbow, about to nudge it further when he heard his name from behind him. The voice was familiar and he turned back around instantly and saw April running towards him from across the street and down the block. His lips curled up into a wide grin at the sight, laughing a little at her being breathless. He resisted his impulse to hug her, to scoop her up and pull her close like he might have normally especially after not really seeing each other much.

The blond nodded at her question, “Yeah.” He answered simply, “Strawberry shortcake certainly doesn’t cut it for me but I mean it’s a little melty so I’m not sure you want it.” He said softly, in a sense giving her an out again but she shook her head and told him it was perfect, seeing her eyes watering. Ax smiled again and caught the sparkling bracelet around her wrist, making his heart flutter when to him that only confirmed that she wanted to work on things too.

He handed her the dairy treat when she reached for it and while it might not look as good now she didn’t seem to mind at all, rejecting his offer to buy her another. “So you uhh—You got my note then.” He murmured stupidly, scratching the back of his head and sitting down when she did. April nodded and showed him her wrist with a little blush to her already pink cheeks from the cool air and having run a few blocks just now, indicating that she had gotten both parts of his note. “Yeah I just… Had the idea in my head and figured whether things get better or not… I mean we’ll still be friends and I want you to think of me.”

The tiny blonde across from him tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded her agreement, asking him what it all meant. He shook his head and swirled his spoon around his bowl of ice cream, “I wanted to talk and I wanted you to remember that… I’ve been the good guy before and I think I still can be. I know I hurt you and I know that what I did was really, really fucking stupid and I can’t apologize enough to make it just be okay again. I haven’t used Ecstasy since then. I flushed it because I don’t ever want to be that guy again and I think it took losing you and my front tooth to realize the extent it got.” He muttered sorrowfully, looking over at her finally when she asked about his tooth. “Carson clocked me pretty good. It’s no big deal. I’d’ve kicked my ass too. He’s more fond of you than I ever thought either that or he had that pent up for the last few years I don’t know.” Axel chuckled awkwardly, quickly letting the sound fade at the look on April’s pretty face.

“Ape you know… or you used to know that I’d never hurt you or force you into anything. Even now, I’m not going to plead for you to take me back, that has to be up to you. And I know I screwed up but I need you to look at both sides for a minute and our past and my history and realize that I’dnever. Ever. Do anything to scare you like that. That’s not me. Those pills… the guy said I took too much at once for my first shot and it just really hyped me up and I couldn’t even begin to control what I was doing but that’s why I swear to God I’m never going to use stuff like that again.”

“I’m so sorry, Ape.” He mumbled, trying to keep his own emotions in check. "I still want you... and I'm always going to want to be with you."

April held her peace for the most part as Axel spoke, interrupting almost on reflex at the news that Ax had had his tooth knocked out but quickly quieting again when he explained it away with a little chuckle and she accepted that it wasn't something that he was really hanging on to and he had obviously had the damage repaired. Axel apologized profusely, his deeper voice wavering slightly with emotion and April felt her eyes prick with tears anew.

"I do believe that in your right state of mind you would never for a second act or speak the way you did to me that night. I want to be with you too Axel, if you're willing to give me the time I need to trust you again, to prove that you're not going to do something like that again like you say." April murmured, fidgeting with the beautiful charms strung on her bracelet a moment before finally meeting his eyes again.

She could see the conflict and worry evident in his face, but he nodded and fidgeted in his seat as he agreed, promising to give her all the time she needed and to take all his cues from her and what she wanted. April could see that he was barely resisting reaching out for her hand or moving to lean in closer like he might have done before, and as much as she wanted to be closer to him she was grateful he was holding back for now. She was willing to give this a try but if she was being honest with herself she still felt a bit wary in the back of her mind.

They both ate a few bites of their ice cream in awkward silence, but the air did feel more clear between them at least. Axel asked her hesitantly if she had any idea of where to go from here, making her smile with his nervous chuckle. She set her spoon down and took a deep breath, trying to sort out her jumbled up feelings into something coherent.

"I think... For now it might be best if we try being friends again? Kind of give us time to get comfortable with each other again before we make it more complicated." April posed, when she said 'us' she mostly meant her getting comfortable with Axel again and he knew that, but he seemed to accept it fairly easily.

"I noticed when Mr. Rhodes posted the test scores last week yours was... Well. Kind of low. Maybe... If you want we could start with studying together? Maybe if you get your grades up, the coach will consider giving you a second chance to get back on the wrestling team?" April suggested, trying to find something fairly neutral they could do that would give them time together without expectations of anything more complicated happening. And she felt like maybe he might be happier if he had the sport in his life again remembering how much he had enjoyed it before.

Axel flinched a bit at the reminder of what else besides her he'd lost lately, but she didn't miss the little gleam of hope in his blue eyes under the remorse. He agreed to her idea and they finished their treats, talking about lighter things like her filling him in on her recent activities with student council and him telling her about how Obi had gotten into his big brother's stashed oreos the other day. They left the shop together and Axel offered her a ride home which she accepted. Their goodbye on her street was a little stilted, finally they settled on a fast, light hug after a few awkward seconds of not knowing exactly what note to leave things on.

Over the next few weeks April and Axel got together in after school, mostly in the school's courtyard itself but also at her house, out in the open so it was clear that they were together to study as friends, nothing more. They got along as well as ever, and it wasn't tense like April had been fearing when they first agreed to start over being friends. She was slowly getting more relaxed and Axel held up everything he'd promised to the letter, always letting her set boundaries and being careful to the point that she had to keep herself from giggling at him at times when he hurried to correct how close he was leaning to her or making himself look away when she caught him stealing glances at her.

April had Axel over at her house to work more on the mountain of make-up work he'd been assigned. They were making good progress and Axel had the goal of being allowed back on the wrestling team to keep him motivated, though she was fairly sure he was mostly doing the work because it was how they got to spend time together and that made her more than happy.

April was going over some notes she'd taken in their shared physics class that he'd missed from being absent so he could do the current worksheet he had in front of him, scooting closer to him to point out a formula that would work on the problem he was stuck on without even thinking about it. She sensed Axel tense and heard his small intake of breath when she leaned closer, letting her arm rest against his as she spoke and even such a simple benign contact made her cheeks flush and her heart flutter since it was the first real touch they'd shared for over a month.

April didn't stop explaining the homework problem but she could tell Axel was no longer paying attention to what she was saying, his face drawing closer to hers till she could feel his breath on her cheek. 

Axel struggled a little with keeping his distance but he made sure to always keep their boundaries in mind every time they hung out. He kept space between them no matter what it was they were doing, only letting her decide if she wanted to be any closer. They studied and spent most their time in more public places until April steadily got more comfortable with the idea of him coming to her house like he used to, only now it was during the day, with the door opened and typically it meant her family was aware of his presence.

Everything was different but the blond boy was nothing but determined to make it work in any way that it could, even if it meant just this. Even if they never worked their way up the ladder again to anything more. He hadn’t missed the way April would laugh at him each time he readjusted himself and tried to put space between them, each time he was caught stealing a look at her, each time he took a slower breath to remember her close. Still he brushed it off.

That evening went just as any other when they spent time together, Axel only half paying attention to April’s teachings. He wasn’t really great at school, never had a natural knack for these kinds of things and even with his ‘friend’s’ aid he still couldn’t really manage though he tried a lot harder partly out of his want to impress her and do well in her eyes. He scratched at the back of his head with the eraser end of his sharpened pencil, the pink rubber tip nearly missing now with how long he had been working on a single question.

“I still don’t get it. I thought I just plug it all in but how do I work it out?” He mumbled, getting a little frustrated by now when he had yet to get anywhere without her help. April shifted and instantly he tensed feeling her arm against his own, her smooth bare skin on his. His eyes flickered over to her immediately and his focus was completely shot now, leaning into her as she spoke to him because for the first time she tore down that barrier they both built and leaned to him first.

April’s voice slowed to a stop, mid explanation as their eyes met and his darted back and forth to both of hers. She ducked her head a little but he could see in the tint to her cheeks that she was just as affected. He breathed a slow breath and took the chance, bending his head in the same moment she found the courage to lift hers. Their lips met feather soft at first, pulling away within less than a couple seconds and he waited… for any sign that he had screwed up again.

When he found none in her eyes, watching them flutter closed when he leaned into her again and kissed her lightly again, the contact steadily deepening and she responded in kind, their lips meshing together just like they used to. Ax cocked his head and found a better angle, his hand pulling up from his lap to instead cup the side of her face, his tongue delving into her mouth and brushing over her own with a rough little groan emitting between them, one he couldn’t tell if it came from himself or her. April’s fingers curled into the front of his jean shirt but he still felt that bit of resistance she was fighting in herself despite her own want for him. She pushed at his chest a bit when he shifted closer and had pulled her in part between his legs where they sat.

Axel forced himself to break from her, licking his lips and tasting her sherbet gloss as he did. He touched the back of his hand to his mouth lightly and realized in a matter of seconds he may have just destroyed the new foundation they had been laying. “I—“ He started, watching the young woman beside him adjusting herself and her paper work as he moved away back to the distance he normally kept between them. He cleared his throat and gave a little shake of his head, “That wasn’t supposed to happen I know.” He mumbled quickly, pulling his hand from his mouth with a little wipe over his lips as if that would make it go away. He could still very much feel her, taste her…

April tucked her hair aside and flipped through her book without saying anything right away. “So umm… I just input everything into this formula.” Ax played it off, getting right back to their school work but the tension between them didn’t deflate. He spent maybe another fifteen minutes or so there before he pulled out his phone and pretended to check the time as well as his messages, mumbling about how he should leave so she could get ready for bed and do her own work. “I’ll uhh--- I think I get it now so I’ll probably be fine on the quiz next week.” It was only about 8:45 but he still felt like he shouldn’t linger after what he pulled.

The petite blonde looked up at him from the floor by her bed where they sat and told him if he still needed help he could stay, uttering something about how she was okay. “No I know…” He brushed it off with a wave of his hand but they both knew what was really racing in his mind. “April I just think it’s easier for me to leave for now, okay?” He said finally.

April felt like she was processing things in slow motion, most of her mind and body still so caught up in Axel's touch even after he'd broken off their heated kiss. The blond was already standing and getting ready to bolt by the time she organized her thoughts enough to tell him he didn't have to go, her heart racing with a mixture of desire and apprehension with how quickly things had escalated between them in the space of a single kiss.

Axel reiterated that he ought to just leave and it finally clicked for her, he wasn't sure he could respect the limits she still needed and so he was making the choice to just remove himself from the situation. As much as April wished he could stay and maybe kiss like that a bit more, she knew it wasn't fair of her to expect him to be able to handle keeping things at a simmer only for the first time after so long. She smiled warmly, standing up and nodding making sure not to let any disappointment show in her tone when she spoke.

"That's just fine Ax, I'll walk you to the door." She offered, stepping around him letting her hand brush against his as she went past. He followed her out and they said their good nights, promising to see each other at school the next day. April was almost glad that her dad was looming at the end of the hall when they said goodbye, if Ax had kissed her goodnight like that again she might've insisted that Axel come back through her window tonight and she knew in the back of her mind she wasn't ready for that yet. 

\---  
After their 'first' kiss, things got a little more relaxed between the pair. They started holding hands and staying more in each other's space when they were together, though Axel still didn't initiate another kiss for several days. April was starting to wonder if maybe he thought he'd gone too far kissing her at all, and so she took it upon herself to give him soft little kisses here and there to let him know it was all right now. They still ran into a few hiccups where Axel ended up leaving rather abruptly, but they were getting there.

Everything seemed to be getting better, their relationship, Axel's grades, and the day finally came that Ax was allowed to rejoin the wrestling team. He still would likely never be appointed captain again even if he was more than cut out for it, but still he was ecstatic to get a place back on the team at all. The pair went out for dinner to celebrate him making the team once more, and while they'd been on a few official dates already this one was different. It felt more significant, more like they were a couple again, getting dressed up and going somewhere nicer just the two of them.

They finished their night out and Axel drove back to her neighborhood, turning down the road to take her home. "Ax. Why don't we go to the park for awhile? It's such a nice night out." April suggested when he approached the turn off that would take them to the hilly park area in the center of her community. The tall blond said nothing but turned down the detour anyway, pulling in to the small parking lot and hurrying around his truck to open her door for her. April giggled and hopped out, leaving her heeled sandals behind to walk in the lush grass barefoot.

"You don't have to keep doing that you know, I can open doors myself." April teased, walking a few paces ahead of him up the hill and drinking in the cool night breeze. She turned back to see Axel slowly trailing after her, his expression a little strained despite the smile he was giving her. Her features colored with concern and she stepped back to take his hands. "Is everything all right?" She asked softly, her heart fluttering when Axel mentioned that he wasn't sure they should be out here so late.

The petite blonde smiled softly, appreciating Axel's newly developed restraint and consideration but with how well things had been going lately the girl was starting to feel ready to take things a little farther. She said nothing in response, just smiling and turning on her heel, leading her companion over the crest of the hill by the hand and tugging him down to sit in the grass with her overlooking the park and the small lake backing up to the adjoining golf course beyond it.

They sat quietly holding hands for a long while, April shivered against the breeze in her light dress and leaned into Axel's side for warmth. She felt him tense at the contact and gently caressed his arm, trying to soothe him without words that this contact was what she wanted.

Axel was skeptical about pulling off to be alone with April like she requested but he went against that judgment because it was what she wanted. He pulled off and up to the park around the corner, parking and getting out to open her door. They had been doing well so far, back to dating but for the most part they only hung out alone when they were studying so they had something else to focus on beside the slight tension between them. He had refrained from initiating anything and it likely would be that way until he really felt like he wasn’t going to scare her off if he went too fast.

April teased him a little about his gentleman ways lately but he shrugged it off with a little smile, watching her take off a few paces in front of him. He trailed slowly behind her, his hands in the pockets of his only fully in tact pair of jeans. He smiled at her still but his mind kept going towards that this wasn’t a grand idea with his history and the fact that they were trying to build up to what they used to be. She turned back around when he wasn’t right behind her, trotting back barefoot and taking his hands as she asked what was wrong.

“I don’t think we should be out here this late at night. You’re supposed to be home soon and I don’t really want to lose the respect of your family I just earned… sort of earned.” He mumbled, curiously wondering if her dad even had respect to give. At least he seemed to hate him just a little bit less for the time being. The blonde girl smiled at him but rather than saying anything else she turned and tugged at his hand she was still holding, pulling him gently up the hill and urging him with a tug to his arm to sit down in the grass.

He followed obediently but he still felt a little uneasy and even more so when April got cold and leaned into his side to get warm. He stiffened instantly and held his breath when she caressed his bicep all the way down to his fingers until she curled her own around his. “April I really… I think we should go back to the truck.” He stammered, feeling her other hand on his leg and that only made it harder for him to focus on behaving himself.

She cocked her head to the side and blinked up at him with those innocent doe eyes of her’s, requesting he cuddle with her to fight the cold air. Axel blinked down at her but agreed silently by following her prompting and putting his arm around her shoulders, letting her lean into his frame more flush against him. Her head lay on his chest for a while as they gaze out over the hill to the expansive greenery of the golf course before them. He sighed and for a long while they rested together like that in the quiet listening to the creatures of the night along with the sound of the leaves rustling from the breeze.

April shifted against him again and he could feel her staring up at him, his own eyes darting down and just as they did he felt her lips against his jaw. He moaned softly in his throat as her lips grazed over his jaw to his ear, kissing him feather lightly until their lips met. She cupped her hand against his cheek and drew him down to her, kissing him slowly and he responded in kind after a moment or two of recovery. Their contact was slow and light at first and he let her take the lead, kissing him deeper and before he knew it she had swung her leg over his lap, using his shoulders to hoist herself up over him.

Axel’s body hardened beneath her as she pressed down against him, making him moan again into their kiss, slowly deepening it into something more hungry and needy. He gripped her hips to keep her hovering when she tried to brace against him once more, “April you don’t owe me anything.” He huffed, trying to ensure she didn’t feel obligated at all. She pulled her head away a little more and her fingers carded through his short blond hair on either side of his head, shaking her head at him. She promised that she didn’t feel that way, that she wanted to take things a little further like they used to be between them, uttering that she was comfortable again.

“In the open like this? That’s… awfully bold of you.” He chuckled against her lips when she started kissing him again, his eyes fluttering closed and he opted for enjoying whatever she was willing to give him, keeping his hands along her thighs but closer to her knees to avoid making her skittish. He didn’t want to back track again, he wasn’t so sure his body could handle that nor his mind.

 

April had been aching to take things farther with Axel again for awhile, but it had only been the past week or so that she had been seriously considering acting on those desires. She'd tested the waters here and there, making sure Ax would really respect what she wanted and not push for anything more than what she was willing to give, and he had proven himself again and again.

So when she finally worked up the courage to request this little detour, April had no qualms whatsoever about climbing into her boyfriend's lap as they kissed. She settled over him straddling his hips and felt a certain amount of satisfaction at the contrast of him using his superior strength now to force her to do less rather than more of what she wanted. He broke the kiss and insisted that she was under no obligation to do any of this, making her heart melt at his sincerity.

"Axel, I don't feel like I owe this to you. I'm doing this because it's what I want. I want to be... Closer again, like we were before. I'm ready now." She assured him, giggling softly at the worry and eagerness at war in his clear blue eyes. He licked his lips unconsciously, commenting on the rather public venue that was a bit of a departure for her. She grinned and resumed kissing him again, tasting him and canting her hips to his now that he wasn't holding her back.

"Well if we went to the house now, my parents would still be up and want my door open while we were together, and I didn't want to wait anymore...." April mewled as she began rocking slowly in his lap, grinding her center against his hardness and shivering with want. He seemed to accept her reasoning, relaxing a bit and kissing her back in earnest. 

April hummed against Axel's lips entreatingly, deepening the kiss and finding it a little strange but also thrilling that his care to avoid scaring her was resulting in her having to take the lead more than she ever had before. He kept kissing her back and obviously enjoyed her grinding against him but as the minutes wore on his hands lingered just above her knees, and he only responded to what she gave him rather than moving things along like he always did before.

April knew it was really unlikely that anyone would see them much less come across them where they were, and if she was being honest with herself she was craving Axel's touch so badly at this point that she hardly cared right now if the risk being discovered was high or not. The petite blonde's impatience for more finally outweighed her reservations and April kissed her boyfriend adamantly, grasping his wrists and dragging them up her legs and sides to her dainty chest.

"Ax, touch me..." April muttered breathlessly against his lips, bearing down on his arousal more firmly and prompting him to fondle her chest with her small hands over top of his. Axel growled in his throat and complied instantly, cupping and squeezing her breasts and circling his thumbs firmly over her sensitive peaks.

April broke her lips from his and moaned softly, arching into Axel's touch and gathering her loose cornsilk hair from her shoulders as she writhed up and down in his lap so he could get at the halter tie of the top of her dress at the nape of her neck. The blond hesitated for only a second, drawing his hands up to loosen the bow and devouring her petite pretty cleavage in her pink strapless bra with his eyes. 

Axel looked akin to a starved wild animal with a piece of meat held out in front of it, but still he waited, his eyes flickering up from her chest to her face and asking wordlessly if he could proceed. April smiled and answered him by reaching behind her back and unclasping her bra, gasping a bit when the cool evening air hit her bare breasts. Ax took her actions as more than permission enough, caressing her soft skin and making her pant and ache with want as he explored her as if for the first time all over again. 

April could feel her panties getting soaked through with want as Axel touched her, her skin getting hot and flushed despite the chilly night air. He craned his head down to latch on to one rose peak and tease her with his teeth and tongue and April yelped a little at the intensity of the sensation after going without for so long. Ax blanched at her sound and froze, lifting his head and starting to ask if she wanted to stop but she cut him off with more force than even she thought she could muster.

"No! No, I don't want to stop Ax. I just forgot how good you make me feel..." April panted, gripping his head and urging him back down to her chest, her whole body on fire for him now. "More, please baby. Don't stop." She added in a softer tone, reaching down between them to work his jeans open. She gave his thick length a few firm strokes, trying to encourage him not to lose momentum and hoping he really believed her now that she wanted this.

Axel was weary to say the least but soon enough he relaxed, following April’s prompting and leaning forward to kiss at her chest, suckling her breasts each in turn. His grip on her tightened a little and when he started to get rougher he heard her harsh response, sounding more like something of pain or protest than pleasure to his ears at least. Maybe he was just far more worried than he had been before.

His head rose and he met her eyes instantly pulling away and moving his hands, “Did you want to stop? We can stop, I…” He started but April nearly snapped at him, assuring him that she didn’t want to stop, gripping his head and guiding his mouth back to her bare chest, pleading for more from him and he was happy to oblige so long as it was what she truly wanted from him.

His lips sealed around her pert nipple again, biting and sucking at her breast once more until he felt her hand slipping beneath the fabric of his jeans in little more than a few quick beats of his heart. She gripped him in her hand and that was a bold move for April, all of this was bold and in part it worried him that she still might just feel a sense of obligation to assist him so to speak, to praise him for his good behavior but when she sighed how much she wanted him his mind faltered and went blank, all except for the focus he had on her touch and taste.

April’s free hand gripped at his wrist and she guided his hand higher up her thigh beneath her dress pooled around her middle and she pleaded with him to keep touching her like he used to. His digits drew higher and he groaned feeling her panties soaked through, the confirmation he needed that she did in fact want him in return. His breathing picked up as well as hers and he caressed her through her wet panties, massaging her clit in tiny rapid circles like she liked. He had her panting above him, rolling her hips against his hand and fingers and trying to create more friction while she stroked him at the same time.

Her eyes fluttered closed and Axel huffed as his pleasure neared, twitching and throbbing in her hand, that desire he felt for her every damn day was so close to the surface already and to feel her touch again was driving him crazy. She sighed his name and again her fingers closed around his wrist, forcing his hand up and to the waist of her panties, looking down at him when he opened his eyes once more. She leaned forward and begged again, craving more of his touch and for a moment he was confused.

April cupped his face with her freehand instead and muttered for him to touch her beneath her final barrier of clothes, “What?” He huffed out through another moan, grunting when her hand slowed on him. She smiled and nodded to urge him to do so and he glanced between their bodies, catching sight of her touching him and then looking to his own hand against her and he did as he was told, tugging the garment down a bit and making room for his hand to slip inside her panties, his digits just brushing over her clit and she cried out to him at the sensation. He felt like he was learning her all over again, as though this was entirely different even though it wasn’t by much, his fingers swirled her clit and slowly he shifted lower when a click from his right side startled them both.

The sprinklers popped up and hissed until they came to life and before either of the teens could respond cold water sprayed from every angle at them. “Shit.” Ax cursed, hearing April laughing now and he chuckled with her, the sudden cold dampening their desires for the moment and instead they focused on getting out of there. April withdrew her hand in the same moment he did his own, scrambling to help her get her dress pulled back up. He stood and fastened his jeans, his want still strong but his mind was on getting back to the truck before they were soaked entirely.

Axel snatched her hand as she clutched her dress around her with her free hand, both of them jogging back to his truck and climbing in, bellowing with laughter as they settled again. He wiped the excess water from his face and shook out his short hair, making her squeak as droplets hit her instead. “I told you we should have just gone back.” He chuckled, starting up the car and he could see her trying to fix herself a bit, her chest still heaving when she looked over at him pointedly.

They pulled up to her home and she was chewing on her lower lip, “What?” He wondered aloud, reaching over and putting a hand on her leg, brushing up her thigh. She shivered but he wasn’t so sure if it was from the cold air or the fact that he was touching her again. She looked to him and asked in her usual polite and quiet voice if he wanted to sneak in through her window for a change of clothes. He had a feeling there was an underlying reason she was offering when he very well could just go home and find his own but he accepted with a nod anyways.

April sat shivering in her seat, but despite the frigid cold of her wet dress clinging to her and her hair dripping on her shoulders and down her back, the petite girl could focus on nothing more than the burning need she still felt for the tall blond sitting across from her. He was every bit as soaked as she was, and since she didn't exactly feel comfortable outside the heat of the moment propositioning him she babbled out a quick excuse to get him inside and hopefully resume their earlier activities.

"Why don't you slip inside through my window? I'll have to go in the front door mom or dad waited up for me but I can grab you some dry things of Brandon's to change into so you don't catch cold on the way home." She posed, grinning when he agreed even if she could tell in his voice that he suspected her motives were less pure than she stated.

They parted with a light kiss at the end of the walk up to her door, April barely managed to keep her giddiness in check as she slipped inside her house knowing Axel would be waiting for her in her room. She was glad to see her parents had gone to bed so she could avoid having to explain away how she was soaked from head to toe. She quietly padded to the laundry room for a couple towels as well as a clean shirt and pair of basketball shorts of her brother's Axel could wear, her own soaked dress leaving a trail of water droplets on the wood floor but she didn't notice or care.

April crept over to her parent's closed bedroom door and heard both of them softly snoring, smiling and scampering back to her own room and quickly slipping inside, locking the door behind her. Her heart was racing and her breath was catching partly from how cold she was but more out of anticipation of feeling Axel's touch once more. 

Axel was just sliding her window shut when she entered, whipping around instinctively out of alarm even though he knew she'd be coming in. It wasn't exactly smart for them to be doing this but April found now as much as ever that when it came to Ax, she was more willing to take risks than she ever was in her life.

The tall boy smiled at her, his gaze raking over her frame in her flimsy dress still practically painted to her body in it's sodden state and April felt her cheeks flush and her body ache for the delicious sensations that had been rushing throughout it before they were so abruptly interrupted by the sprinkling system. She cleared her throat gently trying to keep up at least a semblance of composure as she walked around her bed to stand just in front of her boyfriend who was making a small puddle of water on her plush carpet in his own wet clothes.

"So um, here's a towel... And these should fit you just fine I'm sure." April held out the soft white rolled up towel for him to take, her voice thin and wispy with her pent up want. Axel nodded and muttered something close to a thank you, peeling his shirt off and hanging it over the back of her desk chair. He ruffled the towel through his hair first then began patting his arms and torso off, and April's blue eyes turned black with desire as they followed his hands brushing the cloth over his lean, defined frame. 

She forced herself to look away long enough to set the clothes down on the end of her bed, turning back to see Axel staring at her with a somewhat torn expression. "Something the matter?" She asked softly, gathering her damp hair up into a twist on the back of her head and securing it with a clip. He asked her haltingly if he ought to go change in her bathroom, tugging at the waistband of his wet jeans for emphasis and April swallowed hard as her gaze tracked down the thin trail of dark blond hair running from Axel's belly button under the low slung edge of his pants.

"No. No you can stay in here." April retorted, reaching behind her head to untie her dress once more. She slowly peeled her soaked dress off her willowy frame, her skin milk pale in the moonlight that was the only light in her room at the moment. Now it was Axel who stood transfixed, watching each inch of her bare body exposed as her dress fell down to pool around her feet. April could almost feel the heat coming off his gaze as she reached back and unclasped her bra, freeing her pert breasts and again her rosy nipples tightened when exposed to the open air and Axel's ardent gaze. 

April bit her lip as she hooked her thumbs into her panties, starting to slide them off her hips and shivering when Axel licked his lips in an almost predatory fashion. He seemed to recall himself in that instant though, reaching out to halt her progress and muttering in a hoarse whisper that she didn't have to go any farther, he was happy with leaving layers on between them if it made her more comfortable.

April smiled and pushed down the butterflies in her stomach, stepping into his space rather than pulling away. She replaced her hands with his on her hips and encouraged him to hook his own thumbs into the waistband of the last scrap of clothing she wore. "This is what I want Axel... I'm still not ready to go all the way, but... I want you to touch me. All of me. Please Axel." April breathed, standing up on her toes to press her lips to his and working open his jeans. Axel stood frozen in place except for his response to her kisses, almost like he wasn't quite sure this was real. She pushed his jeans off his hips and got herself closer till her bare chest pressed against his, slipping her fingertips into the waistband of his cold wet briefs and giving them a gentle tug. "Ax..." She prompted again with a little more impatience, reaching one hand back to push on his hand dragging one side of her panties down and gasping a little at the new sensation of his hand sweeping over her bare bottom.

Axel gulped a bit at the sight of April standing there topless and in her wet panties alone. He assured her they didn’t have to completely be bare for all of this if it made her uncomfortable but then she dragged his own hands to hook in her panties, urging him to push them down for her instead while she worked open his jeans and let them pool at his feet. She pleaded with him once more to touch her and then her hand slipped and she insistently tugged at his briefs to urge him to be bare too.

His eyes darted down to her free hand coaxing his own to push her panties down and his hand slipped around to her backside, gripping her rear bare for the first time and it felt good to have her trust him as much as she was. He finally gave in, tugging her panties off completely and letting them fall to her ankles. He kicked off his shoes and stepped out of his jeans, her own hands urging his briefs off his hips and to the floor as well, their bodies pressing together as either of them stepped forward into each other’s space.

The tall blond kissed her slowly, one hand on her backside and the other cupping her neck to coax her up for a better angle to kiss her deeply. His excited front brushed against her bare abdomen and for the first time she didn’t seem quite as nervous or rather afraid of him. He knew he had to maintain his control, that things could only go so far and he would cling to that in order to stay just along that boundary without falling across it, following his lover’s guidance.

His hands explored her body slowly, running along her hips to her back and rear, following back up to her chest and tweaking her nipples just like he had before. The water made their skin cold but their desire cancelled it out, heat coming off of both of their frames. April kissed him languidly, her leg all but hooking up around his waist when she urged him back to her bed. It was a lot all at once but at the same time it was what he wanted from her and her from him.

He sat down on the end of her bed, lifting her up into his lap and her knees brace on the edge of the mattress on either side of him, making her hover just a little while her hands traced over his chest to his firm abdomen. April’s hand closed around him once again, giving him a few firm strokes to make him harden at her touch. Their touches and affections were slow but just as needy as before, kissing and exploring each other. His hand drew over her thigh and in the same moment she pushed his chest back, kissing him deeper and nipping his lower lip as she worked him up.

He groaned at her touch mixed with the bite she gave and rotated their frames, his hand gliding down her abdomen to the apex of her thighs, stroking her clit then dipping his thick digits inside her body for the first time. She gasped, drawing in a harsh breath and her grip on him tightened, moaning his name and rolling her hips against his hand firmly to make him hit that sweet spot deeper inside her body.

 

April wasn't sure if she was quivering more from nervousness or pleasure as Axel turned their bodies and started stroking her center once more, her small soft hand gliding up and down his throbbing length in firm strokes as he pressed his middle digit inside her fully. Her back arched a bit involuntarily at the new feeling, it felt completely different having him touching her like this directly over him guiding her how to do it herself.

"Oh god, Axel..." April moaned urgently, bucking her hips in time with his movements, riding his hand as he added his ring finger and stroked the sensitive spot deep inside her. She lost her rhythm stroking him, getting swept up in her building pleasure and he thrust against her hand as if to prompt her not to stop. 

April glanced down at his erection, blushing a bit despite herself but also fascinated in a way since she'd never looked at him or any guy directly before while they were aroused. April was pleased by how long and thick she was, even if the thought of him being inside her was still a rather intimidating prospect considering how much presence just his fingers had in her body.

She made herself focus enough to keep rubbing him from base to tip, smiling and blushing deeper at the little hoarse sounds of pleasure he was making. April could feel her orgasm pooling in the pit of her belly and she bit her lower lip to keep from getting too loud, moaning in her throat as he worked her. Axel looked down and watched their hands on each other awhile, panting brokenly and grunting that he was about to come as he looked back up at her face.

"It's okay, come for me baby..." April mewled, stroking him a little quicker and swirling her thumb over his tip slick with precum. Axel's eyes screwed shut and he thrust into her strokes rapidly, groaning her name as he came. April's belly jumped a bit as his seed spurted onto her front, giggling airily and relishing how he looked and sounded as he came unraveled. 

Axel's fingers slowed to a stop inside her and she moaned a little at the loss of sensation, writhing a bit trying not to be impatient as her lover collected himself a bit in the wake of his climax. April worried her lower lip with her teeth as Ax took a few breaths, muttering how good that had felt, far better than he'd ever imagined it might. He glanced down at the small mess he'd made on her front and apologized with a little chuckle, making her giggle more and shake her head. 

"It's all right Ax, that's just what your body does. Just don't stop..." April scooted closer to him and kissed his parted lips lightly, prodding his hand to push deeper inside her once more as a gentle reminder to keep giving her what she needed. His blue eyes widened a bit as if putting it together that she was still on the edge, shifting a bit on his side for a better angle. He grinned against her lips and refreshed the pace of his motions, crooking his fingers in a come hither manner and grinding the heel of his palm against her clit as he stroked her walls.

April hummed entreatingly as her plateaued pleasure built again, slipping her hand up from his length to grip his hip and rocking her hips into his motions once more. "I'm almost there Ax... I... Ah, ah! Faster baby, faster! Oh god!" April cried out, shaking as her body teetered on the edge of her climax, every cell in her body aching for release. Axel sped his pace, pumping into her harder and faster and all at once the dam inside her broke, her orgasm sweeping through her from her head to her toes.

Axel smirked at her and rolled onto his side a little more, shifting his hand and trying to find a better angle, his fingers working her again when he realized that he had lost his focus to pay attention to his own climax. He stroked her walls faster and faster, trying to get her back to that edge again by his hand. She cried out to him, her hands gripping at his hip and her body arching and writhing under his touch as she neared her peak.

He panted as he watched her, grinding the heel of his hand against her clit and crooking his fingers inside her body in a come hither motion. She tensed and flexed around his fingers, drawing them in deeper, her head lolling back and within a matter of a few moments she lost it, coming around his fingers with a ragged cry of his name. He groaned, drawing out her high as long as her body would allow, soaking his digits and he groaned at the feeling imaging her surrounding him.

April panted and his hand withdrew from her body, coated in her slickness and she bit at her lip to keep her breathing quiet. He leaned over and kissed at her sweetly, “Damn…” He chuckled, his hand brushing over her hip and he reached to grab for a tissue off the table, wiping his hand down then getting another to clean up April’s belly from the mess that he made over her frame. His eyes lingered on her form and she blushed a deeper shade of red, wriggling and covering herself a bit.

Axel snatched at her hand to halt her from doing so, “Ape.” He said firmly, smiling at her, “You… are beautiful. Every part of you.” He muttered, tugging her chin to urge her to kiss him and she did with a starry eyed look. He grinned again, “Thank you… for giving me another shot.” He muttered, rolling over to her and putting his arm around her waist, kissing at her shoulder to her neck and April much to his surprise didn’t protest his affections. He held her to him for a short while until their bodies calmed and April was nearly falling asleep against his arm. 

“Baby I should go.” He whispered, kissing her ear and she hummed in response, her body tangled within the sheets on her bed. Her eyes barely opened and he smiled as he kissed her cheek to her lips, “Get some sleep, Beautiful. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He promised, getting up and getting dressed in her brother’s clothes before climbing out of her window, chuckling at the sleepy wave April gave him before he left.

\----

It had taken months of hard work but Axel somehow was getting out of summer school for the first in six years at least. He had no fear of being held back or having to retake classes the next year, pleased that he was moving on to his final year with April at his side. She had helped him a lot along the way and on top of that they were doing great as a couple. All was forgotten and they relearned each other’s likes, steadily exploring more even while April wasn’t okay with going all the way quite yet.

Axel respected her boundaries that had been laid out and never over stepped them and while it took him a few months to get back to being the one to make the first move, he finally got back to it, instigating more often than not. Carson and Brandon had graduation at the end of the year and the next weekend April’s family, much to Axel’s surprise had an end of the year party for the older boy that Ax was welcomed to.

“You know there’s a part of me that thinks your family is playing a trick on me here. Your dad really wants me to come along to the lake house for a night? We’re not even allowed to hang out with your door closed, he walks me out of your house.” Axel laughed a little awkwardly, making April giggle as she took his arm and gripped his hand with her opposite one. She reminded him lightly that if anyone stayed, girls took one side of the house and boys took the other, there was never any crossover anyhow. She mentioned that this was the benefit of being a ‘good boy’ and getting all his work put in.

Axel chuckled, “I guess.” He said, kicking his foot in the dark sand along the edge of the trees as they inspected the place April went to every summer usually with her family.

April took wider strides in the sand to keep pace with her taller boyfriend, excited and pleased beyond measure that her parents had permitted him to accompany them on their little trip. As they walked along the lake shore she pointed out a few places or objects that held memories for her of years past since this place had been a part of her experience her whole life. 

They finally got back to their dock where Brandon and her dad were busy getting the boat all set up for the afternoon, and Axel was surprised again when her dad called him over to help them out, leaving April to go assist her mother preparing the food they'd brought for the barbecue that evening. The petite blonde left her boyfriend at her brother and dad's mercy, giggling a bit at the cautious way Axel still diligently referred to her dad as 'Sir' at all times.

She went inside and chatted with her mom while they prepared dinner, and April couldn't help but flush with happiness when her mother commented on how nice it was that Ax had gotten his grades up and how well her and Axel seemed to be doing in general.

"Yeah, he's really impressed me with his progress. He makes me so happy mom." April responded, giggling when the older woman gave her a knowing smile, her mom didn't know even the half of everything she and Ax had persevered through to get to where they were. April's faith in her boyfriend had really been cemented about a month ago when she had been at school with Axel and the guy she had learned was his dealer had offered him a bag to purchase in the parking lot, and he had turned it down without so much as a blink. She'd been feeling really good about their relationship and how important she was to him since then, and she was determined to make sure Axel knew that on this trip.

The girls got everything finished up and changed into their swim suits to go join the men out on the water. The petite blonde always felt a little self-conscious in bikinis with how slender she was, but she felt like this red one with small white polka dots she'd picked out flattered her fairly nicely. April made a face at her brother when he hollered at Ax not to be too distracted by his hot sister, blushing hotly under her dad's somewhat disapproving stare at her brother's antics. Nonetheless when Axel helped her climb into the boat, he managed to whisper to her that she looked beautiful. She smiled softly and thanked him, stealing a quick kiss on his cheek as she clambered aboard.

They spent the afternoon boating and came back starving, cooking up their food and enjoying the fresh air eating outside. Brandon proclaimed that he wanted to play poker since it was his party and they all agreed, though April lingered outside a little longer than the rest of them before joining them inside at the table for cards.

April had never seen her dad so relaxed around Axel, and the pleasant evening they all had playing poker only made her more excited about what she had planned for her and her boyfriend that night. They stayed up well into the night, one by one her mom, then dad, then finally Brandon headed to bed, though her older brother made it obnoxiously obvious he was going to bed to give them some alone time rather than because he was overtired.

Axel sat across from her at the table, smiling at her and she couldn't help but giggle. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, blushing a little at the funny little grin he was wearing. The tall blond shrugged, telling her he was still half-convinced her dad was going to pop out any second and stab him, but that it was worth it to be with her like this tonight. April's stomach fluttered with happiness and she stood up from the table, reaching out across it for his hand.

"Well why don't we go for a walk on the beach and look at the stars? Keep you from getting stabbed in here anyway." She chuckled, squeezing his fingers when he took her hand and slipping quietly out of the house with him. The pair walked along the shoreline in their dried off swimwear, the night breeze cooling but not too chilly. 

Axel laughed at her teasing him about being stabbed by her father in their little cabin. He gave a roll of his eyes but got up anyways and taking her hand at her prompting. Their fingers laced and they quietly slipped out of the house, walking the shoreline together in only their swimsuits. “You know walking the edge of the lake doesn’t exactly put my mind at ease. Camp Crystal Lake ring a bell?” He joked, making her giggle at him. “I’m just saying I’m not so sure I know how to fight off Jason Voorhees. He might be a little out of my league.”

April took her turn to roll her eyes at him, tugging his hand to make him walk a little faster. His eyes darted up to the sky and he took in the stars surrounding them at the tops of the trees. They sat down on the edge of the water for a short while, enjoying one another’s company until April glanced at him and kissed his shoulder, telling him she was ready to go inside. He nodded and stood up, dusting off his swim shorts and making her giggle when he did the same to her own backside only with her he lingered.

She swatted at his chest and he snatched her wrist, pulling her to him for a kiss which she happily gave up. The petite blonde took his fingers in her own and started back down the shore but this time she edged her way to the dock just short of the small but luxurious cabin they were staying in for the next night or two. “Uhh… Babe I don’t think high jacking your dad’s boat is going to put good marks on my chart.” He muttered, following her and easily keeping pace when she pulled him up the dock and walked herself backwards to the boat.

He gripped her hand to help her into the boat like he had before, feeling her tug him into the little captain’s quarters which didn’t consist of much. “I know what you’re doing.” He teased playfully, “You’re all testing me aren’t you?” He joked in a false accusatory tone. April wandered to one of the bench seats and obediently he followed. Her small hands tickled up his sides, grasping at his waist and tugging him to her, her lips pressed to his and they kissed longingly for a moment or two.

The female of the two blonds broke her lips from him with a playful and light tug to his lower lip. Ax growled lowly, his larger hands grasping her face and hip to keep her drawn up to him. “What was that for?” He asked in a rough voice, cut off by her lips pressing to his once more and this time she ravished his mouth with her own, their tongues sliding together intimately tasting one another. They had taken their relationship about a half a step forward, getting beneath the clothes and while it wasn’t quite a regular thing it had occurred more than a handful of times.

April finally muttered an answer that she wanted some time with him alone and this seemed the perfect place. He couldn’t help but smirk a little, hooking his fingers into the shorts she wore over her suit and pushing them down without protest from her. She grasped his wrists and just like she had done their first time getting-- closer in the park and at her house-- she urged him to take off the next layer. He moaned lightly into their kiss, his eyes closed as he blindly untied the sides of her suit, the fabric falling to the floor along with her shorts. His hands steadily reached up and brushed over her chest, reaching behind her and untying the back and top of her bikini. Her pert nipples stiffened from the cold air and the closeness of their frames and he bent his head at her urging to kiss his way down her neck to her chest.

She hummed at his attentions, until his hand slipped from her hip to the apex of her thighs again, fingering her softly at first and starting a steady burn within her body. She moaned at him, her hands pushing his chest as hard as she could manage with their difference in stature and with the rocking of the current against the boat Ax tumbled down onto the bench seat. “So you’re not testing me? You know you could admit that you just… wanted me to feel you up a bit I don’t mind hearing it.” He smirked again, groaning as she climbed naked into his lap and bore down on his hand, taking his fingers deep within her body and the back of his hand firmly pressed over his growing arousal.

April made a tsking noise in her throat at her boyfriend for his snark as she climbed atop him, bracing her knees on either side of his hips on the narrow cushioned bench seat and echoing his moan as she began to ride his hand in earnest. She had long since gotten comfortable being completely bare with him, but every touch, every sensation was amplified for the petite blonde because she had more on her mind tonight than simply enjoying each other in their usual manner.

April had always been the type to over think and over prepare, but she felt at least in this case that those traits had served her well. The blonde had been working up the nerve for awhile now to finally take that final step with Axel, and once she decided on her plan and worked it out things couldn't be going better. Ax didn't know it yet but she was wanting him to do a lot more than feel her up tonight.

April hummed as her body tingled and wound up from his touch, grinding herself down into his motions and causing the back of his own hand to press on his own arousal through his swimsuit. He watched her raptly from below, his eyes darkening and his breathing growing more ragged as he relished her response to him. The blonde worked herself up till she felt like she was nearly about to unravel, slowing down suddenly gently sliding off his fingers now soaked with her juices with a little mewl.

Axel questioned why she stopped, trying to sit up but she pressed her hand to his chest urging him not to stir. "Everything's fine. I just want you to feel good too." April breathed, raising herself up off his hips enough to afford her space to unlace his suit and he shifted to make it easier for her to tug the garment off. Axel sighed roughly when she took his thick length in his hand, his grip on her hip tightening as she gave him several firm strokes from base to tip, getting him fully hard for her.

"Ax... I've been thinking about tonight for a long time." April murmured as she touched him, smiling softly at his light grunt in response, his eyes were closed and he was obviously not giving much of his attention to her words while she continued to work him. "I'm ready, Axel." She stated softly, giggling and stilling her motions on him when all he responded with was another light moan. He looked up at her with a slightly confused expression when she stopped, finally really thinking through what she'd told him and questioning what she was ready for, a clear answer already in his eager blue eyes.

"I want tonight to be our first time together, Ax. I'm ready." She clarified, leaning down and opening one of the storage drawers built into the bench seat they occupied where she had slipped a handful of condoms. April fished one foil square out and giggled at Axel's shocked expression.

He struggled to speak clearly through his hoarse breathing, asking her if she was sure and laughing a bit at the way she'd planned all of this out. He insisted that they didn't need to do this if she was just trying to make him happy, and April cut him off pressing her fingertips to his lips. "Axel, baby hush..." She tittered, craning down over him and replacing her fingers with her lips. She set the condom down by his hip and lowered herself down to grind her wet sex against his, groaning into his mouth at how hard and thick he felt against her most sensitive spot.

Axel tensed and jolted beneath her as she slid against him, soaking his length. He gripped her hips and guided her motions a bit, settling them into a rhythm and April barely managed to keep enough sense in her head not to just take him inside her without pausing to put on protection. She lifted off of him and bit her lip as she picked up the condom, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tore the foil open and glanced down at Axel's erection. He asked her breathlessly if she would rather he put it on, but the petite blonde shook her head.

"No, I want to..." She retorted, thinking about some of the things she'd looked up online a few days ago and blushing deeply at the video she'd come across of a woman rolling a condom onto a man with her mouth. April decided that might be a little advanced for her at this point so she simply sat back and gripped him lightly, rolling the protection on and glancing back up at her boyfriend once she finished. He asked her a final time if she really wanted this, and April smiled happily.

"I do. I want you to be my first Axel. My first and only." She murmured shyly, settling over him again and taking a deep breath against her sudden nerves as she guided his tip to her entrance. He kissed her deeply and fondled her sensitive breasts, making her mewl and stirring the fire burning inside her. She lowered herself slowly down onto him, wincing and gasping a bit at how big he was but with how wet she already was it was fairly easy for her to take all of him. She canted her hips to his and rocked slowly back and forth, stretching and adjusting to his presence. 

Axel groaned brokenly, asking her if she was all right and April nodded, sliding up most of the way off of him and plunging back down, crying out as he filled her again and hit the sensitive spot deep inside her better than his hands ever could. "Wow. You're so... Wow, you feel good baby..." April panted, at a loss for how exactly to describe how she was feeling but all she knew for sure was that she wanted more of it.


	9. Chapter 9

Axel hardly had time to process all of what was happening above him. His mind blanking out at her touch and he never really saw her grabbing a condom as things steadily sunk in. His grip on April tightened and he panted heavily, trying to play catch up as quickly as he could when April told him what she wanted.

He kissed her and gave a little nod, "April... Baby are you sure? Do you... I can put that on if you want me to?" He felt a little awkward as well as excited at the way things were going. She shook her head and claimed she wanted to do it and despite his questioning she insisted she wasnt doing this because she felt she owed him or something along the lines.

Within what felt like a matter of seconds he felt her hand around him again rolling the condom onto him and gripping his shaft as they kissed and then... she sunk down onto him. "Ahh..." He moaned and gasped at the feeling of her heat surrounding him for the first time.

She swiveled her hips and took him all in her body adjusting to his size. Her words drove up his desire and he watched her through hooded eyes, thrusting up into her body in return and making her moan and writhe above him. "You feel... ahh you feel so good too Ape." He grunted through his teeth feeling her pace increase.

Axels bldy throbbed and twitched within her, his hands tightening on her hips and the angle of the bench seat made how he was sitting awkward. He shifted to keep them upright and hold her body from slipping down in his lap as she rode him in earnest now, feeling her flex around him and draw him in deeper. He cursed under his breath and found that familiar peak as April cried out to him about how good he felt again.

The blond tensed beneath her and closed his eyes, her body milking him as he fell over the edge quickly. April gasped a little trying to keep her pace and she must have known he lost it, his eyes fluttering opened and looking at her. She slowed and smiled at him in return, "Holy shit." He mumbled again through his heavy breathing.

April started to get off him, the somewhat awkward look in her eyes told him she was not all there. "Did you... baby did you come?" He asked her, cupping her cheek in one hand. She shifted and shook her head, promising it was okay that they could try again later if he wanted. He flushed a bit with embarrassment, "No. April... I wanna get you off too. I'm sorry I... didn't realize how different that would feel... how amazing you'd feel..." he muttered.

"Oh god, yes baby it's so good... Yes! Ah!" April mewled, panting harshly as she rode her lover and felt her pleasure building with every thrust he made inside her. Her body felt like it was about to burn up from the inside, but before she could completely unravel she felt Axel stiffen beneath her and she had to jostle a bit to keep her balance as his rhythm suddenly broke when he found his release. She enjoyed watching his face contort and hearing his sounds of pleasure immensely, slowing her movements so he could even out from his climax.

Her body was flush and trembling with her unresolved passion but she didn't know how to articulate that she hadn't exactly crossed the finish line as it were. Everything she'd read online about sex told her that it usually took guys a little while to be ready to go again, assuming he'd even want to do it again tonight. April wondered if she'd make it the second time anyway, it felt amazing when he moved inside her but she just needed a little more time to get all the way there.

The petite blonde slid off her boyfriend with a little involuntary mewl, trying to hide her conflicting feelings about her own release being stymied. This was their first time after all, it wasn't like she needed to get off in order to be glad it had happened. April tried to duck her head when he cupped her face and asked her if she had come, feeling a pang of self-consciousness like she had somehow not done something right. She shook her head slightly, her stomach jumping a bit with nerves as she watched his features droop.

"It's all right though, really! It's completely fine I promise." April smiled sweetly, not wanting her boyfriend to remember their first time with disappointment. "We can just try again later maybe, i-if you want to." She added quickly, hoping to diffuse the awkwardness by reassuring him. His answer back made her flush with an mixture of embarrassment and satisfaction, he'd come so quickly because she felt that good to him? The thought of her body pleasing him so well gave her butterflies, making the tension she felt from not finding her own release more tolerable. 

Axel shifted with a little grunt of effort to sit up in the cramped cabin space, his hand still cupping her face drawing her nearer till their lips met in a soft kiss. He pecked her lips lightly several times, moving from her mouth to her jaw to her throat and muttering between kisses that her body drove him crazy and he wanted to return the favor. She giggled when he teased about how much he was looking forward to 'practicing' this particular activity with her.

Axel shifted and removed his protection, wrapping it in a tissue and discarding it in the wastebasket next to them. He smiled when he turned back and helped her swing her leg over him once more so she knelt straddling his lap. April felt her heartbeat picking up again as he kissed her deeply, shivering at the feel of his warm hands gliding up and down her willowy frame. His fingers found their way to the apex of her thighs and April moaned softly as he dipped into her, pumping in and out of her slick heat at the angles and speed he knew she liked.

She was still sensitive from their lovemaking and so the petite blonde was gasping and bucking on his hand in minutes, bearing down on his hand hard to build her pleasure back up to the boiling point. He circled his thumb around her clit and April's nails dug crescent moons into his shoulders as the sensations he was creating threatened to unravel her.

"Harder baby..." April pleaded, loving the way his hands felt but pining in a way for having his thick throbbing length inside her now that she knew how good it felt. The tall blond complied and stroked her firmly, gripping the back of her neck with his free hand to steady her as she bowed back involuntarily in spasms of pleasure. She cried out as her climax overtook her, riding his hand until she was spent. April took a deep shaky breath, giggling as she came back to earth and leaning in to kiss her lover sweetly when he asked if she felt better now.

"Much. I love you, Axel." April murmured softly, her glassy eyes widening a bit as she realized what had just slipped from her mouth. She knew she had loved him for a long time now, but always been afraid to say it out loud with the uncertain turns their relationship had taken. It just seemed so natural in the wake of what they'd shared together to say it, and she held her breath hoping it wasn't a mistake.

Axel kept April steady in his lap, grinned crookedly as he watched her bow back with pleasure, riding his hand in earnest and crying out to him harshly. He only wished he could have held out for her but in the heat of the moment the thought hadn’t entirely crossed his mind. In fact he was still trying to play catch up, trying to decide as he worked her if he and his girlfriend really just had sex or if this was all an elaborate dream. Hell he had dreams like this sometimes after he smoked; maybe he forgot he even had this time.

As he watched her coming down from her high he smiled at the small airy giggles she gave, returning her light kiss and asking if she felt better now that he had gotten her off as well. Her answer wasn’t quite what he expected but if anything it only made him believe this was real. A look of shock flashed over April’s pretty face and she flushed, scrambling to cover up the words and stammering out something else that didn’t make any sense. He shushed her gently and he could see she was holding her breath and watching in wait for him to return it or reject it and take away their special moment together.

He cupped her face with his clean hand and tilted his head forward until their brows pressed together. “You beat me to it.” He chuckled a little, making her smile again. “April my love for you is the whole reason I’m pushing myself to stay sober, the whole reason I waited for you so you could be my one and only too. I’ve never wanted someone the way that I want you and it used to scare me but now it’s more exciting than anything.” The blond muttered in little above a whisper. “I love you too, April.”

His girlfriend’s eyes watered a little and they both smiled at each other, slowly leaning into one another and kissing languidly, savoring the other like they might never be connected again. When the heat between them slowed he felt April shudder against his frame while they started to settle down. Axel wrapped his arms more tightly around her small naked body above him, kissing her neck and shoulders. “We can go inside if you want. I don’t have much clothes to offer you.” He chuckled, making her smile again and for another few moments she simply traced her fingers over his chest and shoulders, following the very end of the tail belonging to his dragon tattoo that wrapped around one shoulder and down beneath his ribcage.

“I can uhh…” He started, clearing his throat and glancing at her small but still appealing chest. April ran her hand up his chest to his neck, carding her fingers through his hair on either side of his head, tugging his gaze up and she arched over him with a bite to her lip. She asked him to finish what he was saying and his breathing picked up again, “Well I was just saying that I could take you inside and warm you up again.” He smirked into the kiss she offered, her tongue prodding at his lower lip and sweeping into his mouth when he opened it for her.

April pulled back and held onto him still, offering him to come up and see her room here. “Hm… I think I’d enjoy that.” He grinned, kissing her again and reaching into the bench seat once more to grab a couple of the condoms she had stashed there. She blushed and giggled at him, sliding off his lap and grabbing her swimsuit which Axel happily helped her tie up again around her frame.

Once dressed, he took her hand and they walked together back to the cabin a little ways down the water’s edge. Axel followed his lover as quietly as they could back inside and up the hallway to her room in her home away from home. He grinned when April insisted on checking to make sure everyone was in bed truly before the couple could get settled together. The petite blonde slipped back in through the cracked door and nervously bit her lip as she closed it as quietly as she could behind her.

Axel got up and when she turned he was behind her, half startling her. “Look, baby we don’t have to try again tonight or in here at all if you’re worried we’ll be caught.” He muttered, sweeping her bangs off her forehead and behind her ear. She shook her head and promised she really wanted him again, wanted to come together this time. “Yeah I think I can manage that this time.” He murmured, bending his head to kiss at her neck, undoing the tie to her bikini top again.

April mewled as the garment fluttered down to the ground, her bottoms following in a few seconds flat and before she could protest Ax gripped at her hips and hoisted her up into his arms. She squeaked at the sudden change in scenery but he quickly quieted her with another heated kiss to her lips, carrying her the few feet back to her bed and very gently easing their frames down so he was above her this time.

April giggled airily when Axel's mouth left hers, her hands splaying over his back as he settled over her. He kissed his way down her throat to her chest and her giddiness mixed with her growing desire, she felt lightheaded and yet grounded at the same time by Axel's weight pushing her down into the mattress. She wondered if this was sort of what it felt like to be intoxicated, and suddenly the notion didn't seem so unappealing.

April writhed beneath her lover as he gave his attention to her sensitive breasts, her fingers tangling in his thick blond hair. Little gasps escaped her as he teased her rosy peaks with his tongue and teeth, her nervousness at being overheard and caught beginning to be eclipsed by her body's response to his touch.

Axel rose off of her enough to work his swimsuit off his hips again, and she reached up for him immediately to pull him back down against her once he was bare. Now that she'd had a taste of being connected with him April didn't want to go without it a second longer than she had to. Her whole body was tingling with sensation and she was aware of every inch of contact they shared, a little moan escaping her lips as Axel's arousal brushed against her entrance.

He seemed to pick up on her cue and started grinding his erection against her, stimulating her clit and murmuring sweet things to her in a voice just above a whisper. He started sliding more easily against her as her desire soaked his length and April lost track of everything outside of how good he felt, moaning loudly and tensing when she realized she'd done so.

Axel chuckled slightly and hushed her gently through his hoarse breathing, making her blush at the way he was smiling at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." April apologized sheepishly, but he cut her off telling her not to be sorry for feeling good, but that they had to try and stay quiet so her dad didn't bust in here and kill him which only made her giggle more.

Ax kissed her deeply, making her toes curl and heat pool in her lower abdomen and she reached blindly on the bed for another condom where he'd set them on the night table. She handed it to him when they broke apart for air and he put it on himself this time, settling back between her legs and she automatically drew them up to hook around his hips. He kissed her again and guided himself inside her body, a low growl rumbling in his chest as he sank into her fully and April gripped him tightly as he filled her up.

He asked her breathlessly if she was all right and April nodded, dragging her nails up his back to cup his face, "Yes, I'm fine. I love how you feel inside me baby." The petite blonde panted, prodding her heels lightly into his lower back encouraging him to start moving within her.

Axel groaned at her words that only encouraged him to start moving, feeling her feet against his backside urging him on. He kissed her softly once or twice as he started at a slow and steady pace. He tried this time to keep his focus, to think of her body and getting her to that same point of pleasure again only this time in a different way.

He withdrew almost all the way out of her heat only to drive himself back inside of her, making her moan harshly again. "Shh... baby we gotta be a little quieter okay?" He whispered hoarsely, bracing on his knees above her and picking up his pace, conscious of her body. April nodded and dug her nails into the back of his neck in response, her lips pursing and he could see she was struggling to stay quiet.

Axel ran his hands up her sides to her chest, palming at her pert breasts and adding to the sensations in her body. She mewled and pleaded with him to take her rougher and he nodded his understanding her words making his body twitch and throb within her. He slammed into her harder and she bit her lip to stiffle a cry. "God you feel so good Ape." He huffed.

He bent over her and kissed her languidly, swallowing down her moans and feeling her body starting to tremble beneath him. She panted and broke apart from him, her body bowing back against the mattress and her grip on him tightening. She cried his name and uttered she was close and he changed the angle of their hips and no sooner she yelped, fluttering around him and drawing him in deeper, toppling over the edge around him and he followed little after.

Axel panted and lifted his gaze to look at her, trying to catch his breath. He cursed lightly and April giggled a little airly as she came down, making him smile. "I love you baby." He whispered again, kissing her repeatedly and slowly easing out of hee body to discard his protection, settling in beside her again.

April huffed brokenly as she came down from their shared high, floating from the intensity of her peak. Ax settled beside her on the small bed and she immediately nuzzled into him, slipping her small leg between his and tucking her head under his chin. She felt as though their bodies fit together like they were made to be one, and she couldn't help but smile as she lay there entwined with him. 

They spent a long while simply lying quietly in each other's arms, absently touching and kissing. April could feel herself starting to nod off but she fought sleep, wanting to keep every moment of this night forever. "Ax?" She muttered quietly into the darkness, shifting her head to lie against his chest sideways so she could speak more clearly. He made an inquisitive noise in response and she hugged him tighter.

"I'm never going to forget this night. Thank you for making it special." She whispered happily, leaning up on her elbow when Ax responded with a light chuckle stating that all he'd done was been lucky enough to have the chance to spend this night with her. "I mean it, Axel. Waiting to... Give myself to someone has always meant a lot to me. And being with you made it better than I ever imagined. I love you." She uttered with more emotion than she expected smiling against her lover's lips when he leaned up to kiss her in response.

They had every intention of only spending a couple more hours together before Axel would sneak back to the room he was supposed to be sharing with Brandon, but they fell asleep wrapped together after having each other one more time for the night. Around seven am they were startled awake by the sound of Axel's phone ringing and both of them scrambled to untangle themselves still lying naked atop her bed from last night's activities.

"Who is it?" April whispered nervously, sliding herself to the end of her bed and rummaging in her suitcase for a set of pjs to cover herself with now that it was dangerously close to when one or both of her parents would be getting up. Ax reported that it was her brother, and she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried as the tall blond answered his phone.

"Dude, I knew you wouldn't wake up. You better hurry and get your ass back over here before my dad wakes up. God, it's my trip and yet I'm the one taking care of things." Brandon's voice sounded uncharacteristically chipper for so early in the morning, chuckling knowingly because he had been privy to his friend and sister being together all along and knew exactly where Ax had been all night.

 

Axel scrambled to pick up his phone as he woke suddenly at the sound. "Shit." He mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes as he tore her covers up over his naked lower half. April got out of bed and dressed in what she could quickly.

He picked up his phone and looked at the screen his heart racing as he blinked to see it better. "It's Brandon." He half sighed, knowing why the other was calling him, he must have woke and noticed that Axel wasnt sleeping on the floor in his room like he was meant to. He picked it up and tiredly answered it, hearing the tone in Brandons voice and rolling his eyes.

"Yeah and you better wipe that smirk off your damn face." Ax mumbled into the phone, hearing April's brother laughing lightly and warning that if he didn't play nice his dad might find out. Axel grinned and chuckled a little, "You wouldn't do that to Ape and you know it." He said and Brandon told him again hebetter just hurry up and get in his sleeping bag.

They hung up and April asked just what he called for though on her face he could see she knew that Brandon was privvy to their activities. Axel leaned over and kissed her slowly, making her mewl and shudder against him when she sat down. "Don't worry about it okay?" He soothed, brushing his hands up her thighs to her hips and repeatedly kissing her again.

April pushed away and playfully scolded him for stalling. He chuckled, "I can't help it. You're too tempting." He grinned, kissing her a final time before getting out of bed. He didnt miss the way she eyed him as he dressed in his swim trunks again. "I'll see you at breakfast Ape." He smiled, kissing her goodbyebefore slipping out of her room and into Brandons.

The other male was sitting up in bed with a smirk on his face asking how axel slept. "You should probably let that go." He grinned and wandered to his bag to find some clean clothes dressing himself again.

Axel, April and her family spent the afternoon out on the water again, getting everything squared away and back on the road home by the time evening fell. Ax had left his truck parked in front of their house so the young couple said good night at the curb, and the tall blond was bold enough perhaps now that they'd entered this new phase of their relationship to kiss her goodnight in full view of her parents. It felt right and April found herself not even feeling nervous about it, glad that they had come so far considering the road had been rocky more than once.

After that Ax and April were more open about their affections with her family in particular but also with his, Mari seemed beside herself with happiness every time April came over and it made the blonde feel loved and welcome even if there were a few times either Carson or Axel would have to gently remind their mom that she was there to see her boyfriend primarily.

A couple weeks after their stay at the lake house April was a little surprised when Axel invited her over and found that his mom or anyone else for that matter weren't home. He mentioned that Carson was away working and his parents had taken a trip for the week, so he had the place to himself at least until Carson returned in a day or two. April nodded and was about to get herself settled on the couch when her boyfriend caught her up in a tight hug, holding her longer than he usually did for a simple greeting especially since they'd seen each other yesterday as well.

He finally let her go and she smiled up at him with a slightly confused expression, "Ax is everything okay? I'm glad you asked me over for lunch but I thought we were just going to meet up tonight with Brandon and his girlfriend to go bowling." She asked sweetly, noticing slight shadows under his eyes that made her wonder if he hadn't slept well. Axel quickly assured her that everything was fine he just really wanted to see her, have more time for just the two of them before their double date that night.

April accepted his answer but couldn't help feeling like there might be something bothering him. She sat down and waited for him to come back from the kitchen with sodas he offered to get them, but he seemed to be taking longer than needed so she decided to get up and go check on him.

April found Ax standing shirtless over the kitchen sink, holding his t-shirt under the running water. She observed the dark cola spill on the floor and one glass on its side on the counter so it was fairly easy to guess what had happened and she giggled lightly. "Little run in with gravity, huh?" April asked, smiling at her boyfriend when he craned his head back over his shoulder at her and confirmed her assumption with a little chuckle, commenting that this was his favorite t-shirt so he wanted to rinse it and get it in the wash right away. 

"That's understandable. Does your mom have any stain treatment stuff? You should put some of that on the spot and rub it in before you wash it..." April commented, her voice trailing off as her gaze swept over Axel's lean muscled frame appreciatively. Axel responded agreeing to her idea and retreated to the laundry room just off the kitchen for a moment to do just that, returning shortly and April got a good look at his chest as well, and suddenly she wasn't quite so hungry for food as she was for something else.

April helped him finish cleaning up the soda mess, but grabbed his wrist when he started moving away to get out what he needed to fix lunch for them. "Um, Ax..." April murmured, her cheeks flushing a bit as her desire for her lover conflicted with shyness. They had been intimate a few more times since their trip a couple weeks back, but April still felt a little awkward coming right out and instigating anything when she knew it would lead to that after so many years programming herself not to pursue that sort of thing.

Axel sighed as he came back shirtless, helping April finish off with cleaning up the mess he made. He hadn't slept at all last night and reprogramming himself not to go straight to weed for a quick fix was difficult to manage. He didn't want to worry April quite yet by saying anything or mentioning that the last few evenings had been harder for him to handle.

He got straightened up again to start making lunch for them but April's voice caught his attention. He arched a brow at her in wonder, seeing the look in her eyes as they raked over his chest and abdomen. "What?" He smirked at her, making her blush as soon as he spoke.

April delicately cleared her throat and mumbled that she thought lunch could wait. "Aren't you hungry?" He asked, pretending not to notice her fluster. She fidgeted and mumbled that she was but... "But what?" He grinned again and she flushed a deeper shade of red.

"Ape what's up?" He continued the game, stepping closer to her and putting a hand on her hip and wandering into her space. She arched into him and mewled a little as he bent to her level and she closed the distance between them with a hungry kiss.

Axel growled into the contact and tugged her tight against his body. "What do you want baby? Hmm?" He teased a little further, gripping her rear and keeping her locked in place.

April blushed a deep shade of red with Axel staring down at her in such close quarters, a combination of her desire and her slight embarrassment making her feel a little lightheaded. It was obvious in the self-satisfied curl of his lips and the mischievous glint in his blue eyes that Axel knew exactly what she wanted, but he was set on making her voice it aloud for no other reason than he knew it made her blush to talk about such things directly.

"Ax..." April drawled with a note of protest, swaying a bit back and forth in his arms and avoiding his knowing gaze directly. He chuckled and she felt it rumble through her body with how closely they were pressed together. He prodded her once more to come clean with what she wanted directly, playing dumb to the very end and she finally decided she wanted to end this little game. The petite blonde arched back enough to look at him square in the face, summoning her courage and rocking up onto her tip toes.

He bent his head obligingly when she turned her face towards his ear, and April hoped she sounded more sexy and smooth than she felt when she breathed, "I want you to take me to your bed... And make me scream baby." She finished her sentence with a nibbling kiss on the shell of his ear, and April felt a surge of excited satisfaction at the rough way Axel groaned in response.

Axel's hands swept over her backside and he picked her up without any warning, supporting her easily and carrying her briskly out of the kitchen. April giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck for stability, pleased at how well her little attempt at being alluring seemed to have worked. She began kissing a trail from his ear down his neck as he walked, making entreating little noises against his skin and maybe it was coincidence but she rather felt that her touch spurred him to walk faster to his room.

They slipped inside and Axel kicked his door shut behind him out of habit despite the fact that they were alone in the bunker, their mouths clashing together hungrily as he neared his bed. Neither of them had noticed Axel's faithful lab Obi trailing behind them into his room until the dog jumped up on the bed just as Ax was getting ready to set April down on it, making both of them laugh at the animal's attempt to be included in what his people were doing no matter what it was.

Ax chided his dog to hop down but instead Obi just sat down on the bed looking up at them expectantly with his tail wagging. April giggled as Ax set her down to shoo Obi away, hooking his fingers into the lab's collar and tugging him when he stubbornly remained. April felt a pang of sympathy for the dog when Ax chased him out of the room, promising to play with him later as he shut the door on his pet.

"Aw, poor guy. Just wants to be with his humans." April commented with a little pout, giggling a little when Ax crossed the room again and caught her up in his arms. He laughed but started kissing her again immediately, quickly bringing back her original motives for being in here with him in the first place. His hands roamed over her body and April pressed herself against his tall frame, mewling softly into his kisses and tugging at him to get closer to the bed.

Axel gripped her tight and sent them down to his mattress in a controlled topple, smiling brightly at her before nuzzling into her neck and making her hum with want as he trailed biting kisses down her flesh much like she'd been doing to him a moment ago, except this time he didn't stop at her collar bone but kept going further south. He caressed her breasts through the gauzy material of her blouse and bra, still kissing over her tummy and kneeling down on the floor at the end of his bed as he continued downwards.

April was panting and writhing in anticipation, her heart skipping a beat as Ax pushed her skirt up around her hips. She lifted her head up and jolted a bit when he started lowering his head to her center, catching his face with her hand and biting her lip nervously when he asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing, I just... I mean you don't have to, uh..." April stammered, fairly she knew what he was about to do but feeling a sudden pang of self-consciousness at the prospect of the as yet untried activity. A dozen insecurities popped up in her mind all at once, what if he didn't like how she looked up close? What if she tasted weird or he started going down on her and decided he didn't like doing it? April squirmed a bit beneath him, torn between wanting to know what it would feel like to have his mouth on her and being afraid it would somehow turn him off.

Axel hiked up April’s skirt in an attempt to get to her a little easier, his hands running up her thighs to her hips and he was bound to hook his fingers into the sides of her panties and pull them down so he could try this new activity that he actually had been aching for a chance to dive into. April gripped him and stopped him from traveling further south and he figured she would halt his progress out of nervousness.

He lifted his head to ask her what was wrong though he was certain he knew the answer, smiling at her a little when she gave an answer. “I don’t have to eat you out?” He finished casually and he didn’t miss the little moan she gave at the words alone. “But what if I want to eat you out?” He hummed, hands running up her sides with her legs hooked over his biceps. He kept his grin and traced his palms over her breasts with either hand, making her mewl at the sensation and partly distracting her while he kissed her inner thighs.

April muttered his name as he teased her just a little bit further and kissed just where her button of nerves lie beneath her wet panties, nuzzling her a little playfully. “I wanna taste you, Beautiful.” He whispered against her thigh as he dragged his lips and teeth over her skin. Her breathing picked up and she let his head go but rather than mouthing at her again he looked up for his full okay to proceed. The petite blonde nodded, swallowing back her nerves when he smiled at her, “Tell me if you don’t like it okay?” Axel had done a bit of research this time and hell he might have asked his older brother for some pointers on how to get April going while keeping himself in check.

Axel licked her through her panties, lowering his head but not his gaze as he mouthed at her once more, making her moan with excitement. His fingers hooked into the sides of her panties, giving them a single firm tug and managing to get her out of them easily. He eyed April and as he did he noted her attempt to wriggle and cross her legs to hide her exposed sex, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt and muttering something of an apology.

“Baby. Stop. You’re gorgeous all over okay? And wet…” The blond growled out through his heavy breathing, pushing her thighs apart again and he felt April’s hands clasp around either of his wrists. “I’ll stop as soon as you tell me. Swear, Beautiful.” He muttered, bracing closer to her on his knees and using one of his hands to push apart her delicate folds and expose her more openly to him, seeking out her clit he dabbed his tongue over the swollen button of nerves and April nearly screamed her cry of pleasure as soon as he began.

Axel groaned, the sound egging him on and he kept to the same motion only quicker, running his tongue in circles and tiny short strokes as her hips rolled against his face. He closed his mouth and suckled her flesh before flicking his tongue out again to delve deeper into her heat and taste more of her sweet nectar. His eyes grew hooded, almost intoxicated by the act as he watched her writhing beneath him in a matter of moments once she relaxed more fully, her back bowing and her head flinging back as she rode his mouth.

April was honestly shocked by how good Axel's mouth felt on her, she loved the feeling of him hitting the sweet spots deep inside her, but his tongue on her clit was far more dexterous than his fingers and it offered a completely new kind of sensation that sent her spiraling towards her climax faster than she ever had before. The feeling was almost too much to bear, her whole body shaking and the volume of her voice uncontrolled as she cried out her pleasure to him.

Axel devoured her greedily, giving her sensitive clit a chance to recover as he lapped at her, delving as deeply as he could with his tongue and bumping her little button of nerves with the tip of his nose periodically. April's chest rose and fell rapidly in desperate gasps and she jolted when he slid up to the top of her entrance, his tongue finding her clit once more.

"Oh god, Ax! Ah, fuck baby... Yes!" April screamed, she rarely cursed but she couldn't hold anything back as his tongue traced frenetic patterns over her tingling bud. She could feel her orgasm building and her fingers twisted into the sheets at her sides, hanging on for dear life as she raised her had enough to see what he was doing, the heat coming off his gaze as he ate her out only adding to her pleasure. After another moment of delicious torture April felt her release bloom at the apex of her thighs and spread throughout her body, her hips bucking up at her lovers face and her juices soaking his chin. 

Her head lolled back and she cried his name over and over, his relentless pace with his mouth not letting her drop off the high she was riding. April writhed and bowed up off the mattress, scratching her fingers into Axel's thick blond hair and weakly pushing at his face, mewling as her pleasure continued to roll through her until she finally managed to urge him away from her tingling clit.

"Oh my god, that's so good baby... It got to be a little too much even, ah... Wow..." April faltered, giggling helplessly in the wake of her orgasm that was so intense it left her damp with sweat and quivering. She never dreamed she could be so sensitive, if she let him do that to her every night she'd probably have a heart attack or something.

Axel smiled up at her, panting almost as heavily as she was but making sure to ask if she was all right as he wiped his face with the back of his hand. April sagged back onto his mattress, pressing her hands to her flushed face unable to stop the giddy little noises tumbling from her lips as she wound down. "Yes, yes I'm fine. Better than fine. That was amazing, almost too much for me to handle but it felt so good babe. Come here, let me touch you... I'm sorry I just need to catch my breath a moment then I can return the favor." She panted, smiling when Axel admitted he'd actually come when she did, just from watching and listening to her orgasm.

April blushed a bit as he slid back to remove his jeans and boxers that were now a little less pristine, cleaning himself up a bit with the tissues on his nightstand and coming to join her on the mattress. "Really? Just from... From that, it got you off?" April reiterated, feeling a rush of satisfaction at the thought.

 

Axel wiped off his mouth and tried to regulate his own breathing as he came down from his high. He smiled and laughed a little at the giddy noises still escaping her mouth while she settled again. “You okay over there?” He chuckled once more, eyeing her only partly clothed frame. She nodded and claimed that she was, making him grin when she said it was almost too good.

April offered to return the favor but Ax didn’t exactly need help anymore, “Nah we’re even, baby.” He muttered, undoing his belt and jeans to take them off before her. Her gaze flickered up and she bit her lip as he explained. “Made me come just from watching you and hearing you get off from my mouth like that.” He huffed, glancing down and letting his bottoms pool on the floor as he unembarrassingly started cleaning himself up.

She blushed and questioned if he was serious, he gave a nod as he climbed onto his bed with her, sighing and rolling onto his stomach to look up at her. “Yeah. It’s really hot watching your face and hearing you say my name like that.” He assured her softly, giving a shrug. He pushed at her shirt and she giggled at him trying to get her fully naked with him, kissing her belly and making her mewl at the light contact.

April complied with his coaxing and let him help her sit up to tug her top off, her bra and skirt soon to follow. They rested together entangled for more than a few solid moments, kissing and touching until Axel’s body responded more fully, coming to strict attention for her and pressing against her thigh. She grinned into their kiss and pulled back to ask when his brother would be home. “Not sure. Why? You wanna hang with him or something?” He teased a little, making her roll her eyes and kiss him again, putting a little more insistence behind it.

“Oh I’m sorry are you not satisfied?” Ax played, smirking when she swatted at his chest a little and it turn he grabbed her leg and wrapped it around his hip, grinding forward against her body, feeling her own desire wetting his thick length. He groaned at the feeling and focused again on her and the sounds she was making, wanting nothing more than to evoke every damn thing he could from her. “You know…” He muttered, kissing her neck to her ear. “—I think I remember you saying something about making you scream?” He hummed.

April moaned and ground her still sensitive clit against his hardness, riling herself up and he had to resist the urge to take her bare. She pleaded into his ear for him to make good on her request and he smiled, “I think I can manage that just fine.” He said, rotating their bodies and reaching to rifle in the nightstand by his bed for the condoms he had taken to keeping on hand at all times. He took one out and slapped the drawer closed making her jolt as he ground against her hard in the same second. She panted beneath him, her hand shooting down between them to stroke his shaft, making him fully hard for her and he grinned, tearing the packaging with his teeth and her hands dropped down along his thighs above her, watching raptly as he took hold of himself and worked the latex over his length.

She bit her lip in the cute way she always did when she was anticipating but not asking, feeling her nails curl into his thighs just as he braced forward. “Should I make you ask?” He smirked and she groaned his name. Axel chuckled and kissed her deeply almost in apology, surging forward abruptly and burying himself inside her body in one quick thrust. She gasped at his sudden entry and he grinned once more, taking hold of her knees and gently easing her to bend her legs up nearer to her head on either side.

Axel braced on his knees and rocked forward, glancing down and eyeing himself as he penetrated her and drew back out almost completely. He slammed into her more roughly than before, changing their angle and finding that sweet spot deep inside her. April’s hand shot up and she covered her mouth when she let out another scream of pleasure, her eyes screwing shut. He stopped in punishment, “Ape no one’s home baby.” He soothed, nudging her hand away from her face and starting up again, wanting to hear her crying out to him without holding back like she might normally.

April smiled and nodded slightly at Axel's reassurance, letting him brush her hand away from where it covered her mouth and almost instantly she was moaning brokenly for him as he started moving inside her. He pushed her legs back and she gripped the crook of her knees to keep them up, her feet swaying loosely on either side of Axel's head in rhythm with his thrusts. The angle bowed her pelvis up in a way that let him take her as deeply as possible and both of them were uttering their share of gasps and groans.

"Ah.... Oh god it's good... Harder baby, please." April pleaded, her face contorting with pleasure as her body wound up closer and closer to her peak. Axel seemed more than happy to oblige her, bracing his hands and knees and rolling his hips up into her, making his whole bed jostle with the force of his undulating movements. April cried out at the increased sensation, no longer holding back the shuddering screams clawing their way out of her throat. It felt so good being filled up by him, and when she let go of one of her legs to sneak her hand down and tease her still tingling clit, April unraveled completely.

April's voice rose an octave and her eyes rolled back in her head as she came, her muscles clenching around Axel's throbbing length drawing him in deeper. Her fingertips circled her clit faster as he drove into her, drawing out her orgasm till Axel fell over the edge with her uttering a growled curse as he did so. She milked him dry and he slumped forward onto her, panting and chuckling airily. April let go of her other leg to rest over his hip, relishing the feel of him pressing her skin to skin into the mattress.

After another moment Ax tipped and rolled off of her, slipping from her body with a little sigh and discarding his protection while April stretched out more fully again on the mattress. The tall blond curved back down to kiss her languidly, telling her he loved her and while April adored the affection she still couldn't shake the little doubt tugging at the back of her brain that maybe he was being a little too affectionate, like something was bothering him beneath the surface. It was hard to focus much on her misgivings for long in the aftermath of her pleasure though, and she easily relaxed into her boyfriend's arms when he held her.

Carson wrapped up his hunt a lot faster than he might have otherwise, partly because he liked to be efficient but he had to admit that a big reason for his rush was that he didn't want to leave Axel at home alone for too long. With his parents on a rare trip out of town, he knew he needed to be there now more than usual, having heard the younger man crying out in pain and rage in his sleep a handful of times over the last couple weeks. Ax seemed to be avoiding his usual pitfall of hiding from his visions in drugs so far, but... He couldn't help but worry.

The elder Black sibling arrived home mid-afternoon, expecting to find his brother but he noticed April's shoes by the door as well and smiled, glad that she was here with Ax. He wandered to the kitchen to fix himself something to eat, dark brows raising a bit at the rather rambunctious sounds he could here coming from Axel's room even all the way out in the kitchen. Clearly the young couple were not expecting anyone home any time soon. He simply laughed to himself as he made a sandwich, glad that Axel at least had his girlfriend for comfort, hoping that would be enough to keep him from picking up old habits.

\---  
The summer passed by in the blink of an eye for April, it was the best she'd ever had. She spent most of her free time with her boyfriend and the pair were nearly inseparable save for the times when he would leave with his brother or father or both to go on hunts. 

He was on such a hunt the day before their senior year was to begin, his parents getting him permission to start three days late using some elaborate excuse or other since 'hunting down supernatural creatures' likely wouldn't fly. He'd already been gone nearly a week and April was missing him terribly, especially with school starting tomorrow knowing he wouldn't be there yet.

It was getting late and April was hoping to hear from him before she tried to fall asleep, lying in her bed idly flipping through her photos basically wasting time waiting for him since she knew she wasn't supposed to call him first on these hunts in case they had to keep silent. She looked at a few pictures she had of her and Axel kissing in her room two weeks ago, recalling what they'd gotten up to shortly after the photos were taken and giggling lightly. She was definitely not going to be able to leave her boyfriend alone the next time they were alone together. Finally a little past midnight the screen on her phone lit up with Axel's number and she smiled brightly, answering before the first ring even finished.

"Hey Ax, how's work going?" April asked, still feeling a little odd talking to him casually about his 'workday' considering what he was doing was beyond belief. She smiled wider just from the sound of his voice, wriggling a little in her sheets feeling a bit embarrassed that she'd just been thinking about him eating her out a moment ago.

Axel was getting tired on this hunt but hell he was tired every day even at home. The dreams he had got more and more intense by the night and while he still managed to cope, it was getting harder and harder every day. When he finally got a free couple hours, rather than conking out like he probably should, he would call his girlfriend instead to check in with her. He picked up his phone and typed in her number he had memorized since they day he received it, grinning when April didn’t even let her phone ring once all the way through.

“You were waiting up for me again weren’t you?” He teased in a tone little above a whisper, not that he had anyone to disturb. She shyly answered that she had despite that from day one he told her not to so she didn’t have to stay up in case he couldn’t call until early morning, especially given that she had school. He shrugged even though she couldn’t see him physically, hearing her rustling around in her bed a bit. “Good. I should be home in two or three days. Been a couple hiccups and I almost got busted—“ He started, hearing the strain in April’s voice when she instantly asked for what.

He sighed, “I’m not using, Ape. They thought I looked too young to be a Fed, that’s all. I guess another couple guys came in from the agency and tried to run me out but it’s fine now.” He assured, smiling when she apologized for jumping at him like that. “No. You have every right to worry, baby but I love you and… I made a promise.” He muttered lowly, rolling over onto his back more fully, the sheet around his lower half tangling a bit with his legs.

“I miss you.” Ax murmured, his chest rising and falling a little quicker as his mind started wandering to a few ways he had been craving her. “It’s been way too damn long since I had my hands on you.” He smirked, hearing her sharp intake of breath as he spoke those words. His name left her lips airily and she gave a little giggle. “Anyways, how’s your last day of freedom? I’m almost glad I’m not back to jump into all that, despite wanting to see you.” He sighed, listening to her tell him about how her last couple days had been since they really had chance to speak longer than a few moments.

April’s voice cut off and she paused for a moment, he could hear her breathing deeply and his brow arched. “Babe?” He mumbled and she came back through on the other end, apologizing for losing her train of thought that she was trying to gain back. He chuckled and only further when Ape said yet again that she had missed him. “I think you mentioned that.” He teased lightly and she sighed, telling him again that she… missed him. Allof him.

Axel’s lip curled up into a devilish little smirk again, “Ahh. I see. Well unfortunately I’m a few hundred miles away but I’m pretty sure this is what, what’s his name invented the phone for.” He mused aloud, hearing her weary tone on the other end. “Listen, Beautiful. Getting off isn’t nearly as satisfying without hearing you following. Trust me.” He laughed, “It pains me that I can’t run over to your house for a quick round but now that I’ve got some time and I’ve got you on the line… I can tell you about how I’ve been thinking about your taste—“ He began, pausing at her little hesitant mewl.

“I’ve been thinking about the way you look when you come, how good it feels having you on me…” Ax stopped when April urged him to do so but still he smiled. “You’re wet for me aren’t you? April… It’s okay to do it alone even when you’re with someone. Tell me what you’ve been wanting me to do, hmm? And tell me if you can wait three more days for release.” He smirked once more, his own arousal beginning to form.

April felt both excited and uneasy as Axel spoke but the second he mentioned how he wanted to taste her, the scale tipped more towards excitement. Considering that exact scenario had just been filling her mind, when he echoed it she couldn't help the little moan that slipped past her lips. He didn't stop there, his smooth deep voice getting rougher with want and in the dark of her bedroom it was almost possible to imagine he was right there beside her whispering directly in her ear.

April's hand inched down her belly towards the waistband of her pajama pants but before she pushed her fingers beneath the fabric she heard someone walk down the hallway outside her door and a pang of nerves made her think better of going any further. She couldn't really do this, could she? Wasn't it inappropriate somehow? At least that was what the little nagging voice in the back of her head was telling her, that she ought to just be content to wait for Axel to come back.

"Ax, babe I don't think we should be doing this..." April interrupted in a nervous tone, her body feeling overheated from her want so she kicked the tangled blankets off. It didn't help much, especially with what Axel had been saying and the images of him doing exactly what he'd been describing swimming in her head. The young man on the other line seemed unperturbed by her hesitance, not missing a beat since she hadn't technically told him to stop directly.

Axel asked her if she could wait another three days to resolve the desire pulsing through her body, his tone playful and almost like he was issuing some kind of challenge. April bit her lip and squirmed a bit in place, her chest rising and falling rapidly and her heart fluttering.

"Well... I'd rather not wait that long, no." April admitted, suddenly rising up off her bed and going to flick the lock in place, just in case. She felt a surge of giddiness bubble up inside her as she settled back down on her bed, deciding to trust her boyfriend despite her reservations. Axel chuckled on the other end and repeated his request for her to tell him what it was she wanted him to be doing and April giggled nervously.

"Well I... I was thinking about before you left... When you were here. I want to feel your kiss... Your hands on my chest..." April murmured, her voice slightly stammering at first but evening out as she let her free hand glide down to fondle her breasts beneath the t-shirt she was wearing to bed. Axel murmured a response, asking what else she wanted and she could hear the change in his tone that told her his want was growing just like hers was.

"I want... I want you here with me, Axel. I want your head between my legs... I want to feel your mouth on me, your tongue feels so good on my clit baby..." April moaned, her hand finally pushing beneath her bottoms to caress her wet sex, her fingertips drawing her slickness up to swirly rapidly around her sensitive bud. She imagined it was Axel's warm wet tongue working her, a shuddering mewl escaping her lips at the thought. He spoke in a harsh whisper to her in return about how much he wanted to devour her, her digits rubbing her clit and delving deep into her body in turn driving her closer to oblivion. 

"I want you to eat me out till I scream your name, Ax. Then I wanna be on top of you, I want you inside me... Ahh... Fucking me till I come on you... God baby I want you so bad, uhh..." April panted, feeling her orgasm about to sweep over her but she still wanted to come when Axel did if she could just as though they were really together. 

"I'm close, Ax... I'm gonna come baby, oh God!" April mewled, letting her phone tip from her hand onto the pillow by her head to cover her mouth with her free hand, muffling her cries of pleasure though she was sure Axel could still make most of it out with the phone right by her mouth.

 

Axel could hear the changes in April’s breathing, the deeper tone in her voice that told him she was wanting as badly as he was. He shifted in bed, listening to her finally give an answer to his question about what it was she was wanting from him exactly. He could feel his body responding rapidly to the sound of her voice, his own imagination and the things she was telling him she craved for them to be doing together.

“What else, baby?” He urged, his hand pushing his boxers down to free himself more fully. He closed his fingers around his thick length, giving a few slow strokes and making himself fully hard and throbbing the more she continued to speak to him. He could hear her moaning, knowing full well she was working herself in the same moment that he was and it only excited him further, his free hand keeping his phone to his ear to catch every single thing that fell past her lips.

He grunted and groaned, his hand working himself faster and faster. Axel’s toes curled as he felt his own orgasm nearing, “Fuck I want you too, Ape… Ahh God I wanna be buried inside you.” He huffed roughly, his breathing picking up and he panted in response to her warning that she was going to come. April cried out and then her voice sounded a bit more distant than before and he knew she had dropped hold of her phone either to use her other hand or to stifle her own moans.

He focused on the sounds she was making, wanting to come with her and so he pumped his shaft harder and faster, running with his imagination and he let out one final harsh growl as his body tensed and he came against his chest and abdomen, making a mess of himself but in the heat of the moment, even with her not around he didn’t care one bit. He worked himself until he was completely spent from his release, his eyes opening again and his opposite hand clutching the phone so tightly it was digging into his skin.

He let up and tried to gather himself once more, taking slow breaths in and out and hearing April do the same as she came down. Axel rolled over eventually and reached in the darkness for tissue to clean himself up with, wiping his abdomen down and putting the damp tissue aside. Once finished he spoke up, “Ape? Baby you still there?” He half chuckled and the sound must have been enough to bring her back and remind her that he was still on the other line. She picked up her phone again after a couple more moments of her labored breathing, muttering his name and sounding a little embarrassed.

She asked him if he managed on his own and he grinned, “Yeah though I had a little coaching from you so…” He muttered, “You’re allowed to enjoy yourself, Beautiful. Watch a little porn, get comfy, try other things on your own. I know you like it better with me there and trust me I do too but… imagination does wonders. Feel free to call me too and I’ll talk you through it as best I can.” He smiled, hearing her airy giggle on the other end.

They were quiet for a moment or two, listening to the other breathe and only just before Axel spoke up again and broke that silence. “You should send me some pictures.” He suggested. His girlfriend hesitated, stammering out that she wasn’t so sure what he meant exactly. “Like you undressing for me. I like that apple green lace set you got a couple weeks before I left. Just a few shots in it and then… take it off for me?” He responded to which she protested thinking it wouldn’t do anything for him. “Baby I wish I could be there to shake you right now ‘cuz you’re damn sexy in anything you put on or take off. You don’t gotta do it if you’re not comfortable but I promise I’d love them if you did okay?” He assured.

“I love you, April.” Axel muttered, “You gonna be okay?” He teased a little, listening to her return the sentiment and giggle as she promised she was better for now and she would see him in a few days. “Okay Gorgeous. I’ll call you at your lunch period if I can. I should get some sleep and so should you. I hope you have a good day at school tomorrow.”

April counted the days till her boyfriend would be back in person, excited to finally be going to school with him since this semester they shared three classes rather than just the one they'd had last year. They got back into their old habits in no time, almost always having lunch together and meeting up between and after classes, and usually the tall blond took her to and from school as well now that her brother had graduated.

The first month Axel didn't miss a single day of school, but after that April started noticing that she was having to drive herself more and more because her boyfriend would either show up late or not at all. It wasn't occurring every other day or anything so she tried not to worry, justifying his absences with the idea that now that he was no longer doing drugs to cope with his dreams and visions, it stood to reason they'd take more of a toll on him when they happened and cause him to miss class.

She only asked him once if that was the only reason he was missing school again, and when he insisted that he wasn't using April had to take him at his word, after all he'd proven himself all summer long that he could stay clean. April worried for her boyfriend but she didn't want to make him feel like she didn't trust him after how long and hard he had worked, so she let the matter drop and didn't question when he missed school or occasionally cancelled evening plans with her because he was 'too tired.'

On one of the days Axel didn't show up for school, April texted Carson to see if he'd be able to bring home a packet of assignments and notes she'd taken for her boyfriend. He met her at the school and accepted the folder gratefully, assuring her that Axel would be back the next day he'd just had a pretty rough night of visions prior and needed to sleep it off. He left her with a smile and a wave on the curb and April found herself yet again having to push down the anxiety she felt about her boyfriend's condition and try to take what both he and his brother told her at face value.

\---  
Carson drove home and made a beeline for his brother's bedroom where he knew he'd likely find the blond still zonked out from his night of getting high. It killed him to watch his brother going down this road again, especially since it was obvious that April had no knowledge of it or if she suspected anything she wasn't bringing it up. But still he found himself doing everything he could to protect his brother, watch out for him and clean up his messes because he simply didn't know what else to do.

"April put together some notes and make up work for you." Carson stated as he opened the door without knocking, sighing when his sudden entry startled his brother who was crouched by one the drawer he used to stash his weed in and Carson knew that the blond had passed out last night without hiding the evidence of his activities again. He was just lucky it was him who had walked in unannounced, not their mom or dad.

Axel muttered something nondescript to him over his shoulder as he continued to clean up. "She doesn't deserve this, you know. That girl put her faith in you, loves you... And this is how you repay that trust?" Carson snipped, tossing the packet on Axel's bed and crossing his tattoo-sleeved arms over his chest.

"Come on, man. You were doing so well not that long ago... What's different? What's changed that you think you have to do this shit again? That you're risking your relationship with April again?" Carson made himself adopt a calmer tone after snapping at his brother out of frustration, speaking to the younger man's back since he still seemed bent on not facing him fully.

Axel hadn’t been coping with his visions and nightmares well at all and internally he knew why. His attachment to April almost became a weak point and he could have sworn someone was manipulating his usual visions and making every single one of them about her. He held out for as long as he could and while he knew every damn time he lit up again, that he was letting her down and even lying to her now.

The night before had been particularly rough for him, whatever it was causing this to all happen at once he didn’t know but he hated every second of it and he hated what it made him resort to. He had passed out after his third bowl last night because lately one wasn’t enough, he still would rouse and require more and each time he did he smoked another round on his own. Obi whimpered on the end of his bed and he felt even more guilty having been so out of it he forgot to let the poor guy out.

Axel got up in the afternoon finally waking still in a haze and not long before Carson barged into his room, startling him as he stashed away his pipe and what little weed he had left. He mumbled something even he didn’t know what it was but rather than trying to figure it out for either of them, Carson went right into his harsh-disappointed-in-Axel tone. The blond sighed in annoyance as he started his guilt trip that never ended in regards to April. Ax knew all of that stuff, he knew full well she didn’t deserve any of this but that didn’t mean he could fix it in a heartbeat like they both would have wanted.

He ran his fingers through his short cropped hair, stretching his frame out a little more on his bed where he sat. Carson’s tone changed but that didn’t entirely matter to the younger Black sibling, “Just get out of my fuckin’ room, dude.” He snapped, his voice still flowing and relaxed like he was still coming down from his high though really at this point it was just exhaustion. He kept his back to his brother for a long while until Carson asked him seriously what was going on, telling him he was even starting to get worried considering his usage went from zero to sixty within a couple evenings alone and at this rate he’d never have more than a moment or two sober.

He heard the man shuffle forward a few steps trying to get a look at Axel whose eyes were beginning to well. “Because they’re all her! They’re all about her! And the only way to keep me from seeing them or worrying when I don’t hear from her for a while because I think she’s dead is smoking. It’s literally the only fucking way I can get myself to relax! There’s something you’re not grasping about that and instead of helping me, trying to be my bud and my bro you’re playing Daddy’s soldier again and comin’ in here biting my fucking head off.” Axel roared.

He got to his feet and at this point he didn’t know what to do, his stash was running increasingly low and so was all the money he had saved. It was tiring to borrow money from his mom or in most cases ‘borrow’ though he was almost certain she knew it was him but was too damn sweet to even say anything about it. Axel grabbed the shirt off the end of his bed, sniffing it to ensure it was clean enough and didn’t reek of weed like most things he owned by now. His eyes were still blood shot and when Carson reached for him begging he just talk to him then like brother’s would because that’s what he wanted too. But when he did, Ax turned on his heel, dropping his shirt into his opposite hand and using the now free fist against his own brother, full force decking him in the center of his face.

“No.” He hissed, feeling his knuckles throbbing and watching Carson react. “I fucked up pretty bad last time but don’t you fuckin’ pity me now, Carson. If you think for a second that you understand it, you’re wrong, if you think for a second that I can just stop again after everything I see even when I’m awake, you’re fucking wrong. I’ve watched her be raped, watched her die in dozens of different ways, watched her be tortured by demons, kidnapped and sold, hooked on shit even worse than me and none of it is coming true. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing anymore because it drives me up the wall every second of the day.” He snarled through clenched teeth. “You always wait too long for rescues, Carson. That’s what’s wrong with you.”

“Don’t come in screaming and then as soon as I fight back you change your mind. Don’t come in swinging and then back down. Just leave me the fuck alone. I feel like shit and a failure enough without your fucking help.” Axel said in a softer tone, his voice breaking a little as he balled up his shirt and took off with watery eyes out his bedroom door, ignoring Obi who sauntered off after him.

Carson saw the punch coming too late with Axel's loose shirt falling in front of his arm, taking the blow full in the face. Under other circumstances, if he hadn't been the one taking the hit Carson would've been pleased by his little brother's smooth execution. As it was however the elder Black sibling's temper flared from the hit, his body tensing for a fight but he made himself take a deep breath and not follow his instinct to throw a punch of his own.

Blood trickled from Carson's nose but he made no move to wipe it away, watching with a stony expression as Axel continued to rail at him through clenched teeth, his eyes tracking the younger man's movements and expressions. It was clear that Ax was nearly out of his mind from what he'd been subjected to, and though he maintained his stern facade Carson's heart quailed in his chest because he knew what Axel said rang true. He didn't know what to do to help his brother, and he knew that any rescue he might attempt at this point was far too late. He'd always grown up being told it was his job to keep his brother safe, but how could he protect Axel from what his own mind attacked him with?

Ax seemed to run out of steam, his voice trailing off in a defeated tone as he walked around Carson and exited his dank smelling room, but the elder sibling didn't miss the hint of barely suppressed tears in his brother's eyes as he passed. Axel left and Carson's hands balled into fists at his sides, frustration and sorrow bubbling up in his chest making him feel like he might explode. He retreated to his own room and sank down onto the end of his bed, putting his head in his hands and ripping himself apart in his own mind. He was at a loss, there just wasn't anything left he could do to make things better for his brother. "I'm sorry, Ax. I'm sorry." He whispered brokenly under his breath, swallowing hard on the sudden lump in his throat. He'd never felt so helpless.

\---  
"Hey Ax-man!" Mark called out across the yard to his longtime buyer when he came roaring up on a black motorcycle he'd never seen him on before. The tall blond swung his leg over the side of it and approached, yanking off the black and red helmet he'd been wearing. They slapped hands and took up their usual perch on the tail gate of Mark's truck parked behind his garage, wasting no time in lighting a joint to pass between them.

"Tell me you got my money dude. You know I don't wanna hassle you for it, it ain't me bro, but I gotta pay Leo back for the shit. You know how it is." Mark stated bluntly, taking a drag before handing it to his companion. Axel remained quiet for awhile, focusing on taking a hit before anything else. He seemed almost desperate for it, and Mark wondered if the man had blown through his stash he'd bought last week already.

"Ax... You did bring it, right? Leo isn't running a fuckin' charity you know. I sold you everything Leo gave me 'cuz you're my boy, but I was supposed to bring in over a grand for that shit. You said you'd have it by tonight." Mark reiterated with a little more urgency, wondering if he should regret his generosity. After all it was his ass on the line here, not that he wouldn't sell Axel out to Leo if push came to shove.

The blond swore at him around taking another hit before passing it back, nodding his head at the bike he'd ridden in on and assuring him he had the money. Mark looked from the bike to his companion and back, it was a custom built Ducati so it had to be worth more than what he owed Leo, but something didn't sit right about Axel suddenly coming up with a nice bike like this.

"Dude... You steal that bro?" Mark asked incredulously, a little laugh escaping him as the hit he'd taken started affecting his system, the haze making the whole idea seem a lot funnier than anything else.

Axel didn’t know where the impulse came from but maybe it was his desperation at that point, he didn’t have the money, couldn’t pay to keep up with his habit even though it might be cheaper than other drugs. He had never stole anything like that in his life, a few candy bars here and there, some cash from one family member or another but never anything this big and in an almost frightening way it was like an added high, knowing Carson had no idea he took it out.

He climbed up with Mark at his side and sat with his legs lazily dangling from the back of his truck just as he so often did. He knew that all this would catch up with him, taking a long drag from the joint Mark just rolled not but a few moments ago. He let out a breath and sucked the smoke back into his lungs again, inhaling deeply and holding it until he felt the weed settling into his lungs and throughout his system. He listened to Mark talking about Leo and mentioning he needed the money and in reality Axel didn’t technically have it.

“Dude…” He started, taking another drag and letting it out of his mouth and breathing it in through his nose, exhaling the last bit of smoke quickly towards the end. He shifted to lean against the side of Mark’s truck from the inside of the bed, bending his legs at the knee and looking to his dealer and friend as he passed back the joint. “I got it covered, man.” He nodded to the bike that was freshly painted. He didn’t know how much the bike was worth but he knew with all the work Carson put into it and how much he spent, it had to be at least a few grand over what he owed to his dealer.

Axel grinned and chuckled at his companion, kicking at his leg with his foot and making him laugh harder despite choking on his hit. “If you ain’t gonna use it right give it over, jackass.” He taunted, giggling despite himself when Mark tugged away and turned greedily to take his well deserved drag. “Don’t worry about where it came from so long as the money’s coming. Fuck if I sell that piece to Leo, or anybody else man, I’m gonna have a wad of cash walking home with me tonight. I will start paying for your weed when you’re running low, dude. You’ll see. I’m a businessman as of an hour ago. It ain’t stealing if I knew where the keys were. Fucking idiot.” He mumbled, his head lolling back against the side of the truck again and he looked up at nothing in particular.

“That’s good shit.” Ax whispered, his eyes getting a little heavy until Mark nudged him and told him they needed to get moving since he owed Leo for the last month. “Alright. Let’s go!” He yelled, making Mark snort with laughter again even as Axel pushed him and he tipped over in the bed of the truck. Ax laughed as well and rolled out of the tail and onto his feet, stumbling a bit to get his balance. Mark followed not long after and within a few more moments Ax was back on the road but he didn’t remember even getting there.

He swerved in the road, following Mark’s taillights for what felt like hours when it was really only a couple miles traveled, pulling up to Leo’s place. The tall dark haired man was already sitting outside his rental home, the front yard a complete mess but that kind of stuff never really mattered to any of them. They each bumped fists in turn and Ax shoved his hands in his pockets, leaving the helmet on the seat of the motorcycle while they went to make a deal with the grower. “Marky. Gonna need that money before I can replenish your merchandise. Costin’ me money to keep the lights on. You got it or not?” Leo asked with a nod more directed at Axel, clearly knowing where the source of the dwindling stash was coming from.

“Gonna do you one better. I’m gonna sell you that bike over there, half price, just rebuilt, custom made, fresh paint, full tank. It’ll cover what we owe and get us another pound right? You don’t want it, you can post it on Craigslist and make some extra cash.” Axel bargained and Leo seemed to be contemplating the idea with a few bobs of his head, taking a hit from his own joint and wandering to inspect the bike more closely by the lights of Mark’s truck.

Just as they were about to shake on it, Axel’s heart lurched at an added sound he wasn’t so sure if he made up in his mind or not. Flashing lights whirled around his head and in his eyes and before he could even blink, Leo had bolted on them both, hopping the fence into his neighbors yard and leaving his joint burning in the ground. With one quick look to Mark, he knew this was in fact real life. “Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.” He chanted, bailing out and nearly tripping over his own feet as an officer yelled at them both to get on the ground.

Another patrol car pulled up lights and sirens going already as well and he could hear more on the way. Clearly Leo’s operation had been under surveillance long enough that they were simply sitting in wait for the chance to get him in cuffs while he was outside. Axel took off like a shot and his mind hardly even caught up with his actions, grabbing the helmet and tugging it on but leaving it unbuckled, he kicked the ignition and it started up instantly, revving the engine as he hopped on and took off at top speed, whatever the bike would allow.

He could hear them following but something in his mind told him not to stop, he had his own stuff on him, the last few pills he had bought a while back from Mark’s buddy and he hopped that Leo might want to take off his hands. The blond kept cursing repeatedly as they tailed him, the motorcycle only allowing him to go so fast on the winding back roads behind Leo’s place. He didn’t know where he was headed at all but his adrenaline was pumping and fueling him to keep going and going, maybe until he ran out of gas and with the high he felt, he almost thought he won. They’d give up on him at some point right?

Axel’s blue eyes, bloodshot and yellowed from his high, darted around in front of him, looking for a place to make a foot bail and run for somewhere to hide. He looked over his shoulder and an officer announced for him to pull over, giving the last warning. Through Ax’s distraction and clouded mind he hadn’t thought to slow down over the speed bump, hitting it and driving the bike up into his groin, he hissed in pain but that wasn’t the worst he felt, not even for a second.

In a flash, the bike wobbled out of control and he tried to correct it and keep going but he couldn’t manage, flipping onto it’s side and dragging Axel’s body with it along the gravel roads. Any smart and sober biker would wear things to protect against these sort of crashes, he could feel road rash along his entire left side, his head colliding with the ground and the helmet he wore bounced off his head, his hands instinctively letting the handle bars go and finally he came to a stop.

He groaned and made the attempt to sit up but his body protested against it, “Stay on the ground! You are under arrest!” He heard a cop hollering at him repeatedly as his vision blurred in and out, in a complete fog. Axel’s eyes opened just as another officer pounced on him, pinned him down and yanked his hands behind his back as he pushed his face into the dirt. He didn’t fight anymore, his eyes welling up but not out of physical pain.

“Lock me up!” He challenged as he glanced at the remains of Carson’s bike that had dragged along the ground and taken a pretty heavy beating. The officer yelled at him to shut up while another asked if he needed medical attention. “That’s a stupid question.” Ax coughed, closing his eyes again and the first officer who cuffed him questioned if he had anything on him. “I got pills in my boot… I think my pipe is stabbing me in the leg.” He huffed through his pain, feeling a sharp jab that indicated his glass smoking pipe was shattered in his pocket from the spill he just took.

They asked him why he ran and he shook his head, “I got scared.” He admitted, his heart still pounding and he felt even more stupid as the EMT looked him over, being transported in the back of the ambulance to get his head checked at the hospital first before he could even be booked in. They asked him a series of questions and it was hours before he even got to make a phone call, given all his charges at this point and they told him his bail costs. It was high for the fleeing and eluding as well as the possession charges he just got dinged with.

Carson had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel the whole drive out from home to the hospital where his brother was being examined before being carted off to jail. He'd gotten the phone call from the police a little after three am, informing him of what happened as the owner of the bike they'd caught Axel trying to sell to a drug dealer that night. When he'd told them he was the thief's older brother they'd been willing to share more, that he was high and in possession of drugs when they finally caught up to him after he took a spill off the stolen bike.

Carson sped the whole way there, his mind running in a loop of panic, anger, and brief flashes of relief that his brother was still alive. He didn't know how he was going to cover this up. He'd been able to clean up Axel's messes up until now, but... The longer he went over it in his mind the more he was coming to the conclusion that it was finally time for him to stop. That maybe the only way he could really help Ax anymore was to make him clean up his own messes now. He just had to hope that the young man would actually pull himself up and do that, rather than let himself be swallowed up in his own self-destruction.

Carson arrived at the hospital and found the room where Axel was, two stern looking police officers standing on either side of the door. He informed them who he was and they let him pass through, and it took everything in the elder sibling not to break down at the sight of his younger brother moaning with pain as a nurse cleaned and bandaged the livid abrasions covering almost his whole left side. Ax was handcuffed to the hospital bed but it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere on his own soon with how banged up he was.

"Axel." Carson uttered in a stony tone of voice, getting his brother's attention. The younger man's bloodshot blue eyes filled with tears almost instantly when he realized who it was, and the first thing he asked was if Carson was here to get him out of here.

"No Ax. You're going to jail." Carson retorted, his tone clipped and it was only by the skin of his teeth that he kept his voice from cracking with emotion. Axel's eyes widened with shock, almost as if he'd never really believed until this second that his big brother wouldn't be able to get him out of this somehow, like he'd always done before. But this was too big, for Carson, for both of them to hide. And Carson was done hiding things big or small from their parents now anyhow.

Axel sputtered with disbelief, involuntarily yanking on the restraint holding him to the bed and starting to sputter an apology through his tears, pleading that he was sorry about taking his bike, for wrecking it, for getting into such deep shit but swearing he'd clean up his act if Carson could just bail him out this time, help him out of this somehow just one more time. Even as he sobbed out the words however, he seemed to know already that there was no coming back from this.

Carson swallowed hard and shook his head, making himself stay strong though his instinct was to do exactly as Axel begged, find some way out of this for his little brother, take away his pain and suffering if only he had the tools to do so. "Forget about the fucking bike, all right? I can't get you out of this Ax, not this time. The officers said minimum jail time is three days, might be more before they'll let you out on bail, and it's not exactly small change for what you got charged for." Carson replied, breaking his gaze with Ax to stare at the floor when it got to be too much to keep looking at the raw pain and fear in his sibling's eyes.

They were quiet a moment while the nurse kept up her task, politely pretending not to be in the middle of this obviously deeply personal discussion while she worked. Finally Axel asked if he'd told their parents yet, and the dark haired brother shook his head. "No. I haven't said a word to them, and I'm not going to. I came here to make sure you were going to be all right from your injuries and to collect what's left of my bike. But I'm done trying to cover for you. I'm not gonna soften the blow. You'll get a phone call when you get to the jail... Use it to call dad and tell him where you are and exactly how you got there." Carson finished, almost choking on the last words from how much it pained him to speak them. But he meant every word, he finally realized it now, he had to make Axel start taking responsibility for his own mistakes, or he was never going to stop making them.

"Good night Ax. I'm glad you didn't get too seriously hurt. I'll come see you tomorrow." Carson added, his tone deteriorating and he turned and walked about before his brother had a chance to say anything back to him, because if Ax pleaded with him one more time he was sure he'd fold.

“Car. Please.” Axel begged his older brother, pulling away from the nurse a bit and trying to keep his best friend from leaving him. If that’s even what Carson was to him. “I’m sorry about the bike. I’m sorry I had shit on me… I’m sorry I ran. I won’t screw up again. If you bail me out of here I won’t touch the stuff again, Carson I swear.” He insisted, a choking sob ripping its way out of his throat and his face contorted as he started crying and yanking the restraint on his wrist in frustration, the added pain only a further reminder of this being real life. “Just help me. One more time. I’m your brother.”

Even as he spoke, he knew it was no use trying, knew that if they really were as close as Axel sometimes liked to pretend they still were, that he would never have taken Carson’s bike in the first place. He supposed that was what addiction did to you when you were so desperate for another high. He never would have thought that a recreational drug such as Marijuana could hook him in so deep but when he thought about it, addiction was addiction and he was almost positive in his mind he was still going to want that high out of that thought that he needed it.

As Carson reminded him of his charges and the money he would now be costing his family, chunks of change they probably didn’t even have for all he knew despite that his dad worked a steady job now outside of the hunting industry. He laid his head back a bit, wincing at what the nurse was doing when his older brother brushed him off though he knew why. Axel was stuck now, the only other option was to contact his mom or dad and he knew he couldn’t face his mom with this quite yet, not while it was all still fresh. Maybe Carson would at least help to ease her into that sort of thing.

He bit hard at his trembling lower lip to keep it still, not wanting to be sitting there crying in front of two officers as well as the sweet nurse beside him that seemed well adjusted to working with criminals and convicted felons. He wanted to scream for Carson to come back, beg him again for the one final shot but as he closed his eyes and focused on the pain that only he brought upon himself, the reasons he was lying in this medical exam room in the first place, he couldn’t even bring himself to open his mouth again.

It was several hours before Axel got released from the hospital, nearing early afternoon by now and once cleared for his head injury as well as the road rash along his entire left side—making him wonder if the tail of his dragon tattoo was completely torn to shreds by this point—he was set for his booking. They cuffed him and took him in the back seat of a squad car, the radio play and the air blowing into the back seat a little bit. It almost felt too luxurious for him with all that he had done, watching the world go by out his window and for the next few days it might be the last bit of daylight he saw.

Axel was booked in for a number of charges, offered to use the phones once the process was complete and then he would be taken back into a cell with three other guys since space was limited. The tired grey jumpsuit they gave him still reeked like it hadn’t been washed since the last person wore it and left it behind. He was padded down three separate times and in a sense he felt violated having to strip and change in front of other inmates and officers, not to mention he wasn’t even allowed to wear his own boxers.

Still he didn’t complain once, hardly spoke a single word except when the nurses asked him about his drug abuse, sexual orientation, gang affiliation, and if he wanted to hurt himself or had history of doing so. He wandered with his papers in hand, his fingers still black with ink from being finger printed, picking up the sticky blue phone and dialing out to his Dad’s cellphone. He took a moment to swallow down the lump in his throat when it rang a third time and finally his father answered, his deep voice coming through almost confused as to why he didn’t recognize the number considering only three people every really called him.

“Dad.” Ax whispered, the man saying hello again, clearly not hearing his small voice so he cleared his throat, “Dad it’s Ax.” He tried once more, fidgeting where he was leaning against the wall by the phone. “I umm… Dad I got arrested and I didn’t have enough money on me to bail myself out and I was uhh… I was wondering if you’d come get me when they release me in a week?” He asked in a quiet tone, figuring his father only heard half of it. He winced as the man’s voice raised, something that he never really got the brunt end of, usually Carson took all the heat being the oldest brother.

Parker asked him what the hell he got busted for and how come he couldn’t afford a couple hundred dollars in bail. “I—“ He choked, starting to cry again but he didn’t want to do that, not here. “I got popped for being on a crime scene… sort of? Umm… I was at a growers house, trying to pawn off Carson’s bike for weed money and to pay off some debts I owed to a couple people. Dad would—I know. I’m—“ He kept being cut off by his father’s angered voice, he was likely at work right now, or going on lunch soon.

“I’m sorry! Dad, I got charged with possession on two counts, paraphernalia and controlled substance; DUI; possession of a stolen vehicle; and fleeing and eluding.” Ax admitted with a heavy sigh, trying to keep his emotions in check as he rested his forehead against the cold cement wall out in the booking room. “My ‘court date’ was like twenty minutes ago and judge sentenced me to a week jail time which is getting off easy. I’ll be released on probation probably for a year. My bail is like… four grand or more. If you call the department they can tell you all my charges and when you can bond me out. Dad please I don’t wanna be in here. If you don’t bail me out I can rot in here for six months to two years. Please.” He begged, “I’m sorry.”

The three days that the rest of the Black family had to wait in order to visit Axel in jail were excruciating. It'd kicked off with a one-sided screaming match that night after Axel's call to his dad, Parker laying into Carson for not telling them about what Axel had been going through and up to. Carson had simply stood absolutely still and silent, taking everything his father had to say knowing the man was completely beside himself with shock and hurt from getting such a bomb dropped on him. 

Carson blamed himself largely for how bad things had gotten with Axel, but he didn't know how to explain to his dad that he'd only been trying to protect his brother like he'd always been told to when it had all gone so sideways on him. He had taken all that Parker had to dish out then left the bunker, unable to bear his father's disappointment and his own guilt. Despite Mari's pleas that he come home, he hardly spent more than ten minutes in the bunker for the next 48 hours.

After Mari got over her own initial shock and distress, she'd pleaded with Parker to use the savings account they'd been quietly growing over their sons' lives to get Axel out of jail, her tears eventually winning her husband over more than anything with how angry he was at his sons and himself for not seeing things for how they truly were all this time.

The day finally arrived for Axel's visiting hours and Parker insisted that Mari stay behind, not wanting to subject her to the sight of her youngest boy behind bars and she tearfully agreed. Carson and Parker had hardly seen or spoken a word to each other since the blow out the first night, but still met up with his dad and went with him to the jail without any argument from the elder Black male.

Parker and Carson filled out all the paperwork and waited their turn till they could see Ax. They were escorted to a small room with a table and three folding chairs, waiting again in stony silence for Axel to be brought in. After awhile a guard entered the room with Ax in tow, dressed in his ill-fitting gray jumpsuit and his wrists cuffed. It had only been a few days but with how pale and haggard the young man looked it seemed more like it had been a couple weeks. Carson's eyes darted from his father to his brother and back, fighting down the urge to speak up on his brother's behalf despite knowing full well Axel had landed himself here on his own choices.

Axel sat down in his chair and the guard methodically attached his cuffs to the table, then left to give them their short period of privacy Parker had managed to garner. Parker solemnly took the chair opposite his youngest son but Carson remained standing, taking a pace or two back to lean against the wall facing them, the normally laid back young man far too keyed up to be able to sit still.

"So. How's the road rash healing up? Car said you got banged up pretty good." Parker started off, his tone not sounding very sympathetic.

What Axel had been through in his life didn’t even match up or compare to the last few nights in jail. The very first night was Hell but it hadn’t started out that way for him. Ax had been suffering through severe nightmares of April even confined in a space like this and apparently yelling and talking in his sleep through each on. His bunk mate had dragged him out of bed and forced him to the ground, calling him crazy and telling him to shut up so they could all sleep. As much as Axel apologized it only made him seem weaker in their eyes and he took a few harsh hits from the larger man who later on the next evening reported his disruptions.

Ax was sent to solitary confinement not as punishment but to keep from causing another uproar like he had the night before, despite not even trying. Being locked up was bad enough, being sent to another side of the jail with people who screamed and cried all night and having to suffer through that in a tiny one manned cell was worse. Not but within a few hours had his neighbor tried bashing his own head open against the door and Axel simply watched through the tiny slit in his door that they called a window. He brought all of this upon himself and he would take every second of it as a reminder.

The second night he didn’t sleep but an hour or two, waking up shaking and in a cold sweat but it didn’t matter how high your fever ran you were only allowed one jumpsuit and one blanket. The third night he didn’t even try to rest his eyes at all, staying up in the pitched black room of his cell and listening and counting each step the guards made as they made their rounds. It was probably better he stay awake anyhow to avoid being labeled insane and trapped here longer or something.

By the time he was hauled out and told his dad and brother were here, he was exhausted, defeated and his only entertainment had been picking at the scab forming along his leg where glass shards used to be. He ceremoniously stuck his hands by the food cubby so the officer could cuff him, waiting like he was meant to and following orders to the visiting room they were given for a maximum of thirty minutes. Axel could hardly look at either of the two men when he entered, figuring that with only having had a shower when he arrived and nothing more until they would allow it later that evening, he looked like haggard shit.

Ax sat down and the guard locked him in place along the metal table so even if he tried to run he would more likely yank his arms out of place first. “Yeah. It’s fine.” He mumbled, hanging his head a little to avoid the man’s stern gaze. He didn’t want to complain at a time like this, fidgeting with the sleeve of his jumpsuit that hung too low on his wrist. “I’m supposed to get a shower time tonight and the nurse is coming to… to my cell to change out my bandage after I think.” He told his father, both of them staying quiet for what felt like hours, each moment ticking by and making Axel more nervous.

“Dad I don’t want to be in here. It sucks. I think since they stuck me with all the crazies my visions are getting worse.” Axel told him, hoping in part for some sympathy on that field at least. Parker didn’t offer much of anything, leaning forward with his hands clasped on the table and if anything his silence made the boy more nervous. He shifted in his own seat but he couldn’t pull back any more than he already was. “Please just tell me, are you bailing me out or what?” He asked but his father wasn’t having that right now, instead wanting a few more answers.

Parker’s eyes locked on Ax’s and he didn’t allow for the younger of the two to break gaze, making him fidget again as his father asked how long this had all been going on. “Uhh… Since Freshman year I guess it got really bad.” Ax said, “My visions didn’t get quite as vivid until then and then they got more consistent and when I met April for a while they slowed down so I thought she was like my fix and was keeping them away. Then I started having them about her and smoking was more of a casual thing I guess, I don’t know.”

Ax winced again and the motion jarred his injuries which only made it worse listening to his father start to lay into him about how casually he was discussing these things. “I’m not. I just don’t know what you want me to tell you or what you want me to say.” He choked out, his eyes starting to well. “Do you want me to tell you about when I first tried Ecstacy? When I almost shot up with my dealer and if I hadn’t gotten a text from April telling me she was home that I probably would have? Do you want to know about what I see in my nightmares every time I close my eyes and every time I open them it replays for days on end? The shit I’ve thought was going to happen to April or Mom or Carson or you that isn’t coming true? It’s driving me nuts! Or do you want me to start with that it got so bad I stole my older brother’s bike after taking the last of mom’s cash the night before just because I wanted to ensure I got a weeks worth of weed again because I was in so deep?”

Axel’s cheeks stained with tears, no longer looking for pity or sympathy or someone to comfort him. He was broken, hitting rock bottom and lingering there wasn’t exactly the plan he had for himself. “Or do you want me to tell you that I’m not going to graduate now because they won’t allow me on campus anymore after this? That the wrestling scholarship I was crossing my fingers for is now completely ripped out from under me all because of one night. Because I didn’t know how to ask for help and I wouldn’t let Carson in enough to even try and be on my side.” He hissed, tears streaming from his eyes. “How scared I was of the things I saw to the point that I thought if I told you or mom I might be institutionalized? Where do you want me to start, Dad?!” He didn’t mean to raise his voice but he had and he regretted it instantly, breaking his teary gaze from the man across from him and instead glancing at the cuffs he wore.

“You’ve never sat down and talked to me about your own abilities or what to expect with mine. It was stupid. I know that but I couldn’t stop myself no matter how much I tried to listen to the voice of reason.” He spoke softer now, little above a whisper, letting out a shaky breath. “It wasn’t supposed to get to this point but I know that as soon as I get out temptation is going to be there because I don’t know how else to make it stop.”

"Oh Axel..." Parker sighed, a mixture of frustration and sympathy in his deep voice. The older man hunched forward in his chair, propping his elbows on the metal table and tipping his brow down against his laced knuckles. "God, why couldn't you- either one of you, have just come to me with this? Ax, your mother and I can't help you with problems we don't know about. You've suffered so much, for so long..." He lifted his head and fixed his younger son with his level blue stare, ensuring that the boy wouldn't interrupt him while he spoke.

"I had no idea it had gotten so bad for you. I never talked to you very much about my own visions and the issues that come with them because as psychic mediums of sorts, we're highly suggestible. I didn't think you were having much trouble with your gift, and I knew from what my mentor taught me that if I started telling you a bunch of stories of my own night terrors and seeing people killed and mutilated... It could very well cause you to start seeing those things just because I told you about them." Parker rubbed his large tattooed hand over his face and finally showed his son a look of true sympathy. "I'm almost positive that your visions are involving April now because of how closely attached to her you are. You're afraid of losing her, and that's translating into your gift creating all sorts of terrible scenarios in your mind. There are ways to overcome that, manage it. Healthy ways that take discipline sure, but won't land you... Here." He continued, glancing at their current surroundings with a grimace.

"When you were a boy your visions were always so much more immediate, more mundane than mine and I thanked whatever God might be out there that you seemed to be less affected. I thought as long as you had us and your older brother looking out for you, supporting you that you could live a fairly normal life. If I had known..." Parker's voice trailed off and he turned to fix another glare at his older son, and finally Carson couldn't hold his peace he'd maintained for days anymore.

"Dad-" Carson croaked, his voice cracking with emotion but he made himself continue, "I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry! I failed you and mom, I failed Ax... I get it. I just didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to help him, I was only a kid myself for Christ's sake! I know how I handled it was wrong, only put a lid on things instead of fixing them, but... I thought if I could clean up after him, save you guys the pain of everything that was going on, eventually maybe it'd get better. I don't know, maybe if I just covered for Axel long enough he'd start making the right choices, and you'd never have to know." Carson hissed through his teeth and glanced tearfully at his brother chained to the table before them, wishing he had some way to change places with him, suffer in his stead. 

"I hated it. Every single day I hated myself for looking both of you in the eye and lying. But I- I didn't want Axel to get in trouble, I didn't want you to know I wasn't... Wasn't handling everything perfectly like I should. Like you always taught me. But now I understand that it was never going to get better on it's own, I couldn't fix it for him. So I had to stop pretending." Carson finished, immediately scrubbing away the tears escaping his dark lashes that he couldn't hold back. "I'm sorry dad... I'm sorry Axel. Some older brother I turned out to be." He finished, chuckling bitterly in spite of himself.

Parker's gaze softened marginally, seeing the burden his older boy had been carrying all this time and how it had weighed on him. Knowing he was largely responsible for making him think he had to carry it alone. "No, I'm sorry Car. It wasn't right of me to demand so much from you like I did. It wasn't right for me to turn a blind eye to your suffering, both of you." He glanced back at his younger son and put his hand over Axel's cuffed one. 

"I didn't know you were having such a hard time, I should've pushed harder to know what was going on with you. But this... This isn't something we can just close the book on when you get out of here Axel. I know it's awful for you in here, but this doesn't even begin to tackle the real problem, and that's managing your gift and your addiction." Parker sat up straighter again and blinked back the mist from his own eyes, hating that he had to get up and leave his boy here again tonight.

"No matter what's happened up till this point, we're still family. We're all going to support you Ax, get you the help you need. But I can't just wave a wand and fix it for you, you're going to have to decide you want to live a real life, and work hard to get it. Really hard. Will you do that, Axel? Because if the answer isn't yes, then I might as well just leave you in here, because this is where you'll end up, or worse." Parker's voice wavered a bit with emotion but he managed to maintain, hating that his son had gone through so much already and now faced even more hardship. Only this time he'd have his family's support to get through it, one hundred percent.

Axel didn’t know what to say to his father but he knew better than to cut him off when the way he was looking at him, indicating if he even tried to open his mouth he might lose his shot of getting help at all. So he swallowed down his last bit of pride, or was that hurt and anger towards himself, the lump in his throat become so large it was almost painful to keep it all back. He hated crying in front of Carson but most of all he hated crying in front of his father even at the lowest point in his life when he felt so broken and run down.

When his father spoke though it was the first time he ever felt like there was some sort of hope, a tiny light pointed in his direction urging him out and back towards his family and his old life. When Carson spoke up… Axel lost that last brick holding up the flood gates, tears falling heavily down his face and onto his jumpsuit as he tilted his head forward. He knew all the pain he caused his brother but there was nothing he could say to take it back, nothing he could do to make it better. They had to move forward and hope to start all over from the ground up and Ax was motivated by the two other men’s conversation, convincing him that it could happen.

Axel listened close and careful to his father before him, lifting his head to finally meet the man’s mirroring blue gaze. This was his last shot to try and reinforce what he had, the fact that they were even willing to help him meant a whole hell of a lot to the boy. He felt in a sense like he was a little boy again, craving that encouragement and promise that despite his wrong he was still loved, that even though he broke something, his dad would pick up the pieces right along with him.

The blond swallowed and nodded when his father looked to him, waiting for some sort of response to his request. He took a moment to even muster up the courage to say anything at all, looking out over at his brother as if for confirmation he thought it was worth it too. His eyes darted back to their dad and he nodded once more, “If I get out of here I’m never going to come back. I know it’s really hard to take my word for it when it’s been all lies and deceitful things all the time but just… please? One last shot. I’ll put in my all and turn this around and learn what I can to control my abilities.” He vowed, this time far more sincerely than when he swore to April or Carson he wasn’t doing anything bad.

Parker’s voice broke as he thanked his son and squeezed his hand, bringing up that he talked to Mari and they made a plan. Axel stayed still as he listened to said plan for bailing him out, nodding when his father went on to explain that they had put money away for a rainy day for the boys, for college, a home, a car, a wedding, whatever they would end up wishing to use it for when it came to big events in their life. The blond swallowed again, his hands shaking a little from his emotions that had been pent up for so long and now were all released at once. Here his father was, offering the only savings they probably had in their names and he was blowing it on his son’s bail money.

“Dad I—I don’t know if I can face mom after that.” He mumbled to his father but the man shook his head at him, promising that she okayed him doing this already. She knew where he was exactly and while none of the boys wanted her to have to see this, it was still painful for him to know that his mother was giving up everything she had put away just for them so he could go home again.

Axel wiped his eyes on his shoulder as best he could, “Okay. I’ll do every damn thing I can to pay you guys back for it.” He promised, agreeing to the terms that his dad just laid out for him. “Are you taking me home then?” He asked hopefully, “I can’t stand it another second; I don’t sleep at all.”

Axel's reunion with his mother that evening was tearful on both sides, Carson had trouble keeping his own tears in check once more as he listened to his brother apologizing over and over to Mari. Despite him being very much taller and broader than the petite brunette nowadays, she gathered him against her all the same, supporting his weight and cradling his head on her shoulder. It seemed like a relief for the young man to finally be able to cry like this with his mother, his shoulders shaking and his voice cracking as he sobbed into the crook of her neck. It was something he probably wouldn't have let himself do with Parker or Carson but he clearly needed a place to let all his pent up sorrow out.

The small family spent the next day together, talking things out from years back and working on building again what had been broken. Nothing was spoken aloud but Parker, Mari and Carson all quietly made sure that one of them was with Axel at all times, for support but also as a buffer to keep him from retreating into his addiction that was still so much a part of him. Mari especially did a lot of research and found what looked like a good rehabilitation facility that was even in their own state, and they all decided as a family that it would be best for Axel to go there.

"Now this place is going to help you deal with your addiction, help you get your GED, but... You have an extra level of difficulty that this place isn't exactly equipped to help you with. They won't understand that the visions you have are different from something like schizophrenia and that sort and you need to learn to manage living with them every bit as much as you need to work on your drug addiction." Parker explained to his son across the table when they were all looking at the center's website together and filling out Axel's paperwork online. 

"I called in a few favors, and someone that gave me a lot of good advice is going to drive out the end of this month, come see you in rehab every day for a few weeks. She's a psychic named Renee Whitcomb and if it wasn't for her I probably would've gone off the deep end decades ago." Parker continued, smiling a little crookedly when Axel balked at the idea, stating that it was far too much for him to expect her to uproot her life for him like that.

"Trust me Ax, she won't mind. I saved her kid's life... Back when I was your age as a matter of fact. She considers it returning the favor in a way." Parker chuckled, raising his hand to stop any further protest from his younger son, "I'll be coming to see you too, help you manage your gift also. Now that we know exactly what we're dealing with, things can get a lot better for you Ax. I promise." Parker nodded at Axel, finally convincing him that he didn't have to worry about being a burden to his dad or his friend who was coming to help him.

After that was settled, Parker volunteered to go and get takeout for dinner since Mari certainly had had way too much on her mind recently to prepare meals. Mari decided to accompany her husband and that left the pair of brothers alone together for the first time since Carson had first come and seen Ax at the hospital. They had all talked a lot as a family so much of the tension was gone, but still the air seemed a little heavy between them as they sat across from each other at the kitchen table.

"You haven't asked me about her yet." Carson finally piped up, not looking directly at Axel, his clear blue eyes trained on his beat up black wristwatch he was idly fidgeting with. This whole time Axel hadn't said one word about his girlfriend, and he couldn't exactly check his cell phone since it had been utterly smashed to bits in his tumble off Carson's bike. It had to be eating at him. Axel said nothing for a long while, finally asking in a small voice if April had contacted him, or if perhaps he had just told her what happened on his own.

"I did. I mean I didn't tell her everything, but she called me in a panic the morning after you got booked when she couldn't get a hold of you all night. She's... She's worried about you, I know that much. If you wanna use my phone to call her, or if you want me to go with you to see her..." Carson asked, his voice trailing off when he saw Axel's shoulders start to shake slightly again with sobs he couldn't quite hold in.

Axel wasn’t sure what he liked better, everyone there watching him or being left alone with Carson and the still pent up tension between them. He glanced at his brother but he didn’t say anything, the air between them still too much in his eyes to know how to address his brother. Plus there was one thing he was itching to ask was the one thing he felt he couldn’t ask or might just make things worse.

Carson was first to break the silence, clearly knowing just what he was thinking about. Ax sat stiffly in his chair, he didn’t even need to say her name for him to know who he was referring to. He hung his head and didn’t look at the other man directly, “Did April call you or did you call her and tell everything that happened?” He finally managed to ask in a tiny broken voice. It killed him to think that he had dragged her through something like this, that he wasn’t the man she needed or wanted him to be.

His lip started trembling as he turned his head to the side, not wanting his brother to see him crying like this. Axel listened to his answer and it only furthered that he screwed up things beyond repair most likely. His shoulders shook suddenly and he finally broke down for her once more, sobbing silently and unable to control the tears streaming down his cheeks onto his shirt. His hand shot up and he brushed his fingers over his moistened eyes to try and clear them but the tears flowed too fast for him to do much of anything with.

Carson got quiet, letting Axel cry it out for a little while before he decided it was time to speak up. He leaned forward and sighed, suggesting that they talk to her in some way. She would at least want to hear from him in some form directly. Axel took a moment to get himself under control, rubbing at his wet eyes and sniffling as he tried to respond. “I don’t know… I don’t know what’s harder, seeing her and explaining or just… letting her go.”

It took a little convincing from Carson but Axel finally agreed on at least trying to go see April, after a few texts back and forth between the three of them with Carson being the buffer since it was his phone after all, they decided on a time. His older brother drove him out and Axel fidgeted, biting at the skin of his fingers out of nervousness until Carson tapped at his leg and told him to knock it off, promising that she wanted to see him but things were likely different now.

They pulled up to April’s neighborhood after dinner and Axel told Carson the code so they could get inside, driving up to her place and when they stepped out his older brother sent her a message informing her that they were there. Ax shoved his hands in his pockets and fidgeted a bit once more while he waited for her to step out. When she did she was dressed in cotton shorts and a loose fitting sweater but she still looked as cute as ever to him. He knew better than to close the distance between them despite how much he wanted to.

He forced a smile in her direction and she tucked her arms around herself as she returned it. He cleared his throat and tried to keep from crying again, that was hardest, he wanted to breakdown in her arms similar to how he had with his mother only he had a lot more apologies to make. Ax was still pretty beaten up, his lip scabbed and the side of his head still bandaged a bit, his hair shaved down short from his time at the hospital. “April.” He sighed, “Hey Beautiful.” He muttered with a light chuckle that seemed unfit but he didn’t know how else to react when she drew closer.

April hardly touched her dinner knowing that Carson would be bringing Axel over shortly after to see her. She quietly asked her parents to give her and her boyfriend some space that evening to talk some issues out, staying as nondescript as possible but she knew she wasn't hiding her distress well. They agreed just the same and when their meal was over April simply went to the foyer of her house and stood with her back propped against the front door waiting, not knowing what else to do with herself.

After what felt like hours of waiting to her anxious heart she heard the tell tale signs of a vehicle pulling up to their house and seconds later her phone buzzed in her hands with a text from Carson informing her they had arrived. April swallowed hard, staring at her phone background photo of her and Axel lying on the grass together for several minutes. Tears slipped past her long lashes and down her cheeks, splattering on the touch screen. She took a few deep breaths though it did little to calm her thudding heart and finally ventured outside.

The sight of Axel waiting for her halfway up her front walk was like a kick to the gut, seeing the scabbed over abrasions painted over the left side of his head and arm, and his beat up old concert t-shirt surely hid the worst of his injury from view. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot but at least she knew that was from crying and not anything else. April bit her lower lip and wrapped her arms tightly around herself, subconsciously seeking some kind of comfort and also forcing herself not to gather her broken lover into her arms like she might have if the circumstances of his wounds were different. 

She came to stand just within arm's reach of the taller blond, looking him over up close and taking a shaky breath when he greeted her just as sweetly as he ever had, like nothing bad had ever happened between them. It felt like her heart was being ripped in two, one side overwhelmed with relief and joy that Axel was standing here alive and for the most part in one piece and the other tremendously hurt and frightened by his actions that had broken her trust yet again.

She wasn't sure how to respond, her tear-filled blue eyes casting over his shoulder to Carson waiting in his still running car pointedly not looking at the pair on the sidewalk. She couldn't think of anything light or preambulatory to say so she swallowed around the lump in her throat once more and just dived right into the thick of things. 

"So... Your brother told me about what happened, what's been happening. The drugs, the accident... Jail." April began, blinking her eyes rapidly to keep her vision clear enough to see Axel's face as she spoke. "He told me you'd been using for awhile again. He told me all that happened, but... He didn't tell me why, and that's what I want to know now. Why Ax? Why did it come to this?" April's voice trailed off to a thready whisper as she spoke, her hand slowly drawing up to touch his marred cheek ever so softly.

Axel swallowed hard when he saw April’s emotions starting to wear on her in a heartbeat. When she worried she ate less and he knew in the past when he scared her in smaller ways than this or she stressed about something outside of him even she rarely ate. He knew she would start losing the weight he urged her to put back on after they broke up, having tried to keep her healthy and in a way it hurt him to think about what she had been doing for him to keep him in the same state of health but just a different way.

He waited for her to say something, it was easiest he assumed to just get all the air cleared as best they could, to let them work it out or at least have her know what happened. He closed his eyes a little, trying to urge himself not to cry, wanting to stay strong for her and answer all the questions she had for him. The ones she had weren’t those he wanted to answer however, blinking rapidly as images of her flashed in his mind, things he had seen about her as soon as she reached up to touch his cheek.

He turned away a little but the tears in her eyes streaming down her cheeks made him refocus on getting through this part. It was something they had to do. “C’mere.” He urged, nodding over to the chairs up against the front of her house. She glanced at Carson’s car and he shook his head to indicate his older brother was fine, “He said he’d drive around the block if it seemed like we were talking long. I no longer have a license so he sort of has to linger.” He shrugged, not making light of it but there also wasn’t anything he could do.

Axel walked to the chair on one end and April took the other close beside him, still hugging her arms around herself. “You know all about my visions and how bad they got for a while. Smoking was about the only that kept me from going completely insane.” He started softly, “For a long while… when you came deeper into my life, we were doing really well. I was doing really well without the smoking and drinking and all that and then I just… it was sort of this down hill spiral.”

“Ape I love you and that means that you’re on my mind every second of every day, you’re my first thought when I wake up in the morning and my last thought when I go to sleep.” He said with a sideways smile, loving that she was so much a part of his life. “But… They got worse. The nightmares. They’ve been about you before but never this consistent, never this…intense.” He explained lightly.

April tensed even further, hugging herself tighter for comfort and he shifted to her but she closed in on herself more which told him it was too much to try and be the one to aid her through this. “April I can’t even tell you half the things I saw happen to you, slowly and painfully and not a single one came true and while I’m sooo thankful for that it also… it drove me crazy waiting for it and this was the only way I knew how to stop worrying so much about it despite how much it would hurt you. I guess… it was selfish of me. April I—“ He stammered, his eyes watering when she started sniffling and wiping her eyes on her sleeves, not looking at him.

“My dad says it could be… because we got… closer. Because I’ve fallen so hard for you and gotten so attached that it’s just natural for me to put you into my visions. I could even be having them about other people but I’m putting your face on someone else or something I don’t know but I just… I couldn’t do it. April I’m sorry.” Axel whispered. “Baby this isn’t your fault. I didn’t know how to ask for help until I stumbled downhill and ate gravel at the bottom.”

The blond reached out and put his hand over hers in her lap, brushing his thumb over her knuckles and trying to offer some comfort even if he couldn’t get as close as he might have wanted to. “So that night… when I got arrested. I was high.” He sighed, wanting her to know everything now if this was his last shot to tell her. “I stole Carson’s motorcycle to sell for drug money and when my dealer Mark and I got to the grower’s house, the place got busted and raided and I happened to be on the lawn. I freaked out because I had some leftover pills on me, one of my hunting blades, and my pipe. It seemed like the best bet at the time but it wasn’t. Obviously it wasn’t.”

He went on to tell her everything that went on that night, apologizing a dozen or so times for not being able to call her back or tell her what was going on but thankful that Carson had been around to do so despite that it wasn’t his issue to handle. “I umm…” He gulped, tears rolling down his cheeks and he sighed once more, “We looked into some inpatient treatment stuff and there’s a place that treats marijuana addition just as seriously as anything else and they help with mentality and everything. I printed out a couple pages so you could read about it if- if you want to. I just thought it might be kind of nice for you to know what’s going on and where I’m going and you know… all that.” He reached in his jean pockets and handed off a few folded up pieces of paper. “It’s still in Kansas. Just a little ways away. My stuff’s all pending and once I find out if the judge will grant me a six months off my probation if I go to rehab instead then I think I’m going. I’m pretty sure I’m going. I mean I’ll still have six months of probation but it’s better than a whole year.”

“So basically I won’t be going back to school with you this year. I know it just started but I’m too far behind and they won’t… let me be there with a record.” Axel muttered. “April I’m so sorry.” The final words made him choke, breaking down again.

 

April looked down at the slightly rumpled papers in her hands, skimming over them though most of the information contained on them simply bounced off her overfull mind in the moment. She couldn't help but feel partly responsible for all this despite Axel's insistence that she wasn't to blame, if his attachment to her had been spinning such terrible visions in his mind all this time, and he already had an inclination to hide in the fog of being high...

The petite blonde gently cleared her throat to make another attempt to speak through her tears that were flowing just as freely as Axel's if not more so. "So you'll be at this place full time then, you'll be gone at least six months..." April's voice thinned out and she took a shaky breath, trying to hold on to a shred of composure and remember that this was truly what was best for him and by extension them. 

"I think this is great, Ax. It looks like a really good place, I'm sure they'll give you the help you need, the help I... Couldn't give you." April continued, guilt creeping into her tone despite her best efforts and Axel was quick to reaffirm that she bore no fault in this, urging her in a broken voice to believe there was nothing she did or didn't do that caused him to end up in this state.

"When are you leaving?" April asked shakily, finally hazarding a look back in his teary blue orbs and he explained once everything got approved he'd likely be there within the week. She nodded, staring back down at her hands holding the brochure. "I see." She responded in a far more subdued tone as everything began to sink in. They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes till the taller blond finally broke the silence again.

It was obvious in his pained tone and expression that he didn't relish it, but he quietly told her that he didn't expect her to wait for him, to give him the time of day even after this after all he'd done. He started talking about how she deserved so much better than him and that she shouldn't deny herself that and April couldn't bear to hear more. She held up her hand and interrupted him, little hiccuping sobs punctuating her words.

"Don't, please don't. I don't know what the future holds for either of us, I don't know if I could handle being with you or anyone else for awhile after this, but... You are everything I could ever want or need Axel. The real you, when you're not hiding, not hurting yourself like this. And no matter what else happens, I just want you to promise me that you'll put everything you've got into this program. That you'll find that amazing man inside yourself that I know is there. The man that I love so very much. Don't do it for me, or for your family, but for yourself. Because you areworth it. Don't give up." She insisted, her sobs overwhelming her ability to speak for the moment and she hid her face partially in the crook of her arm, her tears soaking into her sleeve.

She could tell Axel was hurt by her indirect admission that she wasn't up for continuing their relationship at least for the time being, but still he promised her he wouldn't give up no matter what. They stood and she walked him back to Carson's vehicle, and as much as she wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him before he left, she merely brushed her fingers over his before he climbed into the sleek black vehicle. Her tears fogged her vision as the car pulled away and for a long while she simply sat on the grass and wept. 

\---  
The first day of Axel's rehab came too soon for his whole family, but they were all glad he was getting the help he needed. Parker got off the phone with his old psychic mentor and confirmed with her that they would pick her up at the airport shortly after dropping Ax off. The Black family set out from the bunker in two cars, Carson making a short detour with Axel and Obi in tow to pick up April who expressed her need to see Axel off even if they weren't exactly together at the moment she still loved him and wanted to show her support. 

Axel had spent the couple days after his acceptance into the rehabilitation program, packing up his bags and prepping himself however he could. It had been almost a week by now that he had been out of jail and more or less clean despite the strong urge from time to time. He didn’t sleep much but it was a good chance for him to play catch up while there with people watching over him and the few distractions they would have to offer, on top of his father’s mentor coming to train him a bit in relaxation and whatever else they could manage.

Ax was silent while he rode with Carson to April’s place to pick her up with Obi whimpering and whining in the back. He had only been to her house a handful of times yet he knew the way there. “I know dude. Chill out.” He encouraged his canine companion, scratching at his back and shoulders as the fully grown lab climbed over his owner’s lap, seeming to think he was still small enough to ride there.

The drove up to her place and April was already starting out of the house, having likely heard Carson’s car pulling up the block. Obi’s tail slapped against the seat as he wriggled in Axel’s lap, beginning to howl as the blonde crossed the lawn to the end of the driveway where they were parked. “Alright, alright.” Ax popped open his door and Obi leapt out and darted to April, licking at her hands as soon as she extended them out to him. “Well it’s good to know I won’t be missed too much. Maybe I should see about you getting temporary custody.” He joked, making April smile but only slightly.

He could see in her eyes that she was still struggling with all of this going on. He opened the backdoor and helped her and Obi both inside and settled, the dog climbing on in the middle backseat beside the blonde he loved so well. Axel followed suit and got in the front again, the three of them getting settled after a short moment and soon enough Carson drove off. He wanted to sit by April, to hold her hand and make every promise in the world to her that he could but it wasn’t exactly worth it right now. He owed her that space after all he put her through and he had to understand that she wasn’t going to want to go through a rougher goodbye than they needed.

They drove in silence on and off with Carson being the one to try and ease a bit of the tension by asking April about violin and school, things Axel didn’t really have a mind to think of at the moment. April seemed quite content for the most part on simply keeping her focus on Obi in the backseat and Ax mostly just watched her through the rear view mirror. There was a large part of him that didn’t want to leave her but if he didn’t, he’d only be letting her down again. He promised her a couple days ago he would do this for himself anyways and that was a hard mindset for him to get into when she was all he thought about from the second he woke up to the moment he tried to fall asleep.

When they finally pulled up after a few hour long drive Obi was fast asleep in April’s lap, the young woman scratching at his ears and back for comfort to them both. The place was better than the pictures and if Axel wasn’t here for rehab he might actually be excited for a site like this. It was like a dream vacation spot, though he supposed it had to be in order to keep the crazies like him and the addicts… also like him… from wanting to escape, from thinking about the outside world. He wasn’t nervous so much until now as a welcome wagon of people came to greet them just inside the gates.

The blond was starting to close in on himself, his heart racing in his chest as everything started to sink in when he was shaking hands with his ‘sponsor’ of sorts. His ears started ringing and he was just about to break when he felt April’s hand brush his, her fingers lacing with his own and she gave them a gentle squeeze. Axel glanced at her and smiled tightly, refusing from then on to let her fingers go. They weren’t given a full tour but at least were showed the grounds as well as the room in which Axel would be staying until the end of his treatment.

“Does anyone else feel like this is really weird?” He mumbled to no one in particular to which Mari was the first to respond. He let April’s hand go just for a second when his mother started to cry for likely the tenth time just in that afternoon alone.

Mari shook her head and wrapped her arms around her son, “You’re going to be okay Ax, Sweetie… I promise. We’ll come see you every chance you get to have visitors okay? You’ll do great. I know it.” She assured her younger son, still making the attempt to cradle his larger being against her chest like she might have when he was little, despite being twice her size. He didn’t protest at all, kissing her cheek and trying not to cry himself. “I love you so much, Ax-y. We’ll call and write and come see you. It’ll get better, baby I promise.” She cried against his neck, brushing her fingers through his still short hair and scratching his head in comfort like she used to with both boys.

Axel nodded against her, regretting ever having to bring his family into something like this, ever having to have them dropping their son off at a drug rehabilitation program for in patient therapy. “I love you too, Mom. I’m gonna do everything I can to come home and get well again.” He promised in return, pulling back and kissing her like he always did, pressing his lips a final time to her forehead and brushing her tears aside with his fingers.

He turned on his heels and put his arms out, hugging his father and then brother and while those were just as difficult to do, the last two weren’t going to get any easier. Ax fought his tears but a few still spilled over and down his cheeks onto his shirt as he knelt to speak to Obi. “You be good for Carson okay bud? Don’t let Lucy bully you too much.” He joked, ruffling the dog’s fur and seeing in his hazel eyes that he knew something was going on. Obi licked at his owner’s face and wagged his tail a little sadly, understanding to some extent that he wasn’t going to see Axel for a while. “Don’t look at me like that.” He chuckled, sniffling and trying to keep his emotions in check. “Maybe Ape’ll let you over for a visit to her place or something hmm?”

His eyes darted up to April and she smiled at him through her own tears, wiping her eyes instantly when he caught her crying. Axel kissed the top of Obi’s head and let him go, focusing his attention on the final good bye that he didn’t want to face at all. “So…” He started, fidgeting a little where he stood.

April wandered through the tour of the rehab center in a bit of a haze, her only link keeping her tethered to reality Axel's firm grip on her small hand. She still couldn't quite believe this was all happening, that this where the road she walked with Ax had led them to. Finally when it came time to say goodbyes and she watched Ax bidding tearful farewells one by one to his family members did it really hit home that it would be a long time before she'd see Axel again.

She tried her best to muffle her sobs but her shoulders still shook slightly and tears streamed down her flushed cheeks as she watched Axel hugging his loyal labrador, saving their goodbye for last. He looked up at her and she smiled in spite of her tears, a dozen conflicting emotions swirling inside her making her unable to stop crying even though she'd promised herself she'd make this farewell as easy as possible for Ax.

Axel stood back up straight and faced her, clearly not really sure what he ought to say. April was in the same boat, she was devastated to be leaving him here, but on the other hand she was so relieved he'd finally be getting the real help he needed. The petite blonde stepped into his space and took his hands once more, looking up into his teary gaze and taking a shaky breath.

"You'll be in my thoughts every day, Ax. I'll miss you... But this is a good place. This is the right thing, I know it." April assured him and also herself in part, her voice wobbly with emotion. She stood up on her toes and kissed Axel softly, her tear soaked cheeks wetting his face. She pulled back and added in a whisper, "I believe in you. Don't give up, all right? You promised me, don't forget." Axel nodded as he let her hands drop from his and April stood back and knelt down to scratch Obi comfortingly as Ax left them behind, waving a final farewell at the gates.

April hugged Axel's parents before leaving for home with Carson in his car, promising to stay in touch and expressing her gratitude for their promise to keep her updated on Axel's progress since her allowance to call and visit was far more limited not being an immediate family member. Even without Axel there April still opted for riding in the backseat so she could cuddle with Obi who was whimpering in distress at leaving his boy behind.

The older Black sibling took her home again and she couldn't help but tear up a little once more when she left Obi in the backseat and hugged Carson goodbye. The pair promised to keep in touch and Carson told her to let him know if she ever needed anything, even if it was just someone to talk to. She nodded and smiled at him, standing out in her yard with her arms hugged around herself till his car disappeared from her street. 

\---  
Carson tried to get back into his normal routine once Axel was admitted to the rehab center, though his first order of business was repairing his smashed up bike. It was cathartic in a way, putting back together what was broken and getting back to shining like new. He could only hope that his brother was doing well for himself out there, getting everything possible out of the treatment they had to offer. He hated it but he couldn't do it for him, couldn't be there to encourage him and take his licks, so once his bike was repaired he buried himself in work to help distract him from his worry over his sibling.

Carson dug up a hunt in the next state, but he was hesitant to just take off and get the job done like he might have normally. Everything he'd researched pointed to the creature wreaking havoc in the town he'd researched being a Rugarou, but he couldn't just rush in. All the research and accounts he had at the bunker said that the creatures could only be killed by burning, but when he'd faced off with one last year, the damn thing had been impervious to flame. He hadn't been able to kill it at all, only trap it at a construction site and encase it in concrete. He had to leave it sealed and simply hoped that it would never be freed.

Carson couldn't take the chance that this Rugarou wouldn't be the exact same way. So he had to figure out how to kill something that wasn't vulnerable to it's only recorded weakness... And nothing he had suggested any cases like the one he'd encountered. Carson had always thought if the bunker's archives didn't have information on something then it didn't exist, but now it looked like he was going to have to venture elsewhere for the first time for a way to bring these beasts down.

The young hunter did some research and found something promising, the university in Topeka boasted the some of the largest archives in the nation, if he couldn't find any more extensive knowledge at home, maybe he could uncover something there. He packed up what he'd need for the hunt afterward and headed off on the four hour drive and hoped it would end up being worth the trip.

Elizabeth trailed along the shelves within her office, reorganizing a few things as she got resettled after break. She still worked of course but when the campus was closed it was mostly from her small quaint apartment a few blocks from the University. She ran through her usual routine of getting her higher ups coffee, making the call for lunch and answering just about everyone’s questions and calls even outside of her department. Sometimes there were perks to knowing as much as she did, other times… she felt silly for the facts she clung to. It made her superiors seem a little almost put off by her, not quite taking her field seriously.

She glanced up at the sound of a knock on her door, two firm rapts. “Come in.” She called, plucking the red rimmed glasses from her face so she could make out the figure more easily. She sighed, half expecting it to be more busy work they were offering to her between teachings but the frown she wore soon faded into a smile at the sight of a six foot something dark haired and… very attractive young male walked in. “Let me guess, new student looking for an elective to fill your unit minimum?” She began, pushing her glasses back on and figuring she was right.

She grabbed a file from the left side of her desk and her eyes darted back over to the laptop positioned in front of her, tugging her chair in a bit more and beginning to search. “Are you aware the class is only three units? And my school office hours ended twenty minutes ago.” She half scolded, feeling the gentleman’s eyes on her. He wasn’t exactly dressed like a scholar nor a student but for the time of year it wasn’t too surprising that had he been attending he was slacking off the past little while.

He chuckled deeply in his throat and took a seat in one of the armchairs across from her, his demeanor alone enough to halt her progress on adding him to the only class she taught or assisted in teaching mostly. He shook his head and extended his hand, his rolled up sleeve revealing more of his tattooed flesh and her heart raced at the sight. He introduced himself as Carson Black and she nodded, taking his hand and shaking it over her desk. “Elizabeth Stevens, Mythology and Creatures department. Or… something like that. It’s mostly just me I guess.” She admitted, not really sure why. “I take it you’re not a student then? No offense but you don’t really seem the… continued education type.”

Carson laughed again and shook his head, shifting in his seat and pulling from his pant pockets a folded up piece of paper with his own scribbled yet elegant handwriting etched out on it. He claimed he was doing some research on his own time for a book he was working on and wanted to know a bit more about a particular creature so he could get his facts straight. She nodded and took the sheet from him, “Well you’re in the right place. We’ve got the largest collection of mythology text, ancient history, paranormal history, folklore, etcetera.” She explained, reading over some of the notes he had taken.

“A Rugarou?” The young dark haired woman voiced, chewing on her lower lip in thought. “You couldn’t pick something easy like a vampire or werewolf? No clichés in your book hmm?” She smiled and winked at him, removing her glasses once more and pushing her chair out, “Well Mr. Black—“ She hummed, giving a little more of a sway in her hips as she stepped, her stiletos clicking on the wood floor of her office as she wandered to a particular wall, giving a turn of a nob and the units shifted, opening up the rows of books so she could fit between them. She could feel his eyes on her and she didn’t mind for a second, delicately extending her arm up to the higher part of the shelving unit she was wedged between and grasping for a large diary.

When it was just out of reach she heard his chair slid against the floor, within seconds he was at her side, putting a hand on her back and requesting she not hurt herself for his sake. He flashed her a bright white grin and easily grabbed the book she had been working towards, handing it to her. “Hard to stand on my toes any further in heels. Thank you.” She said simply, brushing past him and giving him another little show as she took to leaning against her desk rather than sitting in her chair.

She crossed her legs one over the other, tucking them a bit beneath her desk and tugging her short pencil skirt flat over her thighs. “A rugaru dates back centuries ago, there’s accounts all over the country but most are explained away as being crazies just craving human flesh. You see when they’re born they grow as humans, as any other man or woman and then one day they crave large amounts of food and the more they eat the hungrier they become. Suddenly a typical meal isn’t satisfying enough. They find someone appealing or convenient and have a bit of a bloody feast with their bare hands and teeth alone as utensils.” El smiled as though this were simply an everyday tale you spoke of to someone.

“It’s believed they can overcome that urge but not a single account has been made to confirm such a possibility to be fact. Once they give in and take a single bite it becomes and instant addiction. It’s unlikely they get their fill.” She traced her finger over the words etched by hand into the book she held between her fingers of her opposite hand, “I’m not sure what you’re looking for but whoever wrote this left a list of strengths and weaknesses.” The dark haired woman pointed, letting him stand beside her and sliding off the desk as she offered him the diary.

Carson’s eyes darted over every line rather quickly, hardly looking up at her until she spoke again. She sat herself down in her one of the spare seats so she could be closer beside him, “I’m not entirely sure what a ‘demon-killing’ knife is or if that fits in your story or paper but according to that it at least slows them down and it’s thought to kill them. There’s also Samuel Colt’s very first colt on the market. It was crafted for killing all things supernatural, including demons who are thought as the most powerful being.”

“That must be some story you’re working on, Mr. Black.” El commented, reaching out for her laptop while he read on his own. “If you’re interested in a bit of input fire is the most successful way to kill them. That may be the simplest route for the sake of details.” She pulled up the university site and ran a search on the very same creature as well as those alike, offering him a few articles that were thought to have been related. She knew most people didn’t believe in any of this but at least a number of those who came in with an interest seemed to have just that, an interest in the lore behind mythology so strange it was near impossible.

 

Carson had come here looking on a long shot looking for answers, but he never expected that they'd be presented to him in such a pretty and engaging package. Elizabeth Stevens... She was easily one of the most beautiful women he'd ever laid his eyes on, and for him that meant not just physically but in the way she carried herself, the way she spoke that telegraphed her confidence in herself and her high intelligence. He'd never really had to try to get girls over the years, but the ones he always actively pursued were always whip smart because that was a quality he found most attractive in the opposite sex.

This woman fit his description for the ideal woman to a t. Even though he knew almost all the information he was giving her on Rugarus already, he was happy to listen to her dictate to him all the gritty details she had, enjoying the sound of her voice and the bright interest in her lovely eyes as she laid out everything she knew about the creatures. He could tell from her manner and the way her pupils dilated that she was attracted to him, and normally he'd milk that for every advantage he could get but again, this wasn't just another pretty woman. Professor Elizabeth Stevens might prove to be an asset for him down the line with her extensive knowledge here, so he had to play his cards right if wanted... Everything this woman had to offer and more.

He wrote off most of what she told him since he knew it already, pleasantly surprised that everything she had on the Rugaru was accurate. But something stuck out to him he hadn't heard of or considered, she mentioned that a 'demon-killing knife' could be fatal to the creature. She dismissed it for the most part not having much information on such a weapon and moved on in her explanation, but Carson latched on to that tidbit and felt a little burst of adrenaline as he realized he had another alternative to try he'd never thought of. It was pretty convenient that his family happened to be in possession of a one of a kind ancient blade capable of slaying demons.

He kept reading through everything she had in the diary, looking back to her when she offered a couple articles she had pulled up from the university's online archives that were related. He didn't really need much more information from her at this point but for the sake of his cover and also for the simple excuse of getting more time with her, he feigned interest and leaned in close to her to skim over what she'd found on her laptop. He had her tab back and forth between a couple articles and still found it a bit strange that in all this information there was no mention of a Rugaru who was resistant to flames.

"If I could get a printed copy of these two articles, and this one on the last tab here, that'd be great." Carson pointed to a couple documents on her screen, turning his head to smile at her as he made his request and internally chuckling at the light flush staining her cheeks from their closeness. At this short distance he could smell her light sweet floral perfume and he couldn't help but let his eyes track down her neck to where she likely dabbed it behind her ear. He wanted nothing more than to close the short distance between them and see if she tasted as good as she smelled, but he made himself keep his composure.

"All of this information is really helpful, but... You're not holding out on me, are you Ms. Stevens? I'm looking for unique specimens, the rarest of the rare for my book. Have you ever come across something strange, even for a Rugaru? Like I don't know, ones with unique abilities or traits like being immune to fire or other conventional methods of killing it?" Carson asked, keeping his tone carefully light as if he was only interested for argument's sake. Elizabeth looked back at what she had pulled up on her laptop, trying a few more searches but they yielded nothing.

She seemed almost disappointed that she couldn't find anything to meet his odd criteria, asking why he was so interested in something so out of the box when he was dealing with outlandish fairytale creatures in the first place. Carson chuckled, recognizing the somewhat demoralized tone in the pretty brunette's voice when she made light of her field of study. She must have been on the receiving end of such jibes many times before making this her career.

"Well, I don't think it's outlandish at all. People don't know everything that's out there, not by a long shot. Who's to say what's fact and what's fiction? All these 'fairytales' had to come from somewhere right? And for my book, I don't wanna just churn out another version of Twilight bs, I want something more unique, more compelling." Carson explained, loving the way she lit up at his opinion that maybe what she had devoted her life to studying and teaching wasn't all mere fantasy. As pretty as she was when she was distracted explaining something supernatural, she was gorgeous when she smiled like she was now.

Elizabeth seemed flustered by his unexpected response but still quickly sent through the command to print off the documents he requested from her laptop. She stood and smoothed out her pencil skirt to walk over to the printer and Carson took the chance to admire her curvy figure further while she wasn't looking at him. Damn she was beautiful. He definitely couldn't just leave here without getting to know her a little bit better, and the way she swayed her hips as she walked the pages back over to him let him know she was thinking along the same lines as him as well. 

"Well. You've been very helpful Ms. Stevens. I don't know how to thank you enough." Carson stated as he took the papers from her and thumbed through them. "I've still got so much research left to do, I might need to get your expert opinion again down the road, if that wouldn't be too much trouble. You'd be listed as a source for my book, of course." He added, cocking his head slightly and smiling devilishly at her.

Elizabeth felt something of a glimmer of hope as she spoke to Carson about her work, it been a long time since she had anyone seem genuinely curious in regards to her field. Most the professors around her saw it as a waste of time for her as well as students and it’d been a long road for her but still she fought each day to try and fill her class and keep it going. Her smile widened, almost certain it was the first time she grinned at someone like that so instantly but most people didn’t just fall into believing her line of work.

“Right. That’s what I always try to tell people. I guess I don’t understand that scientists wait for proof, hard evidence, experiments and all of that and spend years of their time developing something or other for a cure for say… Cancer. I’m not putting that down but what’s so different between that and what I’m doing?” She shrugged, tucking her hair aside and sending the papers to print out for the man beside her. She stood and paced on over to the other side of the room to retrieve them, still speaking as she went even if he wasn’t listening to her. “I spend years waiting for evidence on either end and there’s never enough to show me what’s real and what isn’t. With researching a cure or any number of things, it’s sort of the same process. How do we know that there really is a fix for something so menacing and harmful?”

El smiled at him again when she returned, not missing the way that he was looking at her. Her cheeks flushed a little as soon as he opened his mouth, biting her lip as she listened to him and she was almost certain that this man was bound to ask to see her again, for his benefit or his book’s. And one way or another she was going to agree. “Well having you humor me for the last thirty minutes or so was a good start.” She laughed, meeting his bright blue eyes with her own green hues and almost instantaneously her pupils dilated with want with the way he looked at her.

Carson chuckled and promised he wasn’t humoring her, he had a true interest and she nodded, “Well that makes about two of us for the books. I think we set a record.” She joked, trying to keep it light hearted and not sound bitter in her tone though she probably did. “If that’s your way of asking to see me again, Mr. Black then I’m going to happily agree to keep my office open for you. I’m here more often than not.” She explained, looking him over a bit more now that she wasn’t so entirely focused on the matter at hand.

She turned and bent a little over her desk, extending her arm and balancing on one heel to grasp a business card. “Here’s my direct extension. Not that it matters… I’m the only one who chooses to answer the phone in this department anyways.” The brunette told him, still smiling despite her words, she faced him again, a little more in his space and her breathing caught as she grew trapped in his darkened gaze again. Her chest heaved harsh but slow as she exhaled, handing him the card and making herself meet his eyes just as intensely. “Feel free to call any time. I’m the first one in and last one out.”

A dozen or so less than appropriate scenarios ran through Carson's head when the curvy brunette bent over her desk to retrieve a business card for him. The fact that she was obviously interested in him and receptive to seeing him again just made it all that much more difficult to avoid imagining what they could get up to in here, especially with only her sexy heels and red glasses on... He mentally checked himself when she turned back to give him the card, taking it with a little smirk as he noted the way her breathing had gone ragged and the stain to her cheeks.

"Well that's good to hear that I'll be able to get a hold of you." Carson responded in a low tone, the look in his eye making it clear that his double entendre was very deliberate. He tucked her card in his back pocket and took a reluctant half-step backwards from her, holding up the documents she'd printed for him and speaking in a playful tone as he backpedaled out of her office. "This is a good start, but I'm sure I'll be in touch again soon. Thank you very much, professor Stevens. It was a pleasure meeting you." He finished just as he got to the door, turning and exiting before she had much of a chance to say anything in return. 

He found that when he first met a girl he was interested in, it was best to leave things unsaid, leave her wanting more. He truly was grateful for the help he'd given her, but more than that he was just excited to play a little cat and mouse like this, it had been awhile since he'd been so interested so quick in a woman. Carson headed out back for home immediately to grab the knife he needed. He'd take care of the Rugaru, then come up with a little more 'research' for his book he needed. 

The demon-slaying knife worked like a charm. He kicked himself a little for not considering the possibility on his own, but then again if he had been clever enough to think of it himself he never would have gotten to meet Elizabeth and he wouldn't want to change that. He drove back the next day, traveling through another night straight for Topeka rather than going home. He didn't really have a plan formed as of yet, but then again he often didn't need one when it came to having a little fun.

Carson rolled into town at about the same time Elizabeth's business card stated her office hours were ending, full of energy despite the long drive he'd just undertaken. He wasn't sure if anything would come of him getting in touch with her again, but it was more than worth it to him to give it a try. He pulled into one of the parking lots close to the building his alluring professor worked in, dialing her direct number and waiting through several rings for her to pick up.

Finally the brunette answered, her voice sounding distracted and he could only guess he'd interrupted her while working. It made him smile to recall her 'first in, last out' line, apparently she hadn't been exaggerating. "Professor Stevens, how are you? I hope I didn't call at a bad time." He greeted her without giving his name right away, wanting to know if she'd been thinking about him enough to recognize his voice or not.

His grin widened when she immediately greeted him by name, her tone changing completely from bored and distracted to alert and interested almost instantly. She assured him that now was as good a time as any, asking if he'd been able to make good use of the Rugaru information she'd found for him. Carson nodded even though she couldn't see him, getting out of his car and heading into her building now that he'd confirmed she was still interested in him after a day or two to forget him if he hadn't made as much of an impression as he'd thought.

"It was really helpful, thank you. But I've hit a bit of a road block and I was hoping you might be able to help me out again. What do you know about devil's traps? Could they be used to restrain creatures like a Rugaru or are they only effective against demons like most typical lore states?" Carson asked in a curious tone, knowing the answer was no but just wanting to keep her talking while he made his way to her office.

 

Before she even said much of anything outside of hello to the man, she knew who it was on the other end. She was oddly amused that he came back so quickly for more of her input but it also further drove in that he wanted her company as badly as she did his. “Mr. Black.” Elizabeth greeted in a more sultry tone on the other end of the line, “I’m doing just fine thank you. Now’s a perfect time as any, I haven’t much going on.” She told him lightly, tapping the papers into a more organized stack on her desk and tucking them away in a manila folder. “I hope you made good use of the Rugaru research we did together.”

She shifted in her seat listening to the smooth tone in his voice as he expressed his gratitude toward her troubles, starting on about his next point of interest. She smiled, going off of memory this time, “Well the mix of sigils speaks a certain… sentence if you will, sort of like with prayers and exorcisms, what is expressed in words is expressed in symbols and therefore the devil’s trap can only withhold a soulless entity such as a demon.” The brunette began, tapping the tip of her pen and trying to pull from her mind everything she ever remembered reading about the marks.

She closed her eyes for a second this time as if she could read her own thoughts and find the proper file of her own accord. “I suppose the possibility of a similar mark affecting a creature like the Rugaru is feasible. There are… I believe most marks are written in ancient Enochian script, thought of to be the language of the angels which of course means that Lucifer being a fallen soldier would know and be effected by. But there are sigils that banish angels just the same, that summon both positive and negative energies and have some form of cause and effect. I think the possibility that one trap can be conjured to capture a simpler creature such as the Rugaru, isn’t that far out of range. It’s a matter of piecing together the proper signs and symbols and I don’t think there’s a person around anymore who understands Latin or Enochian for that matter.” She laughed lightly, listening to him hum in thought, not once did he cut her off and that alone was appealing to her.

“So in short to answer your question, I think there’s nothing in existence today that can—“ Her voice trailed off hearing a light knock at her door. She smiled wider as she checked her watch on her small wrist and gave a little shake of her head, subconsciously fixing her shirt. “I’m guessing this book is far more important than you’re leading on, Mr. Black.” She said into the speaker of her phone, hearing his laugh and watching her office door push open.

The tall dark haired male stepped inside, still speaking into his phone as if they weren’t just steps away from one another right now as he responded. Elizabeth drew her phone down and replaced it on the set, “You’re lucky I leave the building unlocked.” She quipped, giving a little roll of her eyes when he warned her that wasn’t the safest thing considering she was often alone in such a large building. “I think I’ve done okay so far but thank you. I do spend my life researching mythological creatures and ways to kill them or track them, I’m almost certain I’ve taken enough notes that I can handle a human. You’re not threatening me are you, Mr. Black?” She played, leaning forward on her elbows over the desk, giving a more than generous view of her cleavage for the man before her.

He hung up his phone as well and promised he wasn’t but he did think she needed an escape. El arched a brow, “From what exactly? My escape is home and I’ll wind up doing just about the same there only I suppose it’d be better with a glass of wine in my hand and no movement restrictive skirt.” She shrugged, fiddling with the pen she had been holding before and letting it drop on her desk. She removed her glasses and got a better look at him once more, “You wouldn’t be asking me out now would you?” She asked, figuring it was easier to be straight forward. “Because clearly you have my number and clearly I’m capable of detailed answers by phone call and yet you’re here in person. Once again… within the last few minutes of my office hours. They don’t pay me over time, you know.”

Carson enjoyed the generous view the professor gave him down the front of her crisp blouse, more than pleased that she knew exactly what game he was playing at and could match him move for move so to speak. He lowered his phone from his face and ended the call, replacing it in the inner pocket of his leather jacket.

"Me threaten you? Never. But I am angling to get you out of here at least. You need to escape from behind that desk." He responded in a similarly playful tone, hooking his hands in the pockets of his beat up dark jeans and grinning at her questioning of his statement. She knew he was here for more than just an answer to his erroneous question and honestly that only added to her appeal for him, maybe he wouldn't have to dance around much with this woman, they could just get straight to enjoying each other's company on a less than professional basis.

"All good points, but if you don't get overtime and I'm giving you work outside your office hours, I should at least try and make it up to you myself. Have dinner with me." Carson didn't phrase it as a question really, already at least nearly one hundred percent positive she'd say yes. His straight white smile flashed when she agreed after a moment, stating that she just had to finish up a couple more things here before she could leave. He nodded and ambled backwards to lean against her door frame, watching her work like a big cat might watch his prey.

She kept glancing over at him, fidgeting with her glasses and dark hair, finally chiding him for being distracting and he couldn't help but chuckle. "I wish I could say I felt sorry about that, but I do have a vested interest in you stopping your work for the day so I can take you for that glass of wine you mentioned." He replied in an unapologetic tone, shrugging his broad shoulders as he spoke. That seemed to push Elizabeth over the edge and she gave up, saying she'd just finish her work tomorrow because a drink sounded really tempting at the moment.

She closed her laptop and fished her purse out of her desk, leaving her red glasses neatly folded on top of her shut laptop and Carson fought the urge to ask her to bring them along for later, but he couldn't get too ahead of himself yet. She seemed to remember that she hadn't finished her thought earlier about devil traps and Rugarus, summarizing her thoughts that while it was theoretically possible for such a trap to be devised, it wasn't possible because there was no one around with the proper understanding of the ancient languages to be able to write such a spell from scratch that would work. 

Carson nodded and turned to precede her out of her office when she got closer, waiting for her to lock her door. "Oh I don't know, from the sound of it it seems like you might know your way around a little Enochian. Don't sell yourself short Ms. Stevens." He mused, falling into step beside her as they exited her building. The brunette laughed and assured him that her working knowledge of the language was rudimentary at best, that there just wasn't enough preserved material available for anyone to have a good grasp of it any more. His mind went immediately to the extensive archives in the bunker and he was sure that with access to that this woman stood a fair chance of becoming nearly fluent, especially if she got the chance to talk with Castiel and get some Enochian firsthand. 

He was distracted from his train of thought though when his pretty companion told him that he could call her by her first name, flushing a bit at the look of pleased surprise he gave her in return. "Well I still think given the right resources you could pull it off... Elizabeth." Carson responded with a knowing smile as he imagined a scholar like her's reaction to the knowledge his family watched over in the Men of Letters bunker.

They got outside and Elizabeth hesitated when he turned off down the sidewalk towards his car, making him pause and raise his dark brows at her. "We can take my car if you like, or I can meet you at that local Italian joint on fourth street I saw driving over here. I had dinner there the other night when I first came here, it was good." He prompted, hoping she wasn't having second thoughts about going out with him tonight. The brunette seemed happy he provided her with an out and agreed to meet him there, asking for half an hour to get out of her work clothes and he had to bite his tongue on offering to help with that task as well.

"All right, I'll see you there at six-thirty then." Carson chuckled lightly, amused that she felt the need to primp and preen a bit before going on an actual date with him though he could understand her not wanting to just hop into a strange guy's car after only meeting him once, so he hoped by the end of dinner he'd be able to convince her to take him up on his offer of a ride next time.

Elizabeth flashed him a kind smile of her own, as good looking as he was and as kind as he seemed an appeared to be to any on looker, she had to stick to her guns so to speak and remember it wasn’t smart to jump into a stranger’s car, no matter how friendly. She was overly thankful when he was the one to bring up that they could simply meet at the restaurant instead if she wanted to, seeming to wonder internally himself if she was second guessing going at all.

“I think I’ll just meet you there. I feel overdressed whenever I go out like this.” Not that it was often but she didn’t mention that little bit. She hadn’t really had an official date in at least six months, wondering herself if she even remembered the basics of how to do so. “I’ll get changed if you don’t mind giving me a half hour or so to dress down a bit?” She requested, relieved and excited when he agreed. “I’ll see you soon, Mr. Black.” She said, smiling when he corrected her to call him by his first name in the same way she urged him to do for her. “Maybe I just happen to like the formality.” She called over her shoulder, heading to her car and unlocking it as he watched her.

She gave a wave and a promise that she knew where he would be, curious if he actually thought there was a chance she wouldn’t show up. El laughed a bit to herself as she climbed into the driver’s side seat, shaking her head at the ridiculous thought. He knew he was attractive, that much was clear and he knew very well how to play the game but she had her own deck of cards and she had every intention of making it a good one at least. Even if only another night.

She got herself together in fifteen minutes or so, taking her hair down and brushing it out with the fronts of her hair twisted at the sides and pinned back and away from her eyes, her long dark hair cascading down her shoulders and over her full chest, hanging just above the neck line of her deep red v-neck sweater. She took into account Carson’s own attire, jeans and a rolled up long sleeve and figured she could get away with nearly the same, putting on a pair of black low rise skinny jeans and picking out heel booties to match. She rubbed her lips together and dabbed her finger over the very center, adding a bit of glossy sheen to her full pink lips and sprucing up her make up for the evening.

She exchanged her purse for another, grabbing a purposefully worn down black military style jacket and shrugging it on as she walked back out of her apartment and down to the street where she left her car. She climbed in again and started up the sleek red vehicle, driving up the road a ways and seeing Carson’s black car she took note of before, sitting just outside the Italian place. Her eyes casted over the front and she saw him standing patiently in the doorway, something new to her, he was waiting. Elizabeth hurried a little faster and parked a few spots away from him, locking up her car and sauntering up the curb and down the walk to get to him.

“Hey, sorry. Freshened up a bit more than I thought I would.” She admitted, tipping her head up to him and smiling as he opened the door for her without prompting. He led her to the hostess stand and a pretty mature blonde led them back to a table right away, getting them seated and taking drink orders to which Carson instantly requested some wine or other considering she admitted to craving it like nothing else.

They sat for only a few seconds of silence as she removed her coat and folded her arms delicately in front of her on the table, “So. Do I get to be privy to the context of your story or am I going to have to wait and google my name or yours about a year or two from now and find it published?” She asked, sipping from her glass of ice water and crossing her legs beneath the table, her leg jiggling a bit partly out of excitement and nervous energy. “Why such a focus on the Rugaru? Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs has been done and I’m afraid the concept is far too similar.” She laughed lightly, watching him speak about his little project and claiming that if anything were published it wouldn’t be for a long while.

Her brow furrowed, “Well don’t sell yourself short, just like you told me, Carson. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, if you like doing it then do it. No one else has to give a damn for it to be important.” She insisted, flushing a little when he chuckled at her but seemed to agree completely. “And so long as you’ve got me here I suppose that you’ve got more unanswered questions?”

Carson listened intently to Elizabeth's quasi-peptalk about his book, hearing her own personal struggle along the same lines in her tone. Of course the book itself was fictional, but he certainly could relate to what she was saying and feeling. Growing up to be a hunter, he was well acquainted with putting all of his energy and heart into a cause that hardly anyone on earth would ever recognize him for. He chuckled a bit at the irony of how similar they're experiences were even when their lives couldn't possibly be more different.

She asked him about any further questions he had, and he knew she was referencing his book but truth be told all the questions he had pertained to the lovely brunette herself, not the fake work of literature he was seeking her knowledge for. Carson leaned forward in his seat, speaking in a more hushed tone so that Elizabeth had to lean in as well to catch what he said over the hum of the busy restaurant around them.

"I'd say my first question now that I have you at my disposal is... How do you like the wine?" He asked with a sly smile, chuckling at her surprised reaction and holding his hands up in mock fear when she chastised him for teasing her. He had a sip from his own glass, Carson had never been a really big wine fan but the company tied up with it certainly made it more palatable. Elizabeth assured him that she liked it quite well, trying to steer him back to the topic of his book that he'd sidestepped.

"Well I suppose my main objective with my book is to compile information on all things supernatural that are less well known. I mean everybody has a vampire, werewolf and ghost movie nowadays, it almost... Takes the monstrosity out of it, you know? Takes away that air of mystery that's so fascinating about this kind of lore. I want to showcase something more unique but still get as many of my facts straight as possible in a realm made up mostly of speculation." Carson explained, hoping it sounded convincing enough.

"If this first one goes well I'd like to make a series of books, show people even more of all the crazy stuff that may or may not be out there, hiding under their beds or in their closets." He added with a little wink, and Elizabeth got a little quieter. For a minute he wondered if he'd misspoken but then she looked up at him again, asking seriously if he believed that any of the things he was documenting really existed or not.

Carson had to use all his will to keep his features neutral, wishing he could just lay everything out there for this woman who had obviously given a lot of her time and effort to his field. He wanted to tell her it was all real and she didn't have to feel down when her colleagues turned up their noses at her body of knowledge and work, but that wasn't the kind of decision he could make on impulse. 

"I believe..." Carson began, reaching out and gently slipping her hand into his as he made a show of pondering out his answer, "That there's not enough proof out there to just say none of these things exist. I'm sure that if they do there are plenty of errors in our knowledge about them just from lack of exposure, but the world is too big and too old not to still have some surprises up it's sleeve. I know that no matter how arrogant man may be, we don't know everything just yet. I just hope that if these creatures are real, I never have to face off with one." Carson laughed a bit at his last statement, squeezing Elizabeth's fingers and feeling relieved when she reciprocated the action.

They kept talking throughout dinner, mostly about his book and her work at the university, Carson was careful to subtly guide the conversation back to Elizabeth as much as possible partly for the sake of his cover but just as much because he found himself eager to know everything he could about this beautiful, interesting woman sitting across from him.

Elizabeth commented on his car parked out front and he smiled at that, nodding his head when she asked him to confirm the year and model of it. "Yep, it's a fully restored '67 Impala. I love my motorcycle but she's my pride and joy, she was my grandfather's car and the first one I ever got to work on. You like classic cars?" Carson asked, glad to learn another tidbit about her.

Elizabeth was fairly content on keeping the conversation about the man across from her, grasping her fingers in a way she wasn’t sure she could get a good read on and yet her heart still fluttered. A shiver ran up her spine at the feeling that he was almost treading in her own mind, that he had stolen the very words she tried day in and day out to express to others so they might understand why she put her heart into something with such little evidence behind it. He squeezed her fingers as he finished and she returned the gesture just as softly, “Well I should hope not but at least you’ll be better prepared than most.” She muttered.

They talked all through their meal and she enjoyed every last word of their conversation no matter the subject matter though for her in the moment work and his book were so closely connected that was the easiest to resort to. She glanced out the window, catching a glimpse of the hood of Carson’s beautiful old Chevy. “I’m pretty sure they don’t come off the line like that anymore. How old is she?” She asked, pointing with her thumb to his car outside.

El nodded at his answer, finishing off her last glass of wine and feeling it set in a bit further when she put her empty glass on the table before her. “I wouldn’t say it’s a huge pass time of mine but I appreciate the history behind them. The beauty of a classic and the time it takes to keep something as old as that still running and sounding as amazing as she does.” She commented, smiling at him and fiddling with his fingers she hadn’t even realized she had taken hold of again.

“I didn’t get to see your motorcycle. Maybe if you come by again you can ride that instead. I wouldn’t mind hoping on as well.” She muttered, leaning forward against the table giving him a little smirk as he caught her gaze. “Does the Impala ride as smoothly as she looks?” She questioned, hoping to subtly goad him into giving her a ride somewhere. “Because this place has crappy dessert and I could go for a MilkyWay. I’m pretty sure I’ve had more wine than you… Probably for the best I get a lift.” She said with an arch of her brow, hoping that he wouldn’t make fun of her for the way she was further playing into their little game together.

Carson hummed in thought and nodded, giving her a condition that she make his candy bar a six pack. She laughed a little louder than she meant to, “Sure. Don’t get too greedy, it’s a turn off.” She teased, watching him let her hand go and reach for his wallet, paying for their meal without even giving her chance to pretend she was going to cover it herself. She smiled, pleased at the gesture, “Well if you cover tip as well then I suppose I can fork over a few bucks for some beers for you. My fridge is empty after all.” She warned him, not missing the sly look in his eye that she was already convinced he was coming home with her.

“Am I missing something? Because if I buy you beer I’d hope you’re not taking off with it in the front seat when it’ll taste just fine under my roof.” El said, gathering her things and standing when he did, brushing past him closer than she needed to, and hooking the ends of her fingers with his to drag him out with her. “67. Perfect year for a car, the first and only year they made them like this.” She muttered as she led him to his own vehicle, pausing at the hood and running her fingers over it. “It really is amazing that you restored this on your own.”

 

Carson chuckled warmly at her comment, looking the Impala over and feeling a sense of pride at the way the high gloss black paint gleamed in the lamps lining the street. He ambled over to where she stood at the nose of the vehicle, hovering in her space as they both admired it.

"Well I have my granddad to thank for keeping it in pristine condition till the end of his days. This car was his Baby, no doubt about it. And my mom kept it safe for him till I was old enough to inherit it, so all she needed was a little TLC. I'd build her back up from nuts and bolts if I had to though." Carson admitted, turning to look down at her and arching one dark brow at her. "What do you say we get our dessert and go for a little drive?" He suggested, letting her tow him by the hand just across the street to the little corner market store. She picked out her candy bar and he his beer then they walked back out to the Impala.

Carson opened the passenger side door for her and she climbed in with a little giggle, holding their bag of goodies in her lap and admiring the interior of the car as well as she got settled. The young hunter circled back and got in himself, starting up the engine and relishing it's deep purr like always. He backed out of the parking spot and glanced over at his companion expectantly waiting for her to direct him as she pleased.

Elizabeth took him away from the busier street the restaurant had been on, leading him up a gentle hill that served as a good lookout point for the city. They parked and sat on the hood of his car in the growing dark, him cracking a beer and her nibbling on her chocolate. They sat in companionable silence for a while, till she finally broke it commenting on how pretty the view of the lit up city at night was.

"It really is. Did you grow up here?" Carson asked, taking a pull from his bottle and looking at her more keenly when he noted the way her pretty features fell ever so slightly. She told him that she wasn't from around here, or Kansas at all as a matter of fact but that her life hadn't really began till she came here anyway. She added that she preferred looking forward in life to dwelling on the past and Carson took that as a hint that she wasn't really in the mood to talk about her earlier years. He sincerely hoped she wasn't carrying some deep wounds from her past, but right now he was more preoccupied with the present anyhow so he let the matter drop.

"Well I never cared much for city life, but... I have to admit that this view is pretty stunning. Almost as pretty as the company." He added, shooting her a cheesy grin and laughing when she berated him for his canned line. "I know, I know. That was bad I admit it. But you can't blame me for being sappy when the cliche holds true in your case." Carson reasoned, a playful smirk splashed across his face. She giggled again and started looking back out at the view but he stopped her, hooking his finger under her chin and guiding her face back up to meet his.

"Has anyone ever told you how absolutely captivating you are El?" Carson whispered, his blue eyes darting back and forth between her grassy green ones. Her cheeks stained a deeper shade of red and he grinned slightly before pressing his lips to hers, tasting hints of chocolate and her own sweetness that made him immediately crave more. She responded almost instantly to the contact, melting at his touch and leaning into the kiss, opening her mouth to him when he prodded at her to do so. He cupped the back of her head, tipping her slightly for a better angle and ravishing her mouth with his till they finally had to break apart for want of air.

They took a ragged mingled breath, Carson kept her trapped close to him with his hand tangled in her hair and she didn't try to pull back from his grip, her pupils blown wide with want just like he was certain his were. "So... Can I take you home? Don't wanna keep you out too late." He prompted, grinning at her response.

Elizabeth laughed whole heartedly at Carson’s words about her being as stunning as the view itself, finding it both endearing and silly at the same time. “Did you just use a line on me? That was pathetic.” She teased, smiling at him despite her words and honestly not minding his one bit. She gave a shake of her head, starting to turn back to look out over the edge of the hill but his touch halted her. Her green eyes darted to meet his and her breathing picked up the second he opened his mouth again to speak.

She gulped in part at his question, her lips parting to answer him but no sound came out, instead her eyes fluttered closed as she felt his lips softly seal against hers. She responded in kind, her mouth moving against his, following his guidance as her hand slipped over his knee and traveled higher up his thigh. Their positions changed just slightly and she realized she had leaned so far into him she was nearly climbing in his lap. When did she lose all control over herself in front of a man? Maybe it’d been too long or she forgot what it was like to have someone’s interest in her at all.

They broke apart of air and she let her eyes flutter open, breathing lightly against his lips as she resisted the urge to sample him again. Her bright green eyes darted up and met his own blue orbs, seeing that same want in his eyes and the look alone made heat pool in her belly. “I don’t have a curfew. And I promise I won’t turn into a pumpkin or something.” She teased, making him chuckle and she giggled in response, nodding at his question anyways. “I’d like that, yes.” She answered, her breathing picking up again when they kissed once more, tasting one another slowly as if to ensure this was what they both wanted.

Carson was the first to tug away, picking up what was left of his beer and she followed his prompting, cleaning up after herself and letting him go. They packed up and got back into his beloved vehicle only this time she couldn’t resist, taking his hand in her own while the other rested in his lap, feeling his tensed inner thigh and for her it was even a bold move. He kept his cool, glancing at her only on occasion but paying almost no mind to her light touches.

“Four blocks from the school. Take a left.” El instructed through another shaky breath, feeling all her nerves kicking in at once but at the same time that familiar rush of adrenaline she got when she brought someone home. “It’s on the right here.” She pointed to her building, waiting until he stopped and getting out of the car, carrying the rest of their goodies with her.

Carson walked her to her door and she smiled, “You’re more than welcome to come in and finish these off. I still have another milkyway to eat and somehow doing so alone with a few empty beers just seems a little sad.” She mentioned, not really giving him chance to answer as she unlocked her door after handing him the beers to hold, pushing it opened and grasping his free hand, peddling backwards and tossing her keys at the table by the entrance. She bit her lower lip and shed her jacket and purse, dropping them into one of the recliners in her front room.

His eyes immediately tracked over her as he pushed her door closed and almost as soon as his gaze locked on her it shifted to the shelves in her make shift library within her living room. He laughed a little and that made her flush once more, feeling embarrassed more so now than ever. “I have copies of… most of the archives for home. It just makes my life a whole lot easier.” She mumbled, unpinning the sides of her hair and self-consciously letting it flutter back down around her face. “There’s a plus for you, it means I can answer any of your questions at just about any given time.” She laughed now, poking at his chest in an almost accusatory manner.

Carson put the bag of goodies on the bar top that led into her kitchen, following over to stand behind her rather closely as he admired her own collection, claiming everyone had their own passion. She nodded, turning around to smile at him again, “Very true. I imagine you have a garage full of your passion am I right?” She leaned into him a little but refused to close the distance quite yet, listening to his gentle answer while his hand came to rest against her hip.

Carson set the bag down on her counter top, glancing quickly at her surrounds and finding he liked her level of 'tidy but still lived in' level of upkeep and her understated decorating sense. He came back to stand next to her again, not missing her embarrassment though she was trying to disguise it. "Hey, everyone is passionate about something. I'm glad to come back to your place and find shelves full of books instead of like... Rows of creepy dolls staring at me or something." He commented with a dry chuckle as his eyes skimmed over the dozens of books stocking her floor to ceiling shelves.

She smiled up at him and he returned it, glad he'd managed to ease her at least somewhat. She came back at him with her own question about his passions and he shrugged his broad shoulders, adjusting his stance to support her when she leaned into him and gripping her hip to keep her steady.

"Something like that. I'm working on building up my own collection I suppose. Mostly I fix things up to sell right now." He admitted, thinking about the extra repair and restoration jobs he'd had to take on the side to pay for rebuilding his own beloved motorcycle after his brother had taken it and banged it and himself up pretty good. But he had to admit that the idea of a whole garage full of his own bikes and cars sounded more than appealing.

They stood in each other's space for awhile till Carson pulled back. She followed him into her small kitchen where he cracked open another beer and offered her one which she accepted with a grin, clinking the neck of her bottle to his before they both took a small sip. He reached out and took her hand in his, gently towing her back towards her nicely decorated living room. There was a love seat and two overstuffed recliners arranged in the center of the space and he opted for sitting down in one of the recliners, pulling her into his lap and grinning at the little squeak of surprise she uttered.

"I like your place, it's nice." Carson commented with a little huff as the brunette arranged herself more comfortably in his lap. She thanked him and took another drink from her beer, her hand sliding gently up and down his muscled chest absently. He could see in her eyes that she felt like she had achieved some sort of victory here, getting him to come back to her place like this and with the way she kept leaning in close to him without actually kissing him told him she was more than used to being the one running things when it came to things like sex and probably all aspects of her life really.

It didn't bother him one bit however. He was exactly where he knew he would end up tonight, doing exactly what he wanted to be doing with her. If she enjoyed feeling like she was top dog here, Carson was more than happy to give her the title as long as he got what he wanted. And what he wanted was Elizabeth, to a nearly painful degree.

"So. Do I have to ask you if you want to 'put in a movie' or something because honestly I feel like you and I are a little beyond all that pretense bullshit." Carson chuckled, taking another drink of his beer and using his free hand to start massaging the back of Elizabeth's neck languidly. The brunette hummed at his touch, her eyes falling closed as she enjoyed his strong fingers kneading her neck a moment before responding.  
Elizabeth put up no resistance once so ever to him pulling her into his lap instead of allowing her to take a seat in the opposite chair. She didn’t mind one bit, taking a swig from her beer as she got herself more settled above him, her legs tucked over his. She shifted and kicked off her shoes, letting them clatter to the floor beside them and he didn’t seem to mind either letting her get as comfortable as she so pleased.

She laughed at his statement and while he wasn’t wrong she did find it amusing that he knew enough to realize they were both sort of feeding off one another. His strong hand came up to her neck, kneading at her tense muscles and working them out quite easily as her eyes fluttered closed and her body swayed slightly in his lap. “Oh do you?” She finally managed to voice, enjoying the sensation a moment longer when she heard him put his beer down and start with his opposite hand as well. “I think you’d be correct in that assumption. Go with your gut.” She muttered, smiling as her eyes flickered open again, just in time to feel his breath against her ear and neck, his lips and teeth softly grazing her warm flesh.

The brunette hummed, letting him take her beer and in the same moment she turned in his lap, pushing at the back of the chair and making it tip a bit so the top leaned back for comfort. She knelt with a knee on either side of his lap, running her hands up his chest and licking her lips as his arms came back around her frame and brushed her sides in return with the tiniest smirk on his lips. “So I take it we can move past the ‘pretense bullshit’ a little more fully then? Because I’m feeling rather straight forward and recalling the way you kissed me on the hood of your car and the tightness in your jeans on the drive you were waiting for chance to undress me anyhow.” She smiled at him, dragging her nails through his hair on either side of his head.

She traced back down over his neck, making him groan low in his throat and that alone was satisfaction. El’s eyes darkened and she pressed her lower half down harder against him, giving a little cant of her hips to tease and purposefully shifted more than she needed to cause friction between their frames. She grasped the hem of her sweater and tugged it off and over her head, revealing the lacy see through number she wore beneath it. “Moving fast enough for you, Mr. Black?” She teased a bit, dragging his hands up her belly to her breasts and giving him a playful smile.

Carson's eyes darkened as they swept over her nearly bare naked upper half, devouring her creamy skin and lush breasts barely contained in the black lace see through bra she was wearing. She teased him with both her words and her hands lightly playing with her full chest and he licked his lips unconsciously in anticipation. He enjoyed the sexy little show she was putting on for him immensely but his ability to remain passive and let her have her way with him was wearing thin.

His jeans were getting painfully tight with his arousal but he kept himself in check, wanting to enjoy her fully and make the most of this night. Carson's dark brows rose at her comment about their pace and he let out a low chuckle, his grip on her ass tightening in preparation for what he was going to do.

"Fast enough? There's a difference between rushing and moving quick enough to keep things interesting." Carson retorted, shifting his weight suddenly and standing abruptly up from the recliner, easily supporting her weight and hardly giving her enough time to wrap her limbs around his frame for purchase before he had her back pressed against the living room wall. He locked her in place between him and the flat surface, nuzzling into her throat to kiss and bite at her soft sweet scented flesh. Elizabeth mewled at his sudden forwardness, writhing in his arms as he started grinding his hardness against her center.

"I never rush, by the way." Carson growled against her skin, nibbling at her ear before moving to kiss her hard and deep, grunting into her mouth as she ripped his button down open in her haste to get more skin to skin contact with him but he hardly cared at the moment about the buttons that went flying. "But I always keep things interesting." He added with a cocky grin as he pulled her away from the wall unexpectedly, holding her hips firmly canted to his and guiding her motions against him as he walked them both back to her bedroom.

Elizabeth was breathing hard and arching against him as much as she could for the short walk over, her nails skidding over his skin through the thin cotton of his undershirt and he couldn't wait to make her leave track marks up and down his skin. He set her down on the end of her bed and discarded his now mostly buttonless shirt, followed by his black undershirt and he couldn't help the little crooked smirk that curled his lips at the little wordless sound that escaped El's lips as she looked him over standing above her.

Her lust darkened eyes tracked over his taut muscled frame, and he knew she was following the flowing pattern of the intricate tattoos that covered about sixty percent of his torso and all of his arms. They were a tradition he'd picked up from his father at a young age, but his were more about the sheer artistry itself than an act of contrition. Her gaze was torn away from his ink by his hands working his belt open. He pushed his jeans off and while his arousal was still restricted by his dark boxer briefs he felt satisfied by her reaction to a closer look at what he had to offer so to speak. 

Elizabeth shifted to kneel on her mattress, her hands going to her own jeans as she leaned up to meet him as he craned down, their mouths clashing in a hungry kiss. Carson snatched her hands away from her jeans and pushed her back onto the bed, trailing his mouth down her body as his hands made quick work of yanking her form fitting bottoms off. El was panting and quivering beneath him but the look in her eyes was enough to make him throb almost painfully for her, but again he stuck to holding up his claim that he never rushed.

El arched her back up off her bed to get at the clasp of her bra but Carson quickly stopped her much like he'd done with her jeans. "You were right you know. I've been waiting for the chance to undress you since the first time we met. Let me." He murmured, hovering close above her and pressing her back down into the sheets, tugging only one bra strap off her shoulder and making a line of kisses from her collar bone to trace the lacy edge of the garment with his lips and tongue and the way down between her breasts. He nuzzled at her voluptuous cleavage and slid his hand beneath her back to unclasp her bra himself, slowly tugging it down and ghosting over her soft breasts with just the barest touches of his lips.

Elizabeth moaned and threaded her fingers into his thick dark hair, trying to force his head down for more contact and he smirked as he held off just a moment longer before giving in and latching on to one pert nipple. He teased her rosy flesh to a rigid point, tasting her sweetness and letting one hand slip down to start firmly stroking her entrance through her panties that were already soaked through for him.

"Mm, you're so wet already beautiful..." Carson groaned as he pulled off one peak to move to the other and give it similar attention. His strong fingers pressed up and down in a steady rhythm till the brunette was mewling and bucking her hips up into his hand for more, her own hand pushing down between them trying to tug her panties aside so he'd touch her without a barrier between them. 

"What's the matter Ms. Stevens? You want me to touch you is that it? Tell me." Carson growled as he rose up to meet her darkened gaze, rubbing quick circles around her clit through the fabric making her tremble and grip his wrist harder, but with his superior strength there was no way he was going to budge unless he wanted to. 

 

Elizabeth panted and writhed under his touch, trying to goad him and prompt him into furthering it like she liked and wanted. She clenched her jaw and resisted the urge to curse at him and order him to do so, gripping his wrist as tightly as she could and huffing from the effort of trying to fight him as well as the pleasure he had begun within her body. She tugged and pulled, shifting beneath him and doing the best she could but it only made him chuckle at her efforts.

She groaned out of want and frustration, dragging her hand down over his prevalent arousal in his briefs and gripping him firmly with her hand through the fabric. “Oh I want so much more than that, Mr. Black. I just hope you can keep up.” She grunted up to him, pushing at his hand and trying to get him to touch her more fully again like she had wanted. He smirked and finally caved, pulling her panties aside and dipping his strong fingers deeper inside her body, stroking her walls in earnest and making her gasp suddenly at the sensation.

She arched back and thrust up into his touch, craving more and crying out as he hit that sweet spot deep inside her. It wasn’t something she normally got, a man giving her just as much attention as she was trying to offer him. “Ahh… Oh fuck right there, baby.” She encouraged, falling into the blissful moment for what it was worth. Maybe she finally raked her way through the bad lays to get to a good one for once. She grasped at his hip and his wrist only this time she wasn’t trying to get him to do anything so much as keep him from stopping before she was finished.

El trembled slightly beneath him, her nails digging into his flesh where she held onto him for dear life and her head tossed back as he kissed at her neck, biting her softly and pushing her to that point she desperately needed. She gasped harshly beneath him and her body clenched around his fingers, drawing them in as his palm pressed against her clit. His head bent and he praised her as she came unraveled for him, soaking his digits completely and leaving her breathless as her head raised up to meet his gaze.

The pace of his hand slowed and his lips left her throat, looking down at her with darkened eyes and seeming far too pleased with himself to have gotten her off so easily. “Christ.” She panted, “Well that was new.” She laughed, making him chuckle, her body feeling the rumble of his own above her as his weight pressed into her more fully. His fingers withdrew and she whimpered at the loss of sensation, sitting up and kissing him as her thumbs hooked into his briefs, pushing them down off his sides and gripping his ass with her nails hooking into his flesh.

He groaned at her, their lips crashing together and she kissed him hungrily, hooking her leg around his and making the attempt to push him onto his back and take pace from him but his hardened frame refused. She kept latched onto him, kissing and biting at his lips until he released her to shed the remainder of their clothing, making her gasp as she caught full sight of his thick throbbing arousal as he edged back up onto the bed with her. “You know you’re the first to lay me out so fast.” She smirked, giggling at the little growl in response he gave. “I think it’s the tattoos. Maybe the wine. Or my deep love for Italian food.” She panted, hearing him laugh now at her and she couldn’t help but smile, wrapping her limbs back around him and nibbling the shell of his ear as she gave one last push to his chest in hopes of getting that control she normally took.

He either was distracted or knew well enough to give her that, rolling back and grasping her hips anyhow. Elizabeth canted her hips down to his, grinding her bare sex against his own and making him slick with her previous pleasure.

Carson was still chuckling as he rolled with her to let her sit atop him like she clearly wanted, shifting to get comfortable beneath her. She started grinding against his hard length and his grip on her hips tightened, his amusement boiling over into little growls of want as she soaked him and slid even more easily against his shaft. She leaned forward to brace her hands on his chest, using him like her own personal scratching post and he enjoyed the faces and sounds she made as she riled herself back up.

Clearly the last thing on her mind was anything like protection, but as much as Carson wanted to take her bare he'd learned over the years to never take chances he didn't have to. He slowed her movements, panting out for her to give him a sec and reaching down to fish for his jeans on the floor by the bed. Elizabeth watched what he was doing curiously then smiled when she saw him extract a condom from his wallet, complimenting him for being such a gentleman despite his less than gentlemanly appearance.

"Oh? So a guy with tattoos can't be a gentleman hmm?" Carson quipped, ripping open the foil packet with his teeth and quickly rolling on his protection. El flushed slightly with embarrassment but he tugged her down for a kiss to assure her he was only teasing. His hands roamed down her voluptuous body and he started prodding at her slick entrance with his tip. Elizabeth arched back up and guided him inside her, slowly sinking down onto his full length.

Carson groaned at the feeling of being surrounded by her tight heat, a smirk playing at his lips at El's comment about how big he was. "Well I try not to disappoint." He commented with an airy chuckle as she started rocking her hips, gradually sliding up almost off of him only to drive herself back down making them both moan with pleasure. Carson braced his feet on the bed and started thrusting up into her, taking the pace back from her once she'd had a moment to adjust to him. He gripped her slender waist firmly and watched her face carefully as he tried a few different angles, panting at the way her walls were starting to clench around him in ecstasy.

It almost seemed like Elizabeth forgot everything outside the pleasure she was feeling, her need to dominate him totally gone and a stream of exclamations peppered with curse words about how good what he was doing felt falling from her lips. Carson always got off best watching his girl lose her mind and so he was glad he'd been able to bring El to that point and so quickly, wishing absently that he had thought to keep his phone within reach to capture a few moments of her pleasure for him to keep as a momento.

Carson groaned roughly as he neared his peak, schooling his thoughts to keep his own release at bay for now. He bucked his hips up off the bed, taking El harder and faster and relishing the way her eyes rolled back in her head and the uncontrolled sounds she made as she came hard around him. He carried her through her orgasm but didn't let up, flipping their bodies to land atop her and driving even deeper into her tight sheath. Elizabeth clung to him for dear life, her head pressing back into the pillows and he wasn't sure if she even realized he'd flipped them as she fell over the edge into another orgasm right after the last.

Her walls flexed and fluttered around him and he couldn't hold back any longer, burying his face in her neck and biting at her dewy skin as he rode out his climax on the last wave of her third in as many minutes. Carson's taut muscles finally loosened in the wake of his release and he slumped forward on her for a moment trying to catch his breath. It had been awhile since he'd been able to come like that, enjoying her intense responses to him and how he could play her body like a finely tuned instrument.

Elizabeth's grip on him relaxed as well as she started floating down, her nails leaving behind little red cuts that he knew for certain she hadn't meant to inflict on him but he was glad to wear them all the same. He slid from her body hearing her whimper at the loss of him, and he quickly discarded his protection before gathering her up against his side.

Elizabeth wasn’t normally this naturally vocal, for the most part any sound she made was for the benefit of her lover more than actual expression of pleasure but Carson was different however. The way he stretched and filled her, knew without her saying exactly how to take her and just how rough she liked it. Her nails tore at his inked flesh and her eyes screwed shut as she rode him in earnest, canting her hips wildly against his own and desperately trying to keep pace to find her release. She cursed and cried out to him as her first wave of pleasure washed over her, making her shake above him and hardly notice the change of her being on her back all the sudden.

Carson slammed into her, never letting up on their pace and as quickly as her first peak came a second followed and in moments a third, each making her come hard around him and claw at his back and shoulders for purchase. She hissed at the sensitivity within her body, feeling him swell within her body and the pair of them riding out their highs together. Her grip on him remained tight until he finished off, their motion slowing and her limbs slipping from around his frame as she slowly floated down back to earth.

She was keenly aware of the fact that it’d been a long time since she came like that, Hell she never came like that. Her fingers ran through her hair and she lifted her head a bit, quickly extracting her hands from him in the sudden realization that she was tearing into his flesh through each of her releases. The broad shouldered man above her withdrew, making her whimper in protest even though she was pretty sure she couldn’t come a fifth time for him just yet without her body completely exploding.

His arms drew around her and she felt him tug her lightly to lie back with him, her frame drawn against his side and fitting rather neatly. Elizabeth tensed at the realization and started to extract herself from his grasp but she was far too shaky to put up much fight and with the way his hands ran up and down her back, working out the tension that was rebuilding in her shoulders she couldn’t resist. “You don’t have to do that.” She muttered, making him pause and glance at her, asking what she meant.

She fidgeted and brushed her sweat dampened hair aside, attempting to get more comfortable as she replied. “I mean you don’t have to lie with me.” She answered with an awkward laugh to follow, hearing him chuckle just the same and mention how it wasn’t exactly fun to get off and take off within the same minute, wanting a little while to calm himself from their little adventure together. She flushed red and laughed, “I guess so.” She sighed, returning her cheek to his chest and tugging the sheet up to her hips, her leg entangling with his and while sleep beckoned her she had the man holding her on her mind more than anything.

Her fingers traced up one of the patterns along his torso to his chest, “So why all the ink then?” She mumbled, sitting up when her breathing started to return back to normal and getting a better look in the darkness at the marks he bore, a few lined with scars here and there and she wondered more about his history. “You’ve been in prison haven’t you?” She teased, poking his chest a little harder and making him laugh but he shook his head. “Hmm. I guess if you had, these would look a lot less like tattoos and more like spilled ink.”

“I like this one. She’s gorgeous.” El whispered, sitting up and crossing her legs beneath her, tugging the sheet around her torso and chest and positioning herself by Carson as she admired his form and the works of art along it. Her finger lightly tapped the angel in black and grey just near his ribs, traveling further to the opposite side of his body and arching a brow at the familiar symbols he had within another swirling design. She laughed, smiling as she got a closer look, “You totally played me didn’t you?” The young woman teased, “You know what this symbol means right? Are you sure you needed my help with Rugaru and Devil’s trap research or are my superiors testing my field with another expert?”

Her face fell a bit despite trying to keep her cool and hope to come across as playing with him not being accusatory. “That’s a protection symbol. Anti-possession to be exact and it’s about the only one said to truly work but there’s fault in your choice of getting it on your skin. Demons burn them off and it’s of no use I’m afraid. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” She smiled again, cocking her head to one side. “You must love what you do.” El commented softly.

Carson was glad when El relented to taking awhile to relax with him after their pleasure. He wasn't exactly in the business of getting all snuggly with the women he took to bed, but he wasn't done having fun with her yet and so he figured he might as well enjoy the simple pleasure of having that skin to skin contact in the meantime. He held her comfortably awhile and wondered how long it would take her versus the many other girls he'd been with to ask him the inevitable question they always did.

He grinned into the dark when she finally did ask him about his tattoos, teasing him about having gone to prison as an explanation for them. Carson laughed and shook his head no, letting his hand idly run up and down the smooth skin of her back as she inspected him more closely. He had gotten used to something like this happening every time he got undressed with a woman, and he rather liked it to be honest. If he was going to all the time, money and pain he liked that his ink was being admired.

Elizabeth pointed out the angel on his rib cage, one of his first and favorites he'd gotten to remind him of his mother. She didn't press him for more information about it and so he offered none, not usually liking to get into too many details about his family with people in general if he didn't have to. Her attention was quickly snagged by his many warding and hunter symbols he'd incorporated into his tattoos over the years, in particular the anti-possession one just beneath his right pectoral.

For an instant his heart beat faster, worried by the note of accusation in her tone but from the way she spoke to him he quickly relaxed, knowing he hadn't just blown his cover completely by letting her get a good look at his tattoos. She was probably the smartest woman he'd ever met, but Elizabeth had no experience that would lead her to suspect that he actually had the marks for protection against demons and the like. He softly captured her hand against his chest, running his thumb over her delicate wrist bone and smiling up at her.

"Well I don't know that I'd call myself an expert, but yes I do love what I do. I know the mark could get flayed off, but I figure it's still good to have just in case a demon tried to take me unaware, right? I'll just have to hope if I do run across one I don't give them the chance to remove it." He mused, keeping his tone casual like everything he said was pure speculation rather than being spoken from cold hard experience. Also he wasn't exactly going to mention the sigils that had been carved into his bones by his grandfather's angelic comrade as a baby in case something ever did manage to get at the one on his skin. 

"You were a great help to me, El. Just because I might know a thing or two doesn't mean I know everything, much as that pains me to admit it." Carson chuckled dryly, tugging on her to pull her down against him once more so he could softly run his fingers through her dark tresses spilling over her shoulders. "And now I know I have an expert I can call who can use her professional and private collection of knowledge to help me, so what have I got to worry about anymore?" He added with a playful smirk, cupping her head and drawing her in for a slow, heated kiss.

Elizabeth hummed into the contact, climbing atop him of her own accord and starting to rock against his growing hardness as they kissed. Carson slid his hands over her tempting curves, sitting up from the mattress wondering if the small wounds on his back were staining her sheets. Not that she could complain too much considering she put them there in the first place. He groaned into her mouth as she tried to settle herself on him, gripping her hips tight to keep her from sinking down onto his length that was fully hard for her again.

"Hold on baby." Carson panted, forcing himself not to just take her bare when his whole body was aching for him to do so. He shifted her off his lap and grabbed another condom from his wallet, staying off the bed as he rolled it on and grinning as he felt El's eyes sweeping up and down his form. He bent over the mattress and gripped her forearms, pulling her to stand before him and she raised her brows at him curiously.

"C'mere, I wanna show you how sexy you are when you come." Carson said playfully, towing her along and pulling her close to nip at her neck when she hesitated. He brought her to her vanity dresser, placing her palms flat on it's surface and devouring the sight of her lovely bare front in the mirror before them. "See? Look at you... Gorgeous." He told her in a rough tone, kissing the point of her delicate shoulder and working his way up her neck, his hands fondling and teasing her full breasts. He devoured the sight of her in the glass, watching the way she flushed and panted at his touch and the new experience of watching what he was doing to her firsthand, every time she tried to look away he'd give her a harder nip or squeeze to keep her eyes up.

His much larger frame perfectly encompassed hers, keeping her exactly where he wanted not that she was exactly trying to escape him with the way he was touching her. Carson used one hand to tweak at her stiffened nipples while the other traveled between her legs, teasing her clit making her rock against his hand. He prodded at her with his length, not quite entering her yet but enjoying every little sound and expression she made as he wound her up.

Elizabeth groaned at his touch, her legs parting just enough to give him better access to her center though each time her eyes slipped closed he stopped the motion of his fingers and requested she watch. Her eyes fluttered opened again and her gaze flickered over her own naked form, making her gulp a bit. It wasn’t exactly something she liked doing most days, the wounds of her past still felt fresh on occasion, making it difficult to bare the sight of her own body. He must have felt her tense, asking in a low tone if she was okay and she nodded at him through the reflection in the mirror.

“Please just…” She urged, grasping his hand and forcing him to keep touching her, bringing her mind back to the here and now, to the way this one man made her feel. Her breathing picked up again with her increased want and she rocked back against him, her free hand reaching around and carding her nails over the back of his head and neck, pinning him forward as he kissed and bit at her flesh. She groaned, getting into it more as she smirked at him in the glass, tugging his hair as her jaw clenched together.

He growled in his throat and pushed forward up into her body, making her arch and gasp at his entry from their new angle. El’s lips parted, her hands dropping down to the vanity like he prompted again and she focused on watching him take her from behind like this, his hips rocking forward and his body driving deeper into hers. The mirror rocked with their motions as she grasped at the furniture to try and stay as upright as she possibly could for him.

Her eyes turned black with her want, panting and moaning with each harsh thrust into her heat. “Oh. Oh fuck… It’s so fucking good, Ahh!” The curvy brunette cried out to him, loving the look in his eyes when she reacted in such a way and she turned it up a bit, nearly screaming his name as her gaze flickered back to both their faces in the mirror, seeing him bent over her and driving into her time and time again, hitting that sweet spot deep inside her that made her see stars. “Ah, Carson. Don’t stop baby…” She pleaded with him in a lower tone, struggling to keep her eyes opened until he nipped at her and gripped her chin, raising her gaze and as if on command she unraveled around him.

Her body trembled, hands slipping as she slumped forward and came hard around him once again, his length pounding into her body until he followed her over the edge. She struggled to take a full breath in, watching him finish off within her as he muttered how beautiful she was when she lost it like that. Elizabeth laughed, flushing red as their pace slowed to a stop but he lingered in her space, his arms around her, keeping her ass back against his body. She straightened out, eyeing their forms and slowly turning around as he withdrew, her hands drawing up his frame, “You’re full of surprises.” She smiled, waiting as he fixed himself up a bit before helping her get seated on top of her dresser.

She tugged him gently, urging him between her legs again and loosely wrapping her limbs around his hard frame, just barely eye level with him now from where she sat. He bent his head and asked her thoughts, making her laugh as he kissed at her skin. “I think you’re right. I am pretty hot when I come.” She grinned at his chuckle in response, “But… I also don’t usually come like that so I guess you’re the one I need to thank for showing me the way hm?” She hummed, drawing his head to her and kissing him slowly, tugging his lip between her teeth and making him groan all over again.

They broke apart for air and he lifted her once more, taking her back to bed and it felt so natural for him to do so, trusting him to hold her upright. She sighed as he set her down at the head of the bed, “Fingers crossed that you struggle with your story a little longer.” She grinned, giving him a wink and offering another couple kisses.

Carson laid Elizabeth gently back down on her bed, reclining beside her and responding to her kisses as she feathered them over his face. He chuckled at her statement about his book and raised his hand to her face showing her his index and middle finger curled together making her giggle. She gripped his face and kissed him with more vigor, tugging at his shoulder trying to get him closer and he covered her body with his, trailing his lips down her throat to her full chest.

He sampled her soft flesh awhile, thrusting against her entrance till he was fully hard again, making her whimper with want as his length stimulated her clit. El started laughing airily all the sudden and he raised his head to give her a curious look, "Something funny beautiful?" He asked not stopping his motions but slowing down somewhat waiting for her response.

Elizabeth shook her head, mentioning that everything was fine she just wasn't sure if she could last another round without going into a coma or something. Carson chuckled and picked his pace back up, leaning up to kiss her deeply as he slid against her sex. "Well I'm not sure that's such a bad thing, good sex followed by good sleep, what's not to like about that?" He mused, nipping at her throat before rolling over to grab his wallet. He sighed confirming what he'd been worried about, he didn't have any more on him.

Carson rolled back atop the brunette and kissed her lightly. "I'm all out baby, sorry. Looks like I'll have to get you to that sex coma another way." He told her with a little shrug. Elizabeth made a small whining noise in her throat but asked him in a breathless whisper what he had in mind, though the answer was probably already becoming obvious to her by the way he was climbing down her body with his lips.

Carson scooted down her bed to settle between El's legs, kissing his way down her flat belly and stopping to nip at her hip bone, earning a little jolt from her. Her breathing was ragged and he enjoyed the look of anticipation in her eyes as he lowered his face to her center. "Tell me what feels good gorgeous." He murmured, breathing deeply drinking in her scent and tasting her eagerly, relishing the thready moans she emitted at his attentions.

He delved as deeply as he could inside her with his tongue, greedily lapping up her juices and drawing his tongue up to swirl rapidly around her clit. His blue eyes stayed trained on her face, watching her responses and following her every request as he ate her out. He added one finger then two while his tongue stayed focused on her most sensitive spot, curing his digits inside her hitting her in all the right places. Within moments he had her bucking up at his face and crying his name, her sounds driving him wild.

Carson slipped his hand down to wrap around his own throbbing length, pumping himself from base to tip and following Elizabeth as she came, jolting and groaning against her from his own pleasure as she rode out her peak. He lifted his head from between her legs and grinned, wiping his mouth and leaning back to reach for a few tissues to clean his front up with and her sheets as best as he could.

"Sorry about the mess, you're just too damn hot for your own good El." He apologized as he tossed away the wadded tissues, stretching back out on his side next to her on the bed. The brunette hardly seemed to mind judging from her glassy eyes and satisfied smile, lightly tracing her nails over the swirling patterns on his chest and trying to gather herself enough to speak.

She rolled into him of her own accord this time, sighing deeply against him and apparently content to be held by him now where she hadn't been before. Carson smiled and settled comfortably with her smaller form pressed to him, letting his eyes fall closed. He hadn't been sure about staying the night but he figured if he really did need her help again down the road it would be better not to pull a 'dine and dash' so to speak like he usually did. Besides, maybe it was the afterglow talking, but it did feel really good just lying here with her in his arms like this, and he figured there wasn't any harm in enjoying it as long as he left first thing in the morning.

Elizabeth settled down from her high, having lost count of how many times she had come that night alone, probably more than she had over the last few months and if she was being honest most those were on her own. She sighed and rolled into him, settling curled up against his side with her fingers absently tracing the artwork along his skin. It wasn’t something she usually went for, a man with tattoos and not to mention letting someone stay the whole night with her. She wasn’t sure what came over her but she felt in no rush to urge him out of her bed.

“Mm.” She mumbled simply, trying to form words but the option of moving her mouth even escaped her for the moment. “’S okay.” She told him, adjusting and resting her head against his firm pectoral, the sound of his steady heart soothing her to sleep almost instantly. There was little more spoken between them, Elizabeth drifting off with his arms around her and hers around him in return and it was the most comforting and deep sleep she had ever gotten in years.

The brunette roused at the sound of her alarm chirping adamantly beside her head and when she rolled and reached over she was weighted in place. Another strong arm shooting out from partly beneath her and blindly turning the sound off. She jolted a little at the movement and chuckled when Carson greeted her as soon as her eyes opened more fully. “Good morning.” She squinted up at him, brushing her hair back with her slender fingers as she slowly sat up, the ache in her thighs a reminder of all they had done the night before.

She smiled, watching him sit up with her, his lips pressing to her shoulder sweetly as he asked her how much time she had to get ready. El rubbed one of her eyes and blinked at the clock, “Little less than an hour. I’m gonna hop in the shower and all that good stuff.” She told him, meeting his gaze and getting chills from the way he was looking at her mixed with his hand brushing up and down her back. Carson nodded, promising not to keep her so she could get ready for work and she thanked him sleepily.

The pair slowly rolled out of bed, Elizabeth opting for her robe for the time being so she could see her previous night companion to the door. “Oh wait.” She grabbed his wrist as he started to the entrance, halting him for a moment longer while he pulled his over shirt on. Carson stepped back and followed her to the edge of the kitchen counter where she plucked a piece of paper and a pen from the corner, jotting down her number quickly. “In case you don’t catch me at the office you can call my cell… if you have questions for your book or anything.” She stammered out, feeling a little silly but she maintained her confidence as best she could.

“Or if you restock your stash there in your wallet.” El winked at him, patting his pocket with her knuckles lightly and making him chuckle. He grasped her wrist and tugged her forward, kissing her quickly but leaving her just as breathless. “If not then… Good luck on your book.” She muttered, trying not to let her disappointment show when she didn’t know either way if he would come back or not. He didn’t confirm or deny if he would be sticking around or needing more help but she supposed the fact that he said ‘see you later’ rather than any other choice words made her hopeful.

Carson left town straight from El's place, calling his father to report that he'd been able to take out the hybrid Rugaru with their family heirloom demon killing blade. He headed for home, his mind full of his lovely brunette companion for the entirety of the four hour drive. When he got back he pulled out the folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket, smiling at her number she'd scrawled on it in her neat handwriting that was far more legible than his own. He figured it must come with the territory being a teacher.

Suddenly he mentally shook himself, stuffing the paper back in his pocket and thumping the back of his head against the headrest. "Come on man, what's wrong with you?" He berated himself aloud, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. It had been a long time since he'd actually kept thinking about a woman after he had his fun with her. He wasn't a love 'em and leave 'em type by any means, he just simply never let it be implied that he was after anything else than a night or two of fun and then stuck to it. If a woman wanted anything more serious, he just got out before things even had a chance to start. His lifestyle wasn't exactly conducive to a real relationship, not unless he found someone he wanted to be with in the life, like his parents had, and even that carried it's own risks he wasn't sure he was prepared to deal with.

Carson got back into his routine somewhat over the next couple days, but still in the back of his mind he kept fighting down the impulse to call Elizabeth. Finally on the third day after he'd gotten home, he finally talked himself down enough to decide it would be all right for him to call the brunette who wouldn't stop popping up in his head. He'd had liaisons that lasted a week or two before, he could do the same with her since at least as far as he could tell she seemed open to seeing more of him. As long as things stayed casual, he told himself, it wouldn't be a problem.

Carson took Lucy and Obi out to run in the fields around the bunker, throwing their tennis and watching them race like mad to get to it first. He pulled out his phone and dialed Elizabeth's office number first since he figured she might not be able to answer her cell at this time in the afternoon, waiting with a crooked grin on his face for her answer.

The brunette picked up after a few rings, her voice sounding a little distracted and he chuckled a bit to himself imagining her cradling the phone between her face and shoulder while staring intently at her laptop screen through her red-rimmed glasses. "Good afternoon Professor Stevens. Did I call at a bad time?" Carson asked in a playful voice, glad to hear her tone change to a happier one when she recognized him.

She greeted him and asked if he had run into another snag on his book, and he realized a little belatedly that he'd been so preoccupied with debating over the issue of calling her or not in the first place that he hadn't taken a minute to think up an excuse to contact her other than the simple desire to talk with her. "Well um, I'm actually hoping you might help me cross reference an artifact I want to cover in my book. The translation of the markings on it is giving me some trouble." Carson quickly lied, keeping his tone casual and he was pretty sure he didn't sound forced. El didn't sound skeptical at all when she responded, asking him what sort of artifact it is with keen interest and again he found himself scrambling for something to say that she'd buy.

"Trust me, you'll want to see it for yourself." He replied quickly, muting his phone momentarily to whistle to the dogs to come in with him and sighing with relief when she took him up on his indirect request that he come out to see her. She asked him if he wanted to meet her when she was done at work and he sighed as he hurried down to one of the many archives in the bunker. "I'm not sure I can get there by then... Can I come by around eight? Maybe let me take you out for dinner or drinks to show my gratitude for your help?" He suggested, keeping his voice calm but frantically searching through random boxes and shelves looking for some relic or other he could bring with him. He'd have to get on the road as soon as possible to make it there by eight, but he couldn't pick anything too simple or she'd know he was just playing at this.

Elizabeth spent the next couple days buried in work, not to say there was much to do but still in her field it felt like a constant battle among enemies. She fought every day to dig something new up, find a new bit of information to keep things running and not to mention her actual teachings and lesson planning. It grew exhausting sometimes but she never let it get to her too much in fact having someone like Carson come along even if only just once in a blue moon gave her hope that there were people who would listen, who would want to learn as much as she did.

She typed rapidly on her laptop keyboard, trying to fill out another form in between reading up on the Mythology discussion board she had for her class, ensuring each student built upon the starting debate. Her phone rang and almost robotically she reached out, hardly missing a beat as she picked up the device and answered it, pressing the office phone to her ear and shoulder keeping it in place. When the voice came through she took a moment to recognize it but that playful tone the man used was all too familiar to her. She smiled widely, very quickly drawn away from her work for a moment to talk to him.

“Did you find a hiccup in your story, Mr. Black?” She asked lightly, pushing the screen of her laptop down and closing it for the time being, preparing herself for searching the archives for him should he need her assistance like he had before. El saw no flaws in his response, her interest peeked for the time being towards what it might be that he had questions on that was giving him such trouble. “What sort of artifact is it?” She questioned, sitting back down more fully when he told her it might be something she would rather see in person.

Her brows rose but again she didn’t think anything of that option, he wanted help with his book and she was in fact the perfect person to offer such aid. “Sure.” She said easily, still as pleasant as before, “Did you want to come meet me here when I’m off for the day? I’ve still got a couple hours but I’ll have everything wrapped up by then.” She said, nodding despite that he couldn’t see her when he answered for a later time.

The brunette twirled her hair between the tips of her fingers as he offered to take her to dinner or a drink. “I think both would be nice. It’s my turn to buy dinner. You can cover drinks. I’m in a scotch mood. Perhaps a dated brand—“ She hummed, only teasing him and he laughed on the other end. “Nothing too outlandish I promise.” Elizabeth muttered, arching a brow as she heard rustling around and then a loud clatter as if Carson had just dropped a large box or something along the lines. “Is everything okay over there?” She questioned lightly, giggling a little at him cursing under his breath even with her on the line.

Carson apologized and promised he was okay that he had just bumped a shelf and knocked over some stuff. “Well I’m glad I make you nervous enough to become a bit of a klutz.” She teased, “I find it endearing. Try not to trip over yourself at dinner tonight.” She continued without missing a beat, laughing at his reply to her and shaking her head as she rubbed beneath her tired eyes but that didn’t matter, no matter how exhausted she felt she wanted to help this man…. To see him again…

Her tone grew just as sweet again, moving back to their little date as well as the reason they were even meeting up in the first place. “So I’m feeling Chinese tonight if that’s good with you. There’s a place a couple blocks from the Italian joint we went to that’s pretty good. I’ll meet you there at eight.” She confirmed, both of them saying their goodbyes and hanging up the phone.

Elizabeth’s day went by a little faster in her eyes knowing she had something to look forward to she guessed. When eight rolled around she opted for getting them a table, none too worried that he seemed to be running behind a bit. In her mind if he wanted anything out of her he would show up within the hour or at least give a damn good explanation. She flipped through her menu and ordered herself a drink, looking up when she heard his voice from off to the side. He heaved a sigh and she smiled at him, completely forgiving for his few moments of tardiness. “Mr. Black.” She greeted simply, waiting for him to take a seat and he gave a rather simple apology for making her wait.

She shrugged at him, “Eight or eight o’five really doesn’t make much difference to me in all honesty.” El replied, “Did you bring the artifact or are you going to make me stew on the whole thing a little bit longer?” She asked with an arch of her dark brow.

 

Carson grinned widely at her response to his apology, glad that she seemed unbothered by him being a few minutes late. He was going to have to mention the whole four hour commute thing tonight so he didn't have to keep dancing around timing issues. He sat down at the table she'd gotten with her, taking a sip of ice water from the glass already on the table and shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"It's not so much that I'm getting a kick out of making you wait to see it..." He grinned and started flipping through the menu, "It's just that I'm pretty sure you and most of the patrons of the restaurant would appreciate me not bringing it in here while you're trying to eat." He explained, chuckling when his justification for not bringing it in only seemed to pique her curiosity more. She begrudgingly accepted his answer for the time being, recommending dishes that were especially good and the pair ordered their dinner.

They talked and laughed through dinner, mostly about her work and some about his dog as well as his brother's dog he was taking care of that kept him close to home several hours away most of the time. Elizabeth thought it was nice of him to take care of his little brother's pet, asking why it was that he had to watch over him for such a long period and Carson winced a bit considering how to answer her question.

"Well... Honestly he's staying in an immersion rehabilitation center for... Drug addiction." Carson told her, his gut clenching with apprehension. He wasn't sure why he hadn't just come up with another lie, he could've given any number of less innocuous reasons but for some reason he really wanted to be honest with her about this. He hadn't really talked to anyone other than his parents about what Axel was going through and his feelings of responsibility for it, and for some reason it just felt natural to trust Elizabeth with this despite only knowing her for a handful of days.

El's features softened with sympathy and she reached out to place her smaller hand over his, telling him not to worry and that she was sure his brother was in the right place working out whatever issues he had. Carson smiled, feeling like a two ton weight had been lifted off his chest hearing her so readily accept his answer and that it didn't seem to color her perception of him.

"Yeah. He- He's a good kid. The best, really. He just lost his way. I should've watched out for him better, done more to help guide him." Carson admitted softly, trying to keep the pain out of his voice but not really succeeding. Again Elizabeth assured him that no matter what the situation was she was certain Carson was a great older brother, and that the important thing was that no matter what choices his younger sibling made to land him in rehab, the fact that he was there getting better was what counted. It was strange, Carson had heard similar sentiments from his mother, father, April... But it felt different coming from an outside source. Her words actually did make him feel a little better.

Carson shook off his sudden soberness and got back to what he should be focusing on with a little chuckle, "Thanks El. That means a lot to me to hear. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sudden make the conversation all heavy like that. You ready to see what I brought for show and tell Professor Stevens?" He switched topics, grabbing their waiter and paying the check, looking sheepish when Elizabeth reminded him that she had wanted to buy dinner tonight.

"Ooh right, sorry... Force of habit. You want to get the drinks instead?" He suggested with a charming smile, hoping she wouldn't mind too much that he'd paid again.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes a bit as she grabbed her purse and coat and got up from the table with him. “You didn’t even give me a chance to reach for it.” She scolded playfully, shrugging at his question. “I think you did that on purpose because you thought I was going to stick to my guns and have expensive tastes just because I wasn’t buying.” She smiled, laughing when he said that could subconsciously be a good reason he did so.

They walked out of the restaurant and to the end of the street where his car was parked right beside hers. “I’ll get the drinks and meet you at my place in a few?” She offered, tugging her purse over her shoulder and starting the walk up to the corner store, waving to him when he climbed into his Impala and started it up. She smiled as she walked the aisles, opting for a bottle of whiskey and hoping he was okay with that as an option. She quickly paid and got on her way, heading back to her place, rather pleased to see that he was standing by her door already waiting for her.

They wandered inside and she got herself a little more settled, kicking off her shoes and walking in her stockings and flowing skirt with a navy blue tank she normally wore as only an undershirt. She padded into the kitchen and got them each a glass, pouring one for him and one for her and watching him shed his coat as well, unwrapping the artifact he had brought for her to look at. Her curiosity piqued again, body arching up to try and see it before he might mean for her to but he was just out of her line of sight.

She carried the two glasses back and took a drink from hers, happily handing him the other and neatly sitting herself down on the loveseat. Carson joined her, choosing to sit down on the recliner at one end of the coffee table, unfolding the tiny scrap of fabric he had surrounding the object and when he did her eyes widened. He opened his mouth about to say something of an apology but she was quicker, “I haven’t seen sigils like these used for decades.” She said simply, putting her glass aside and reaching to the side table for her extra pair of glasses she kept around the house, pushing the black rimmed specs up her nose and gladly taking the book from him, keeping her fingers away from the bindings.

“You know I’m going to start getting suspicious between the interest in man eaters like Rugarus and the fact that you have a book that’s bound with human flesh. You do know leather doesn’t come in this color right?” El laughed, hardly noticing the way he was watching her. “So what’s causing you trouble? Are you trying to open it?” She asked, looking up over the top of her glasses to meet his eyes and catch his response.

He shrugged and claimed he wasn’t sure if it was something even safe to open at all let alone try and decode the contents, granted if there were any. “Well these symbols at the top here are only protecting the contents. Nothing harmful. I just says basically… if you don’t use it right you’ll regret that decision.” She explained, “But we’re not going to use it so we’re perfectly fine. My guess is there are summoning rituals maybe some very specific ones which when you think about it all the warding seems a little silly considering there’s really no good outcome of calling upon a supernatural being.”

Elizabeth grabbed her glass and took another gulp as she inspected the lock along the opening of the gnarly looking book. “Enochian. The symbols have to match in order for it to open I think. They have a meaning…” She stood up and wandered to her shelves, carefully extracting a hand written book of her own with the many notes she had taken on the language. “I think Gallifreyan is the only language harder to comprehend.” She mumbled, flushing when she caught Carson’s eyes. “It’s umm… from a show I used to watch.” Her gaze returned to the book in her hands, sitting down on the floor this time and flipping through its pages as she drank from her glass for the time being.

“I think…” She trailed off, fiddling with the lock system and managing to get it to click open with her brow furrowed deeply in concentration. It unlatched and she grinned, “Protect, honor, and serve. Seems a little cliché for an angel scribe but okay. Do you still want to read what’s inside?” She asked him, wanting to respect that this was his property but she couldn’t control her eager hands already beginning to flip through the first pages filled with information, some English, some not.

 

Carson was surprised and pleased by Elizabeth's reaction to the tome, he'd been in such a rush to choose an artifact that would be difficult but not toodifficult for her to analyze that he hadn't really thought about the fact that it was a book bound in cured human skin and that anyone who wasn't a hunter or otherwise in the know of all things that go bump in the night might be more than a little unsettled by it.

She not only was unfazed by the books unique binding but only seemed more keen on it because of it, quickly diving right in to trying to decipher the multiple-dial lock keeping the book sealed. He already knew it was a spellbook compiled by a witch over a hundred years ago that had since been sealed by an overly zealous priest who thought he was clever using what snippets of the angelic script he knew to lock it. 

It had been opened once already by his grandfather and great-uncle, notated thoroughly by the latter and then put back into storage along with the countless other relics the bunker housed. He knew it was totally harmless, all the spells in the book required reagents and altars to enact so it had seemed like a good candidate to let El play with... As long as the thing itself didn't terrify her, and clearly it didn't.

He was fairly sure she'd be able to crack the lock, but he was still surprised by just how quickly she did it. Carson smiled to himself as El made a token effort to ask permission before opening the book, already skimming over the first few pages before he had a chance to respond. The tall hunter stood with his glass of whiskey in hand, coming to look over her shoulder at the pages of spells. A few of them were in middle English that was fairly easily read but many were in latin, and a bastardized combination of latin and a demonic dialect many witches of that time period used.

"So? What do you think? Did I waste my money or is this a pretty rare find?" Carson asked, smiling crookedly to himself at the way Elizabeth was devouring the book, she hardly even seemed to remember he was there next to her. She answered in a distracted tone that she'd never seen anything like this book before, a hand scribed compendium of spellcraft that to her eye was very old yet almost perfectly preserved. She mentioned something like this ought to be in a museum, and she asked him where he had gotten his hands on it.

"All right, you caught me, it is from a museum. I'm a world class thief." Carson laughed, but still Elizabeth was so engrossed in the book that she didn't even realized he had cracked a joke. Carson shook his head, gently grasping El's slender waist and drawing her back down to the loveseat to sit half beside him, half on him while she continued to peruse the tome. 

He sipped at his whiskey now and then, content to just sit and watch her reading though he had thought they'd be engaged in 'other' activities after nearly an hour of being at her place. It amused and pleased him that he could offer her something she found so fascinating however, so he simply waited for her to get her fill of the book, not fighting her when she got up a couple times to reference something she found in the spellbook against one of her own resources.

Finally a little bit before midnight, Elizabeth sat back and closed the book on her lap, rubbing at her eyes a bit beneath her glasses and commenting about information overload and how amazing this book was. Carson made an affirmative noise in his throat, setting his glass down so he could lift the book and set it on the coffee table for her.

"I'm glad you found it interesting... For over two hours." Carson commented in a teasing tone, laughing when Elizabeth squeaked and turned bright red, looking up at her wall clock to confirm his words and turning back to him redder than ever. 

“I think I need a break. Information overload… my head might explode.” Elizabeth muttered as she rubbed beneath her tiring eyes and finally letting the book go for Carson to put aside. She blinked at him, eyes widening at what he said and suddenly her nerves kicked in, flushing with embarrassment. “Oh shit.” She mumbled, burying her face in her hands and apologizing profusely.

She shook her head, “I get carried away I know that I do. It’s just not every day that I find something new or get something new brought to me filled with so much. I’m sorry Carson you’re probably bored out of your mind. I could have done all that later I just get really wrapped up in it sometimes and just sort of…” She made an end gesture with her hands, “forget about the rest of the world.” She admitted softly, still pink in the cheeks as she gave one final apology.

Carson’s head bent and he shook it at her, promising he didn’t mind seeing her in her element, claiming he found it cute among other things. She laughed, feeling his hand running up her outer thigh and his grasp tightening to urge her a little closer to him. “I think that’s a first. Most men would have taken the whiskey and run by this point.” She whispered, humming as his lips grazed over her neck. She turned her head to offer him better access to her flesh, carding her fingers lightly through his hair and sitting back at his prompting, letting his weight press her down into the couch.

Elizabeth sighed at his mention that maybe he wasn’t most men, “Well now you’ve ruined it because every man says they aren’t most men.” She giggled, the sound morphing into a sultry moan as his mouth worked down her chest. Her mind was still racing and lingering on the book he brought over, taking notes mentally and for the moment she fought the urge to start telling him about everything it withheld. Perhaps his attentions are what kept her from doing so.

She shifted so her legs spread apart for him to settle between, allowing him space above her and turning her head so their lips met in a slow kiss that very quickly turned more heated and needy. The brunette moaned, arching up into him and pushing her hands beneath the fabric of his shirt, urging it up and off him which he quickly complied to, sitting up and ridding himself of the garment, his own strong hands growing far more gentle as he tugged off her tank top and kissed at her belly, making her giggle at the sensation. Her head lolled and she watched him unzipping her skirt at the side, guiding the fabric down off her hips which she lifted enough to allow.

“I guess I’ll tell you all about your find later?” El teased, making him laugh as he rolled down each of her stockings, kissing at her calves and up to her knees and thighs while his hands followed the very same path. He hunched over her form again and their lips collided with one another’s, his hips baring down against her own, grinding down into her and stimulating her clit to stir up her desires that were already rising the moment she even saw him. She took his response as a yes, scratching her nails down his torso to the front of his jeans and working them opened, her hand pushing beneath the dark fabric of his briefs, gripping him and nipping his lip as she began stroking him slowly, making him fully hard for her.

 

Carson growled lightly at her touch, thrusting automatically into her hand and craning his head down to nip and kiss at her generous cleavage. He'd wanted another taste of her since the moment he left her place a few days back, and finally getting to appease that craving made every touch, every kiss more potent. He unclasped her front-fastening bra with a little flick of his fingers, nipping and kissing at her soft breasts and making her mewl with want as he gave equal attention to both sensitive peaks.

Elizabeth stroked him harder and he groaned against her flesh, reaching down to still her motions for the moment. "Easy there baby, that feels a little too good." He chided her with a little smirk, kissing her deeply and blindly fishing in his pocket for his wallet. Elizabeth giggled when they broke apart, commenting that she hoped he'd brought more condoms this time. "Hopefully I brought enough to suffice." He responded, letting her take the little foil square when she reached for it and watched her roll it on to him, panting heavily with his need to be buried inside her.

Elizabeth glanced back up at him and smiled, dragging her hands up his muscled frame to cup his face, tugging him down for another hungry kiss. Carson pushed both their bodies a little further up the loveseat for a better angle, tossing away a couple of her decorative throw pillows for more room. He reached down to tug her panties out of the way, throbbing with want as he felt her soaking wet for him. It had definitely been worth the wait tonight.

Carson pushed into her tight heat, swallowing her moans as he began moving inside her. She wrapped her legs up high around his inked up torso, letting him take her as deeply as possible. He broke apart from her lips to gasp for breath, his breathing shallow and rough as he drove into her hard and fast. Elizabeth cried out in pleasure, clinging to him tightly and bucking her hips up into his thrusts. He watched her face carefully, listening to her sounds and using what he'd memorized about her last time to know when she was nearing her peak even before she raggedly moaned that she was close.

Carson slowed down his pace, gliding in and out of her slow and deep, making her groan with a mix of want and impatience. He kept going just fast enough not to let her drop off the high edge she was riding, but not quick enough to let her come either. "Does this feel good baby? Tell me..." He huffed, tensing every muscle in his body to keep from getting too far ahead of himself as she exclaimed that he felt amazing. She tried to arch up onto him harder, desperate for her release but he kept his body closely aligned to hers so that she couldn't get herself off on her own.

"You wanna come beautiful? Tell me you want it." Carson demanded feverishly, slipping his hand between them to ever so slowly circle her clit, adding to her sensation but still not letting her unravel just yet. Elizabeth shivered beneath him, mewling his name and begging him to make her come, and he was quite certain she'd never been put in this position before, being forced to plead for what she wanted but by the euphoric look on her face she seemed to like it just fine.

"Okay baby, okay. You look so gorgeous when you lose it I can't say no." Carson murmured back, picking up his pace with both his thrusts and his fingertips, his own jaw hanging a little slack at how good she felt clenching around his length and pulling him in deeper. The brunette arched up hard against him, and it was all he could do to hold off on his own release as he carried her through at least three bone melting orgasms, though it might've been four he was having trouble keeping his wits enough to keep track. Finally he exploded within her, jolting and groaning her name as he came, her walls milking him dry from the force of her pleasure.

Carson couldn't help the airy chuckle that escaped him as he rested atop her for a moment, feathering light kisses over the sweat dampened skin of her throat. He wasn't sure if a type A personality like Elizabeth would enjoy having control taken from her entirely like that, but in the end it seemed his experiment had more than paid off.

Elizabeth trembled under his touch, the feeling of him buried deep inside her just like before was even more fulfilling and satisfying than the first time. Her jaw clenched and she panted out her plea that he make her come, behaving herself this time and resisting the urge to dig her nails into his flesh like she had done so before. She cried out to him as he finally gave into what she wanted and let her come undone, her body arching against his and driving him deeper inside her body to hit all the right places.

She panted as she came down, relaxing beneath him and letting her hands loosen around his form. She kissed up his shoulder to his neck, her hands running over his back, happily holding a good amount of his weight while they gathered themselves. They lay together, entangled in one another for a long while before either of them spoke and eventually the whiskey she bought was hauled into the bedroom with them, spending the rest of the evening getting to know one another even more thoroughly than before.

Over the next couple weeks she saw Carson nearly every evening, more often than not he ended up camping at her place especially considering she felt a little guilty once discovering he didn’t live in town at all. They had fallen into something of a routine without the intention of doing so, calling in the night usually on days he wasn’t going to be stopping by. The last few days he had been mostly MIA but she figured as much considering it seemed his book was moving right along even though she still had yet to read any bit of it. She trusted him enough not to question that, figuring it was just his creative process somehow.

“Professor Stevens.” She chirped into her office phone, her brow arching when the other voice came through as Carson’s. “I thought you weren’t going to call the office anymore. Stick to cells and email?” She reminded him, recalling his silly promise to stop bothering her at work though she never once complained. He laughed and said he couldn’t help himself, claiming he liked how serious she sounded when she picked up her work phone over her cell.

She rolled her eyes at that, “Can I help you with something, Mr. Black?” El asked with a smile in her tone. He mentioned coming to town, informing her that he was about an hour out if she could manage to be done by her usual time off rather than hanging over a bit like she normally did. “Sure. I’ll be home by then. I’ve got something that just came in that I really want to show you. I think you could use it in your book somehow if you wanted.” She told him, perking up even further when he sounded genuinely pleased to see whatever it was she had to show him, promising he would come straight to her place. “Actually I’ll order pizza here in a bit and you can grab it on your way in. Should be done in time.” She said simply, grinning at his agreement. “I’ll see you soon, Carson.”

Elizabeth cleaned her place up a bit more for his arrival, picking out a pair of jeans to be a little more comfortable and yet still in a sense appropriate for Carson being around. She heard her door and knew his knock by now, laughing to herself as she got up and wandered to open the door, pleased to see he had their pizza with him. “Glad to see you can follow orders.” She quipped, taking the box from him and pushing the door open further so he could step inside. He flashed her a grin and stepped in with her while she got them plates and something to drink.

“I was actually going to call you.” She said when Carson asked what the big excitement was she had mentioned on the phone. El padded back with a few plates and cups balanced on the pizza box, setting it out on the coffee table, handing Carson a napkin like she always did when they ate together like this. She dropped down onto the love seat beside him and rotated to reach by the side of the chair for the tiny chest she had been sent just recently. “This. I haven’t opened it yet because I’m not really sure what to expect but isn’t it cool?” She asked him, putting it to one side of the table and out of the way for now as she snagged a piece of pizza and started eating as he kept looking at the trinket.

She finished off a couple bites before speaking, tucking her feet over his legs and beneath the pillow opposite him to keep her toes warm. “I thought we could open it together. There’s not really a code to break for this one so it’s not as fun but I don’t have any idea if there’s anything inside it yet. I’d imagine not but still.” El shrugged, reaching for her drink and grinning when Carson snagged it for her instead and handed it over so she could take a swig.

Carson beat El to her drink, handing it to her instead out of a gut reaction to keep her from reaching anywhere near the box she'd shown him. His insides flipped over at the thought of her handling it unsupervised for who knew how long, thanking whatever Gods might be out there that she hadn't just succumbed to her curiosity and opened it alone. It was a curse box, there was no doubt in his mind. And while it was true that it might be empty like El said... The potential for what could be trapped inside it was horrific at best, catastrophic at worst.

"El... Where did you get this?" Carson asked, his tone more serious than he'd intended but Elizabeth didn't seem to mind it, probably thinking he was just keenly interested in the box. She explained that it had been found at the scene of a crime at the city's oldest cemetery, apparently two grave robbers had a little shootout over the box taking each other out, but when the police couldn't make heads or tails of the box itself, they sent it to the university for analysis.

She admitted that most of the time when she got things like this they were hoaxes or just random garbage the authorities didn't want to clean up themselves, but she was excited about this one because it seemed like it might be genuine. Carson only half answered her, setting down his plate and gingerly picking up the box that was about the size of a tissue box, peering intently at the markings inscribed on it. There was something vaguely familiar about the runes but he couldn't place them, all he knew for sure was rule number one with curse boxes- never ever open them.

Elizabeth giggled at him, teasing that if he just couldn't wait to finish eating to open the box that was fine with her, setting her own plate aside and leaning forward eagerly. Carson slapped the box back down on the table out of her reach, "No." He snapped, schooling his expression and gently clearing his throat when she flinched slightly at his abrupt tone.

"I mean let's... Hold on a second okay? If this was buried in a grave it could have... Mold spores or something... We don't wanna get sick." Carson babbled, pulling out his phone and snapping a quick photo of the box. He sent it to his father's phone, the one only for emergencies asking him to cross-reference it back at the bunker. He was fairly sure he knew what these symbols meant, but he just couldn't remember and he needed to know just how dangerous this thing really was.

Elizabeth questioned what he was doing, seeming skeptical about his mold excuse but he couldn't respond to her directly, his heart thumping with alarm when his father called him back almost immediately. That couldn't be a good sign. "Look um, just hold on a minute okay? I just wanna get a... Another opinion on the box before we go messing with it. Excuse me a sec. Just don't- Don't touch it, okay? Hold on." Carson talked over her as she tried to protest and ask him what was wrong. He shot up from his seat and answered the phone as he hurried just outside her front door to see what his dad had found out of her earshot.

"Dad? What is it, did you find out?" Carson asked, thumping the back of his head against her door feeling like a jerk but when it came to Elizabeth's safety and possibly the safety of everyone on this street he couldn't afford to play nice. His dad explained that the sigils on the box were specifically written to seal in creatures from Hell, and with the size of it he could only guess there either was a Hell Raven trapped inside it, or that's at least what the box was meant for.

Carson cursed under his breath, wondering what idiots thought it was a good idea to unearth something so dangerous. "A hell raven? What the hell... Is a hell raven dad?" He spat, getting more tense by the second as Parker explained it to be one of the lesser creatures of Hell, it could be made into a familiar by a demon just like hell hounds, and while they were much smaller than their canine counterparts they were every bit as vicious. He warned that an uncontrolled raven could wreak just about as much damage as a hound, making up for it's lack of size and power with speed and precision.

"Great. That's wonderful news." Carson pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering if there was any possible way at this point he could salvage this evening while not letting Elizabeth open the box. He'd have to take it and put it under lock and key in the bunker, and if Elizabeth never wanted to see him again for snatching her prize from her with no explanation, well... Her life was worth it.

Elizabeth gave something of a scowl at the man when he got up abruptly to go out and answer his phone despite her protests. “What’s wrong? Nothing has happened with it. I’ve had it in here a while don’t you think that if—Carson… If there was—“ She groaned in frustration the more he spoke above her, watching him leave her place to answer his phone. She could faintly hear him talking to someone and in a way that irritated her further, wasn’t she the one sitting around helping him? She knew a hell of a lot about these kinds of things and as much research she had done, none of the sigils pointed towards harming her. The box seemed inactive, like something that was meant for décor in someone’s home. She could use it as a jewelry box at best.

She huffed and looked back at the table, her eyes casting over to the door as she waited all of two minutes maybe less before picking up the black box. “Mold spores. Please.” She scoffed at his explanation, half amused and half irritated with the situation. She used her nail and hooked onto the tiny clasp keeping the box closed, popping it open and running her fingers over the top of it as she set it out on the table. She scrunched up her nose and pursed her lips in the way she did while she thought, waiting for something to happen.

The brunette nudged aside the pizza and plates to make a little more space for the trinket to rest as she pushed the lid back and open. The tiny hinge squeaked in the same moment her door opened again, making her jolt as Carson snapped at her about what she was doing. “I figured I know my way around these sorts of things enough to be able to open a damn box without everyone’s permission. See it’s fine. It’s empty.” She showed him with a gesture of her hand and the look in Carson’s eyes told her he wasn’t at all convinced.

El opened her mouth to tell him to leave, getting annoyed with the way he was acting and treating her all the sudden with something that belonged to her at this point in time but another sound caught her attention. She heard the flutter of wings just over her shoulder and her heart raced as the sound faded in and out as if something was rushing by her head time and time again. Her chest heaved, getting slowly to her feet only to be knocked over the coffee table as claws tore into her cheek. She hissed at the painful burn, lying on the floor trying to piece what was happening together. Her fingers brushed the blood streak just beneath her eye and she was certain had she not been moving that whatever just got her would have blinded her.

Carson tensed and responded in a way she had never seen, grasping at his jacket and drawing a jagged edge silver blade. The brunette’s heart raced, “What are you doing?” She asked not entirely sure if she should fear him or whatever just attacked her. Her lower lip trembled as he grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet, her frame instantly tensing up and her eyes closing as she waited for what he might do to her but when nothing came she looked up. He ordered her back, asking if she had table salt, enough to draw a circle around her being. “Salt?” She repeated in a shaky tone, cringing again when he yelled his confirmation, requesting she do it and now preferably so she didn’t get targeted again.

She hurried to the other side of him, doing as he asked and grabbing a bag of salt from her cabinets, screaming as she heard the same flutter around her head, “Carson!” She cried, covering her mouth to keep from completely breaking down. She choked on a sob a bit, quickly gathering herself as he told her to hurry. She poured a circle around her, uncertain what was happening or what to do but when the air was still for too long she refused to unclasp her fingers from the man who was now protecting her with only a blade in hand. “Is that a demon knife? Did you have that made? And here everyone thought I was the crazy fanatic with all the lore and the books and the relics—“ She gasped as talon marks appeared along the dining table, her light fixture swinging from and unknown source.

Carson mentioned now wasn’t the perfect time to be asking about his weaponry. “I was just curious.” She whispered as if that might help keep whatever it was watching them at bay.

"El, the salt! Hurry!" Carson shouted frantically, his blue eyes darting this way and that trying to track the invisible creature's movements based on the havoc it was wreaking in Elizabeth's apartment. He glanced over his shoulder for an instant to double check that she was pouring a complete circle around herself, standing just in front of it brandishing his family's heirloom demon blade. 

He felt El's fingers dig into his bicep, her panicky whispered words were about the last he expected to be coming out of her mouth at a time like this. "Did I have it made- Are you friggin' kidding me right now? This isn't exactly the best time to be discussing my weaponry, all right?" He shot back in an exasperated tone, tensing as he saw the hell raven leave deep gouges across El's coffee table with it's razor sharp talons. He made the best judgement he could based on the speed it had been moving thus far, swiping blindly with his blade and barking out a little noise of triumph as he felt the tip of it connect with the creature's invisible body.

He hadn't done enough to slow it down much, but at least he could kind of tell where it was with the naked eye by the little trickle of black blood leaking from the wound he'd inflicted. "El, stay in the circle and stay down! It's gonna be okay!" He barked at her, charging after the avian demon as it ricocheted off the living room windows on the opposite wall, looking for a way out.

Carson made another swipe at the bird but the blow missed entirely, and he hardly had time to feel the rush of air as it shot past him before he felt it's talons tear across his his back from one shoulder to the other. The hunter growled in pain, slashing at the air again but it was too late, the creature had already circled around and dove at him again, this time straight at his face.

He changed his tactics then, knowing he had hardly any chance taking this thing while it was at a distance. Carson let the bird strike him, snarling in anger and pain as it raked up his right pectoral, trapping the thing that was about the size of a house cat but a thousand times meaner against his chest and shoulder.

The hunter grunted in pain as the hellish thing writhed like mad in his grip, slashing and pecking at him but he refused to loosen his grip despite the searing bite of it's wrath. He swapped the knife held tight in his right hand to his left and plunged it hilt deep into the raven, slicing downwards with all his force cutting the demonic creature almost completely in half. Carson finally relaxed his grip, letting the thing fall and it disintegrated into a little pile of blackish dirt at his feet, the only other evidence of it's existence the damage done to his body and El's apartment.

Carson wiped his blade on his already ruined shirt, tossing it on one of the recliners and looking back at Elizabeth standing in her salt circle, her green eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape as she took stilted, rapid breaths. His wounds felt like they were on fire even as they bled, the marks left by a hell beast tended to pack more of a punch than most. But right now he didn't care about any of that, what he cared about was the fallout from everything that had just happened in the last five minutes. He crossed the room back to Elizabeth.

"El? Elizabeth? Are you all right?" Carson asked in a soft voice, wanting to show her as much calm as possible since he wasn't sure just how much all this had traumatized her. For all he knew right now he might consider him a threat, so he raised his hands very slowly to inspect the small cut on her cheekbone, not making any sudden movements. 

"El? Talk to me... It's dead, it can't hurt you all right? You're safe now." He murmured catching her gaze and bracing himself for anything, screams, tears, shock... Hating that she'd had to be exposed to such a nasty creature even if relatively they'd gotten off fairly easy. 

Elizabeth watched Carson put up a very valiant fight, coming out triumphant despite his deep injuries. She gulped as she witnessed the creature disintegrating in the man’s grasp, not quite understanding just yet what it was he had been fighting. She trusted him, like she didn’t trust anyone else, there was something about him, the way he handled the situation to begin with that allowed her to put all her faith in him right then so she remained within the circle of salt she created despite not being certain it would even do anything for her protection.

Carson hardly even winced again as he straightened out and went right to her, as though he had suffered far worse and something told her that he probably had. Her eyes were watery but she didn’t cry, struggling to even speak when he came close to her. She was in shock, looking to the pile of ash on her floor as she tried to regulate her breathing and again Carson spoke her name, pleading with her to talk to him in some form. His grasp on her face got firmer and she looked at him finally, curling her fingers into his shirt, “I’m sorry.” She breathed, piecing together other things she might need to say.

“I’m okay. Carson I’m fine I just need a second okay?” El requested, apologizing again when he winced at her hand moving against his scratched up chest. She let his shirt go but her hands hovered as he lightly tugged her out of the salt circle making more of a mess on her floor. “We need to get you checked out.” She muttered, looking him over and forgetting about the dull throb in her cheek now. He shook his head and promised he would be okay, explaining that wounds like these might be difficult to brush off to hospital personnel.

She nodded in understanding, the pair of them taking a moment to let their minds play catch up and he started to hold her to him but she grasped his biceps. “Why on earth wouldn’t you tell me?!” El suddenly snapped at him, his brows rising and he actually chuckled as he tried to decide if she was really angry with him. “You know if you said, ‘Hey El if you open that little box there you might unleash a hellish beast’ I just might have listened to you. Getting tweaky on me and making mysterious phone calls really not the way to get me to behave.” She laughed airily, trying to get over the whole situation as quickly as she could manage.

Carson grinned and shook his head at her, cupping her unmarked cheek and mentioning that he didn’t exactly consider a girl would believe any of what he had to say. “Hmm. I’ve only devoted my life to this line of work, looking for proof of some sort and holy shit I think I finally found a carrot big enough to draw the horse out. Carson this—“ She trailed off, going to bend near the ashes of the once hellish bird. “This is what I’ve been working for.” El pinched a bit of the fine black dust and let it fall through her fingers again, shaking her head in disbelief.

The tall man came up behind her and urged her to stand again, the look in his eyes completely serious as he told her they couldn’t spread the joy so to speak. Elizabeth’s shoulders slumped a little but she had honestly been anticipating that, nodding her head to show she understood. “Fair enough…” She muttered, meeting his gaze. “But I have a few questions and I’m going to start with what exactly was that?” El asked, watching his lips as he explained and eventually they were sitting in the love seat where she was intently listening to him tell her a bit about what he was and what he truly did.

Elizabeth’s trust in him she couldn’t decide if it strengthened or wavered when that was such a big thing to keep but at the same time… it was a very important detail people not find out about. “So your whole family does this sort of thing?” She continued, taking his hand when he started picking at the blood stained shirt sticking to his wounds. She couldn’t help but get increasingly excited, laughing when he apologized for having caused her trouble. “Trouble? I think I opened the box remember? And even if I can’t tell anyone it still feels amazing knowing everything I’ve worked for isn’t completely meaningless. Carson if you do all these things like you say, you probably have some pretty extensive knowledge yourself and I would kill for it to be in my own mind even if just that.” She said, rolling his shirt up and he followed her prompting, letting her tug it up off his frame. “You should at least let me clean the scratches so they don’t get infected.”

Carson hissed through his teeth as Elizabeth removed his bloodstained torn shirt as gingerly as possible, searching her dewy green eyes intently when their gazes met again. She bit her lip and asked him why he was staring at her and he made a little baffled noise in response.

"So you... I mean you're just... Okay with this new reality? That pretty much all the horrifying things you've studied and a lot more you haven't really do exist out there?" He asked with a bit of amused disbelief. He supposed if anyone was going to cope quickly with a bomb like this being dropped on them, it was Elizabeth. The brunette made a tsking noise at him, reiterating that having her life's pursuit validated, even if she couldn't share the revelation with anyone else was more than okay, it was incredible.

Carson blinked a couple times trying to process her reaction, of all the things he imagined it certainly hadn't been relatively calm acceptance leading to eager interest for more knowledge of the supernatural. Especially since one of those supernatural things had just made a wreck of her living room and could very easily have killed her. He nodded and dared a smile despite his pain, a little groan of discomfort escaping him when she gently tugged at his shoulder to lean over so she could get a better look at the marks on his back.

Carson could feel blood trickling down his back and front and he didn't miss the way El's face had gone a little pale. He was used to being around injuries worse than this, either on him or on what he was hunting but he felt a pang of sympathy for her. She might easily accept that hell beasts were real, but that didn't have to mean the sight of blood didn't make her squeamish. 

"Hey, um- You know I can go, it's all right. I don't wanna ruin your upholstery even more, I-" Carson muttered, trying to stand but Elizabeth put her hand in the center of his chest and spoke his name in a quiet but insistent tone. He went still and met her eyes that were threatening tears once more as she insisted that the least she could do was tend his wounds when he'd just saved her life. Carson chuckled and covered her hand with his gently, "All right. Thank you Elizabeth." He replied, reaching into his discarded jacket pocket for his keys.

"There's a pretty decent first aid kit in my trunk, I'll just go grab it." He told her, starting to stand but El snatched his keys before he could react, telling him to stay put and she'd go fetch it instead. Carson's eyes widened with alarm and he shot up from the seat, swaying and having to catch himself falling on the back of the recliner. He'd lost more blood than he thought.

"I don't think that's a good idea, um..." Carson babbled but it was too late, Elizabeth was already out her front door. The hunter winced, knowing exactly what the brunette would see in addition to his first aid kit, a veritable rolling arsenal of conventional and unique weaponry. If her trust in him hadn't been totally shaken before, it just might be once she got an eyeful of that.

Several moments later Elizabeth came back inside, and Carson blanched at the totally blank expression on her pretty face. He made himself stand again from where he had all but collapsed on the corner of her gouged up coffee table, holding up his hands in a placatory manner. "Look El, hunters have to be prepared for anything, anytime. I only have all those weapons because I need them, and I only ever use them as a last resort, and never on people, I-" Carson stammered, his voice trailing off when Elizabeth set his substantial med kit on the table and looked up at him with a look that he couldn't read to save his life.

 

Elizabeth wandered out to get the medkit and while she hadn’t thought about it at the time until she was pulling the trunk opened, now she was. He was a hunter of all things evil, everything that went bump in the night and that processed far more quickly now seeing the trunk of his Impala lined with weapons. She traced her fingers over an intricately carved wood handled sawed off shotgun, nearly jumping out of her skin as she heard someone else coming out of the apartment building. She grabbed the medkit and slapped the trunk closed instantly, locking it like it was before and wiping her eyes clear of the tears that started to form again.

She wasn’t even sure why they were forming all the sudden except that she felt pain in her cheek and an increased worry for the man upstairs in her building bleeding out on her love seat. Did he really need all of those sorts of things for his job or was there something else going on beneath the surface? The brunette hugged her other arm around herself and hurried upstairs to him, pushing back into her apartment and finding Carson leaning heavily against her coffee table trying to keep upright.

She had managed to clear her tears, raising a hand as she set down the medical kit that was rather hefty compared to the ones you could pick up at the drug store. She urged him to stop talking for the moment, “Carson.” She began, holding back tears again and reaching out to rest her hand against the side of his jaw. “I’ve been scared before okay? I’ve been hurt before. I know what it feels like and it’s taught me to really, really get a good read on people. There has not been more than a second that you’ve frightened me so please. Just stop.” She whispered to him, her fingers curling against the side of his face.

The brunette sniffled, forcing her tears to stay back but a few welled over despite her efforts. “Let me ask questions I need to ask for now okay? We’ll get into details when I’m not… when you aren’t—“ Her voice caught and she ducked her head, blinking rapidly and taking a few shaky breaths to steady herself. Carson brushed his fingers over her cheek and cleared her tears, seeming to understand what she was saying in that moment. “I really don’t know how to dispose of a body so please if you’re going to die don’t do so on my furniture or in my apartment at all.” She laughed, forcing herself to lighten the mood between them.

Carson chuckled and mentioned he could make no such promise to her and she leaned forward, kissing his lips feather soft. “Thank you, Carson.” She muttered again in regards to saving her life but also for the fact that he was going to let her take the lead on this like she needed, let her ask whatever she needed to. She kissed him again and pulled away to unzip the large bag of goodies, “The one’s on your back aren’t as deep so I’ll start with your chest then, make sure you don’t need stitches anywhere.” She muttered, wiping her eyes so she could see and she knew at this point her make up and hair were a complete mess.

“Let me know if I hurt you or you need me to stop or anything.” El requested, dabbing a bit of gauze dipped in solution to clean his wounds, running it lightly over his marred flesh and wincing every single time he did. “So the weapons you have all have a purpose? Like the demon blade you used to kill that thing? Can I ask how you got into a field like this, how did you even come up with half those weapons?” She asked, slowly wanting him to tell her everything and figuring now they had all the time in the world to do so with all the scratches she had to tend to.

Carson relied on his extensive training passed down from his father to keep himself calm and clearheaded as possible despite the intense pain he was in and the way his vision was blurring at the edges from blood loss. He considered Elizabeth's questions carefully, trying to put together a satisfactory answer that also wouldn't make her bolt like most people would have done long before this point. 

"Well I suppose to start with, people become hunters for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they have a brush with the supernatural and wanna fight back. Others try to turn a profit on it. And some people pass on the trade to the next generation. Some people hunt to protect the innocent, others... Well some people are just looking for an excuse to get bloody." Carson explained in a level tone, wincing and forcing himself to take a deep breath before continuing since it was clear El understood he was struggling a bit to respond.

"My father and mother both come from hunting. Their backgrounds couldn't have been more different, but... They taught my brother and I to hunt for the same reasons. To keep innocent people innocent. To make sure all the horrible things that go bump in the night out there stay safely in the realm of their nightmares and saturday night horror flicks." Carson smiled crookedly, his dark brows raising with interest when Elizabeth picked up his curved stitching needle and thread and getting ready to use it on him like it was second nature to her.

She seemed to sense his hesitation and assured her that she'd sewn up a cut or two in her time, never anything this big but she was confident she could manage. Carson smiled appreciatively and tried to muffle his groan of pain as much as possible as she started pushing the needle through his rent flesh. Elizabeth didn't ask him to continue but he knew she was waiting for him to, so he took another deep breath.

"My family always works to protect people, and we try to... Preserve our anonymity at all costs so... My bad." Carson chuckled dryly, struggling a bit more with speaking clearly now that she was making her way up his wound with the needle and thread. "Most of my weapons are restored items of my grandfather's and some of my father's. We find that with a lot of the things we're up against the classics tend to hold up better than anything too newfangled. I've made and procured a few of my own weapons though, and I know it looks bad but I swear it's all just a part of the job." Carson insisted, hoping Elizabeth wasn't half-convinced by now that he was some kind of rambo psychopath. 

"Every hunter worth his salt has a cache or two squirreled away, not just weapons but supplies for barriers, tracking, warding... For us the best weapon is knowledge. Being prepared, having a plan B and C for as many situations we can think of. Most of the things we go after are a lot stronger, faster and gnarlier than us so it a lot of the time it comes down to having that one last trick up your sleeve." Carson continued feeling a little bit odd as he realized he sounded almost exactly like his father when he'd first been teaching the boys about hunting at a tender age.

"I'd be lying if I said hunters operate inside the law so to speak, but we're always working towards the greater good, always trying to preserve human life." Carson reiterated, watching absently as Elizabeth tied off her first suture. She leaned across him for more gauze before she began her second row of stitching, and he tried to read how she was processing everything he'd said so far in her eyes. 

"You can ask me anything Elizabeth. No more lies now I swear. I couldn't tell you before, to protect you, but... You've earned the right to know whatever you want now. I know I can trust you, I just... Hope you'll trust me." Carson muttered, hoping she believed his sincerity.

Elizabeth maintained her focus on his frame, working on the task of patching him up despite that her expertise might not be quite as extensive as he needed. He probably wouldn’t believe her if she told him how she knew how to stitch someone up like this, pleased when he didn’t even ask. Maybe he figured he had no right to know those sorts of details of question who she was when he had fed her such a load of crap that she was only just learning was just that, lies.

She hardly reacted much but when it came to harsh realities, that was how she had almost always been. Real talks never unsettled her or at least she never let someone truly see if they did or not. She kept her expression neutral for most of their conversation, listening to him while she worked on his chest. She moved to the second row and he finally addressed her directly which meant she couldn’t simply listen any longer, he wanted input or rather output? Whichever it was it meant she had to react in some for so he understood though she wasn’t all that certain what she was feeling either after training herself not to let that guard down.

She wet her lips with a flicker of her pink tongue, breathing a sigh as she paused her stitching to clean up the fresh blood that was starting to come from the mark she was currently working on. If anything she was feeling worried right now that she cost a man his life quite possibly. “I didn’t even think about it like that…” El murmured, confusing him a bit as she shook her head. “That you could have still lied to me, could have made something up but you’re trusting me to hold onto all of this? Carson why?”

Her apple hues flickered up to his bright blue eyes a little glassy from his pain and dizziness but he still held out. The dark haired man shook his head and simply answered that there was something about her that made him believe it was all acceptable, to trust in her because she didn’t give reason not to. She nodded in understanding, finishing the second row of sutures and proceeding with the third. They were both quiet for a while until she wrapped it up and looked over his back again, pausing in between and looking at him when he sat up to offer her a better angle to sit behind him. “I trust you.” She said in a hushed tone as if it were secret to the rest of the world.

“You jumped right in there and fought that thing off, worrying about me first no less.” Elizabeth laughed lowly, finishing his patch job off with a bit of gauze, wrapping her arms around his torso to pass the wad from hand to hand and wrap his chest and back all in one, covering the long wounds to the best of her abilities. “I thought that I knew so much about the supernatural creatures and folklore and everything under the sun to be quite honest but I guess not. I’d have died if you didn’t come back inside. I’m certain of it. It’s hard not to put your faith in someone who came to your rescue even after you proved your own stupidity to them.” She sighed, tucking the end of the gauze wrap so it held in place, lightly brushing it down flat as Carson assured her curiosity didn’t make her stupid. “Well it certainly gives me weakness. Whatever it was it doesn’t matter.”

El started to stand, putting her arms around him and urging him to get to his feet. “Easy.” She muttered gently, keeping a firm grip on him wherever she could that wasn’t hurt. He seemed to understand what she was doing, aiding him to get back to her bedroom. She helped him lie down, brushing her fingers over his torso when he settled in against her pillows with a grunt of pained effort. “I mean it Mr. Black. I trust you and I trust you’ll answer all my questions accordingly.” She said, watching him take the little antiseptic tube from her fingers she was still grasping. He opened it and put a bit on his ring finger, nodding for her to lean into him and she did, his finger drawing over the cut beneath her eye and she smiled at him thankfully, settling in against his side and closing her eyes not caring about the mess in the front room for the moment.

They didn’t sleep not instantly anyways but they did remain silent and content for a long while before she glanced up at Carson’s face, her limbs entangled around his considering she couldn’t hug his middle without causing him enormous amounts of pain right now. “I have another question.” She whispered, her nerves kicking in again. “Are you going to come around more?”

Carson focused on keeping his breathing as easily as possible, the more he focused on basic things like the steady intake and output of his own breath the easier he could cope with the pain he was feeling. He found it surprisingly comforting lying here in Elizabeth's bed with her smaller frame curved towards his. She only had one leg tangled with his and her arm placed carefully over his abs but still he relished what closeness they could share considering his injuries.

They lay quietly for a long while, Carson couldn't find sleep to save his life, there was too much churning in his head aside from the pain he felt that was only slightly dulled by the pain killers he'd taken, and he could tell by El's breathing that she wasn't sleeping either. He imagined that no matter how much he had flying around in his mind right now, she had to be far more overwhelmed.

Finally the brunette broke the silence again, but the question she asked him wasn't one he'd expected or even dared to hope for. She asked him if now that all this had come to light, if she'd be seeing more of him and the fact that she wanted that stunned him. After an experience like that, she didn't want him out of her life as soon as possible? He'd been half afraid that her acceptance of all this and her trust in him were being fueled by her gratitude that he'd saved her, that once that wore off she'd come to her senses and want as much distance between her and him as possible.

Carson grinned crookedly, groaning in discomfort as he made himself turn and brace himself up on his elbow to face her. He reached out and cupped her face, trying to catch any hint of doubt in her lovely green eyes as he spoke, "Is that really what you want, Elizabeth? I've trusted you with my biggest secret, but... I mean there's still a lot you don't know about me. Like, for example, these past couple weeks we've been together has kind of been the longest I've ever been with someone." The dark haired hunter cringed as he admitted his more than slight issue with commitment.

Elizabeth giggled lightly, placing her hand over his against her face and he continued, "And I live in a huge underground archive of all things supernatural... With my parents. It's not as bad as it sounds though I mean, I have my own separate space and it's just more convenient for work having access to the library and storage and... Yeah." Carson could hear how ridiculous he sounded, but he just didn't feel right keeping anything from this woman anymore when the biggest cat had already been let out of the bag and she was still sticking around.

"And stuff like this?" Carson added, looking down at the bandages on his chest before meeting her gaze again, "Happens a lot. If you want to see more of me it's more likely than not that I'll be banged up in some way or another. And I have to travel often for jobs, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. And then there's the risk involved every time I leave for a hunt I might not come back." He added, his heart sinking as he said aloud all the reasons he'd never really tried to have a more serious relationship before now.

Elizabeth waited for him to finish and commented with a little smirk that he was trying to convince her take back her request, teasing him asking if he was just trying to get rid of her. Carson shook his head, chuckling a bit sheepishly at her remarks but still his voice was adamant when he spoke again, "No, that's not it at all. I... Care a lot about you El. More than I've ever cared about anyone before, actually." He mused, as if speaking the words aloud really clarified his feelings for her in his own mind for the first time. 

"I just really want to make sure you understand. When it comes to being with me well, I'm afraid there are more cons than pros." He responded, feeling like he'd just shot himself in the foot but at the same time he had to put Elizabeth's safety and well-being above his desire to have her in his life. He couldn't be selfish like that when her life could literally be at stake choosing to get closer to him.

"So... I guess to actually answer your question, I'd really like seeing more of you... If you'll have me. But I wouldn't blame you for kicking me out and telling me never to come back now that you know the truth. I'm kind of surprised you haven't already, to be honest." Carson chuckled weakly, his guts twisting in knots as he waited for Elizabeth to consider what he'd told her.

Elizabeth stayed still and silent as she waited for Carson to finish everything he had to say. She remained hopeful in some senses that he might actually want her around but despite her teasing tone when he sounded like he was trying to edge her out and convince her he was no good, that he was honestly looking for an out himself. She bit her lip and hoped against all odds that it wasn’t the case, that he was simply looking out for her and when he answered in such a serious tone she knew that to be true.

“You know it’s funny that you say more often than not you come home hurt… Because when I’ve seen you, when I’ve seen all of you,” She smiled fully at him, her nose scrunching up as she did and making him chuckle softly. “You’ve seemed just fine to me. Why is that Mr. Black?” She asked lowly, her eyes darting back and forth to both of his and he answered kindly that since he had started to commute over here he hadn’t been working quite so frequently. She nodded, “I stole the town hero then?”

Carson laughed again and shook his head, claiming that’s not at all what he was, nothing close to it in fact. Her eyes softened and she leaned forward to very lightly kiss his bottom lip, “You’re the first man I’ve had over more than once in years. The first I’ve allowed to stay the night at all because I’ve always had this fear of them lingering and it turning out wrong.” She muttered, “I haven’t kicked you out because even now I don’t feel that fear if that makes sense.” She gave a shrug of her small shoulders, resting her hand over his and brushing her thumb along the side of his hand still cupping her cheek.

“This is different. Everything I’ve studied for years of my life is all true. Or most of it at least but it’s new and exciting and thrilling and I—“ El trailed off, glancing down to his bandaged torso and reaching her free hand out to lightly touch the edges of it. “I can handle all of this. I’m not overly fond of watching you get hurt but if you’ll let me be there to clean you up then okay. If anything I feel like I know you more now because I guess technically I do but I don’t have that wonder anymore of if you’re a criminal.” She laughed at the look on his face when he said he technically speaking was with everything he had to do for work. “Yeah but it’s like you said the crimes you commit are all for the greater good. If I was going to run, trust me I’d have taken your car when I had the keys.”

Elizabeth sighed and rested her head against his bicep of his opposite arm, smiling at him. “There’s always been a part of me that believed fairytales were real in some form. Stories have to come from somewhere, y’know. I’d like to see more of you Carson.” She whispered finally, her eyes starting to flutter as sleep beckoned her. His hand slipped from her cheek and he laced their fingers together, kissing her forehead and promising he would hang around. She nodded in her drowsy state, mumbling for him to get some sleep and slowly she drifted off with him.

\---

Carson spent the next three or four days with El, cleaning up and staying in her apartment while he healed and she went to work. She maintained her focus and every day she came home with another book to ask him if he knew about or hunted something within the source. She handled it well for the most part, if anything it only increased her drive to know more about every little thing that she could. When he offered she come see the bunker he spoke up she jumped at the chance, packing her things to spend the weekend with his family or rather his books considering that was all she was really thinking about anyways.

Talking with Carson had helped them both sort of learn to cope with the idea of being with someone for a longer period of time and even if it only lasted through the weekend she felt really good about it none the less. They pulled up to his home and she oohed and awed at the underground place, within the garage alone was magnificent, barricaded and warded in a number of ways. “Wow. You guys really don’t screw around in here do you?” She commented, her bright green eyes darting up to the high ceiling and wondering who the hell even dug something like this let alone built it. They had to be quite a good distance underground by now as he walked her through the hall, his hand on her lower back trying to keep her focused on getting to the main floor.

“Jeez. Even the doors are like industrial strength. You could survive the apocalypse in any one of these rooms.” She mumbled more to herself, tracing her hand over one of the doors when she got away from Carson. He chuckled and agreed, telling her that was the whole idea was to keep everything they didn’t want, out and keep everyone within the walls safe. “But even for the time this had to have been constructed it’s amazing. The Men of Letters really thought of everything. Is that an armory? Do you have your own armory?” She questioned, completely impressed as she adjusted her duffle over her shoulder.

Carson laughed again and urged her forward, promising to give her the grand tour but he had to say a quick hello to his family first. As if on cue El heard a little squeak coming from just around the corner, a beautifully matured dark haired woman stood at the end of the hall now, trying to contain her excitement it seemed. Elizabeth smiled and their pace picked up a bit, giving a wave as they grew closer. “Hi.” She said, shifting her bag to extend her hand out.

Mari grinned widely and threw her arms around El’s taller frame, squeezing her tightly and welcoming her in a soft sweet tone. “Oh umm…” Elizabeth laughed a little uncomfortably, patting the woman’s back gently and returning her hug.

“I’m sorry I don’t get out very much it’s been a while since a new face came into the bunker. I’m guessing you’re Elizabeth? Or excuse me… Professor Stevens?” Mari started, letting El go and giving a little look to her son, something of approval as she gestured for him to come hug her too while El confirmed who she was. “Do you need me to look at your stitches? I can fix you up more if you’d like.” She offered to Carson, looking him over and seeing El seeming to question her offer.

"Uh, El this is my mother, Mari Black. Mom, Elizabeth." Carson went through his belated introductions while gently catching his mother's hands in his because he knew from experience that if he didn't answer her right away the woman would start trying to pull his shirt up for a better look right then and there. "Mom, I'm gonna go get El settled in her room and then you can fix me up, okay? Just give us a minute alright?" Carson half pleaded with his mom, an adoring smile on his face as he looked down at his petite mother. Mari sighed but accepted his answer, waving them off down the hall after telling Elizabeth how happy they were to have El staying with them.

Carson steered El at a quick pace down to her guest quarters, though in his mind he hoped she'd be spending her nights here in his room or joining her in here. He set her bag down on the end of her bed and Elizabeth commented that his mother seemed nice, but questioned what she meant by her fixing him up further. The hunter grinned and ran his hands through his dark hair, trying to figure out how to drop yet another bomb on the woman he was letting into his life.

"Yeah, sorry she um, gets a little excited." He chuckled, taking Elizabeth's hands in his, "All right well, I was kind of hoping to build up to this one but, what she meant was that she can fix me up... Literally." Carson answered, waiting for El's inevitable look of disbelief. He chuckled at her look of mingled skepticism and curiosity. "Trust me, it's one of those 'you have to see it to believe it' kind of things. Wanna see?" He asked, turning back towards the door knowing she'd say yes which she did almost immediately.

Carson and El walked back down to the main entry area into the kitchen where he saw his mother already had about a dozen things cooking and baking at once, maybe he shouldn't have given them more than a day's advance notice that they were visiting so she didn't have time to make all this stuff. Mari was waiting there and beside her was Parker, his arm wrapped around his wife. The man had gotten more weathered by the years but he still kept himself in fighting form, the strict discipline he'd been raised with not apt to wear off quickly.

Carson introduced El to his father and since the elder man was wearing a v-neck tee the brunette quickly noticed his tattoos that covered even more of his body than his son's. She made a joke asking if the men had some kind of rare hereditary skin condition to which both Parker and Carson laughed.

"I suppose you could say that, I think Carson got his fascination for tattoos from me, can't imagine why though." Parker commented, stepping back to allow space for Carson to walk in front of him and sit down on one of the kitchen chairs so his mother could easily reach his injuries. The younger hunter winced a bit as he removed his shirt, handing it off to El who was starting to look a little uncomfortable. He reached out and caught her fingers with his, tugging her forward to take a seat next to him.

"So something else you're gonna learn about my family is that we don't just hunt supernatural beings, we kind of... Are supernatural." He began, grinning at the way Elizabeth's green eyes widened a bit as she looked from Parker to Mari then back at him. "My grandmother was a Nephilim, half-angel. My mother is also, though she's only a quarter. Her powers come in handy pretty often." Carson explained, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible as he braced yet again for the other shoe to finally drop with this poor woman who was having her world view rocked left and right since getting more involved with him.

Mari chimed in, explaining a bit more about her powers and to what extent she could use them as she gingerly removed Carson's bloodied bandages. She complimented El on her stitching, reminding her son like she had done countless times before to stay relaxed. The older brunette looked back at El and softly told her not to be afraid, that while she was healing wounds there was some pain in the process but that everything was going to be all right.

Elizabeth nodded and only then did Mari begin, seeming to know that it was her readiness she needed to confirm not her son's. Carson took a deep breath, trying his best not to react in a way that might scare El as his mom began to heal him. He held in his cries of pain but he tensed and hissed through his teeth, trying to focus on breathing through the pain as his mother's healing energy permeated his rent skin.

After several moments Mari lifted her hands from the wounds on his chest, and while marks still remained they were far less deep and ragged. They bled anew and Elizabeth followed the older woman's prompting to apply some gauze pads to them, her green eyes wide and bright with wonder as she watched Mari work. Carson leaned forward a bit to give Mari better access to his back, growling a bit in his throat as she started the same process on the scratches across his shoulders. Those were less severe and so by the time she was done they were healed completely, which only seemed to further Elizabeth's amazement.

Mari gently prompted her son to sit back up, replacing El's hand pressing the pad to his chest with her own and quickly bandaging him up like she'd done so a thousand times before, which she had. The older woman commented that in an hour or so they could work on his wounds more, stating she thought another two or three healing sessions would see them completely gone and apologizing for leaving streaks of newly healed skin through his tattoos.

Carson laughed at her teasing apology, it was a bit of a running joke between his mom and dad and now himself as well. Mari could use her powers to heal them of most minor wounds, and a few more serious ones over time, but she couldn't exactly restore the ink etched into their skin and so over the years both men had to go and get 'patch jobs' done.

"I don't know, the ones across my chest might look kind of cool, though Ax might be a little pissed that his tail got cut in two." Carson chuckled, feeling a little pang of guilt when he looked back at El and saw her still looking fairly stunned where she sat. He had to keep reminding himself that while this was an everyday occurrence for all of them, it wasn't for her.

"El, you all right? Do you... Need some water or something?" He offered quietly, hoping that showing her this hadn't been the straw that broke the camel's back. 

Elizabeth was quiet for a little while as Mari fixed up Carson to the best of her abilities and rewrapped bandages around him to halt to bleeding just a bit so she could do another session later. She could tell he was in pain but he did his damnedest to try and keep his cries in check probably for her sake. What was only moments felt like hours at the time, shaking her head when he finally addressed her. Now she realized why he had the scars he did, well she realized that before but it was really sinking in that he had been through pain and injury before. 

Her mouth hung slightly agape in awe of what she just witnessed, she moistened her lips with her tongue and nodded at the three of them, seeing Parker get up and go to the kitchen, coming back with a glass of water for her despite the fact that she didn’t answer. He asked her himself if she was okay and she nodded once more, taking the cup from him and Carson’s hand rested over her knee, saying her name again. “I’m fine. Please don’t—Don’t fuss over me this is all just…” Her voice trailed off and Parker muttered something about how he knew it was insane, that she needed to take deep breaths and let it sink in. “No. No. I promise I’m fine. This is fascinating.”

The three of them gave her a similar look speaking volumes about what they thought of her sanity. “I’m sorry? Not fascinating? It’s just… well I’m a Mythology professor with concentrations in Magical creatures and folklore sort of thing.” She shrugged, not sure if they knew that part about her from what Carson voiced to them. “Carson said you’re an angel and not only that you’re human too. It’s amazing you survived at all with the views in the bible and the thoughts on Nephilim and here you are protected by man.” She muttered almost without thinking and Mari laughed.

“You hold onto this one, Car-Car.” Mari said, patting her son’s leg and reaching over to squeeze Elizabeth’s fingers. “I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t born into a family of hunters. A family of expert hunters no less, knowing what we do and in depth of the things we hunt puts you at risk but can also be a strength. It sounds fun but there’s trouble too, being connected to our family isn’t easy.” She muttered to the other woman and El nodded in understanding. “Carson doesn’t bring anyone home and he’s glaring at me for saying so I know it but to us that means you’re going to be something of an asset and he trusts you which means we do too.”

Mari smiled at them both and leaned over to kiss her son’s cheek, ruffling his hair as she took Parker’s hand knowing already they were both urging her out to give them space. El flushed a bit in the cheeks, the flattery she received making her pink and Carson laughed a little, shaking his head and mentioning that if she didn’t breakdown or freak out just once he was going to worry. She laughed with him and moved to sit on his leg, “It worries you that I’m so accepting of something I was searching for? Carson there’s a reason our paths crossed. I’m supposed to help you or you’re supposed to help me, I don’t know.” The brunette shrugged, tracing her fingers over the edge of the bandage and being careful not to harm him again.

“Maybe I’ll faint for you on the grand tour, hm? Would that make it better?” She teased, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead and the other over her heart, tipping back in an exaggerated fashion for his benefit. She laughed when he did, giving him a wink and feeling eyes on them, glancing over her shoulder she smiled at Mari who was not so subtly glancing through the kitchen door. Elizabeth turned back and looked at the man beneath her, “I want to see all your cool stuff. Please. I promise to be really dramatic.” She continued, handing him his shirt that was still rolled up in her lap.

She could see in his eyes his skepticism, making her sigh. She carded her fingers through his thick dark hair on the side of his head, gently scratching behind his ear and temple as she spoke. “I’m okay, baby. I swear. Why does this have to be any different than my usual research or getting to know your family?” She hummed, squeaking when he stood and nearly tipped her off his lap but he caught her wrist in time to tug her against his chest and kissed her suddenly. She giggled and moaned lightly into his mouth, pleased by the affections but pulling back. “Don’t try to distract me. This place is like my Disneyland and I want to see everything.” She chided lowly.

 

Carson chuckled in his throat at Elizabeth's admonishment, pulling his shirt back on feeling only a small amount of pain after his healing session with his mother. He took El's hand and threaded their fingers together, guiding her from the kitchen down into the main library. He released his grip on her hand and wandered a few paces behind her, letting her explore as she saw fit.

"This library contains around a fourth of the books we have here, and only a handful of artifacts that are more for display than anything." Carson commented, suddenly feeling like some sort of museum curator. Growing up in the bunker tended to change one's perspective, to him it was just 'home,' a place he slept and ate and got sick and got into fights with his brother. Sometimes he forgot just what an amazing place the bunker really was.

Elizabeth turned back to look at him with wide eyes, in awe that everything she could see in this large room stocked with hundreds and hundreds of books was only a fourth of the printed word stored here. Carson grinned at her excitement, stuffing his hands in his pockets and simply watching as she immediately dove in, climbing up the rolling ladder attached to one wall of shelves and pushing herself along looking at various titles more closely.

Mari wandered into the room, carrying a tray laden with various finger foods and cut up fruit, setting it on the table Carson stood by and giggling a bit as they both observed El for awhile. The younger brunette was trying to take in as much as she could as quick as she could, exclaiming her amazement now and then at finding a first edition of a rare work or a book who's title alone confirmed or denied a theory of hers.

Mari asked if they'd be seeing any more of El again tonight with a good natured smile, and Carson could only laugh softly and shrug his shoulders. "Tonight? More like all weekend I think. She hasn't even seen the good stuff yet. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be happy to get to know you more once some of the... Excitement wears off." Carson assured his mom, wrapping his arm around the woman's petite frame. They watched a few moments more together before Mari excused herself to go check on dinner, telling her son she understood if they ended up being too preoccupied to join them when it was ready.

"Thanks mom." Carson said in a grateful but amused tone, grabbing a piece of melon and popping it in his mouth before turning his attention back to El. The hunter answered a question or two here and there, giving the brunette about half an hour before finally going and grabbing the ladder just as she was about to push herself along to the next set of shelves. He stared up at his lover with a half-cocked grin as she jolted and looked down to see what had stopped her progress. Her face changed entirely when she saw him, as if she was remembering suddenly that he was even there at all.

"Hey beautiful. I hate to interrupt but you're not gonna be able to look at every single book in here in one evening... And there's still a lot more to see. Unless you'd rather take a one room per visit approach." Carson chuckled seeing her interest at the promise of more conflicting with the mountain's worth of books she'd pulled off the shelves so far for further inspection, wondering if he'd have to climb up and physically pry El off the ladder to get her to come down.

"We literally have a dungeon. That held the actual King of Hell captive." Carson tempted, wondering if there was anything he could throw at her at this point that would prompt a normal human reaction of fear and disbelief.

Elizabeth’s eyes darted down to the man that grasped at the ladder to halt her from moving once more. She clutched multiple reference books to her chest, only slightly embarrassed by the way he was teasing her for having gotten so caught up in the library she forgot the rest of the tour. “It’s your fault for bringing me here first. A library that never closes is not the best place to drag me too especially considering the type of information housed here. It’s magnificent.” She muttered still in awe as she looked over the shelves.

Carson’s hand reached up and he extracted the books from her grasp as she started down the ladder, holding them for her while the opposite hand gripped hers, guiding her down the steps while he made mention of what else they had to offer here. “The King of Hell? You have a dungeon that you held Lucifer himself in?” She gasped, “So as far as paranormal and supernatural beings not only are there Hellhounds and demons and vampires but Satan is in existence? Of all things I thought not to be true it was all mighty beings like Gods and well the fallen angel himself it just seemed farfetched.” She muttered, stumbling on the last step and being caught by her lover.

She smiled at him appreciatively for his quick reflexes and let him escort her out of the library, putting aside her stack of books or starting to when she grasped the one on the top. “It’s small I can read it on the tour. A whole book on hex boxes and crossroads summons may have come in handy the other day.” She laughed lightly, pleased he didn’t fight her on carrying the small book with her. He shook his head but said nothing on the matter for the moment, lacing their fingers again and beginning to explain a bit about the King of Hell.

“Crowley? ‘Decendant of the hardy warrior.’” El mused aloud, trying to decide what that would mean. Carson looked at her and questioned what she said, “That’s what Crowley translates to in Gaelic. It’s a surname derived from O’Crowley though the old English translation is ‘wood of crows.’” She laughed, “I wonder if that’s his given name.” Her eyes darted up to Carson’s face, looking from the small book in her hands over to him instead and arching a brow at the laugh he gave. He teased her for that being the one thing she clung to and commented on was his name, nothing more of the fact that they had tortured such a powerful man down in the very room they were heading into.

“Just because I didn’t say it doesn’t mean I’m not impressed, Carson. I just find it amusing that’s what he’s called. So if he’s as powerful as you’re claiming then wow me with the tales of how your family captured and locked down the very King of Hell.” El requested, closing her book to give him her full attention, leaning into him when his arm looped around her as they walked down a darkened corridor. He explained it all, leading her to the door and flicking on a light as he tugged the heavy metal door opened, letting her inside. She rushed at the chair in the center of the room, tracing her fingers over every single mark and pulling her hand away at the sight of blood stains. He may have been the King of Hell but the idea of torture was still unsettling no matter what.

Carson let her explore and took her to every place he told her about, their tour ending when he reminded her they had dinner plans with his parents. She ate with them gladly, watching quietly from time to time and zoning out as she observed the family surrounding the long dining room table. It was something almost just as fascinating as the books in the other room, tracing her fingers over the one in her lap as she grew distracted in her own thoughts, the reminder that she had never done this before. She hadn’t had a comfortable dinner with more than one person since she was a little girl.

Her lover’s voice pulled her back, his hand closing around hers as he asked if she was busily thinking about the library and that was why she stopped joining in on whatever conversation was occurring. “Yeah. Sorry. I was just contemplating what I wanted to read before bed, y’know help me sleep a bit.” Elizabeth lied, smiling and getting back to it with the other three.

When bedtime came for the older couple, El was sitting in the library, legs crossed and glasses poised on her nose as she scanned ‘The Signs and Symbols of the Supernatural’ which sounded basic enough but when she cracked it opened it was filled with notes from one hunter or another, scratched out in the margins with more details in regards to their use. She had almost forgotten she was leaning against Carson’s side until she felt his chest rumble as he spoke to his mother who was apparently in the doorway saying goodnight to them both. She told El not too have too much fun and ensure she get some rest, promising they wouldn’t incinerate the contents overnight.

El blushed and gave a small laugh, “Thank you, Mari. Sweet dreams.” She said, giving a little wave to the woman who returned it happily before departing with her husband. Elizabeth started to stand up, stretching her limbs and apologizing when Carson winced. “Sorry. I think my depth perception is off from all the close up reading like this.” She laughed, “I’m going to pick up my mess and get ready for bed.” She told him, bending into his space and kissing him softly before she picked up the books she had taken out and setting them aside more neatly for tomorrow.

She left Carson for maybe twenty minutes or so, brushing her teeth and changing into her pink baby doll style night shirt and a pair of small cotton shorts to match. El could hear her lover getting settled in his own space now, his nightly sigh when he climbed in bed told her he was just getting ready to lie down. She smiled and tugged her own door closed as she slipped out into the hall with her pillow and an extra blanket in hand considering she always got cold in the night. Her knuckles tapped against the door and before he answered she pushed it opened, slipping into his room with a smile on her face, “I couldn’t sleep.” She laughed, closing his door and padding in her fuzzy cheetah print slippers to his bed.

He laughed at her, calling her out on her bullshit reason for being in here while she kicked off her slippers and climbed in bed with him, bouncing on the very edge of his mattress. “Your door was closed on the tour. Sleep deprivation seemed like a good reason to make you let me stay.” She smiled, putting her stuff aside and getting up once more to inspect his room, feeling his eyes on her now. “Sleepovers are more fun when we share a room anyhow.” The brunette commented, brushing her bangs back behind her ear and cocking her head as she looked at the desk he had, papers and books and other odds and ends scattered across it like he had just recently been working and left it like this.

She smiled, feeling like being in his home, his space, his room really opened him up to her, let her see his world and everything he did and loved. “I never took you as a Star Wars fan.” She said, lifting the little light saber flashlight keychain he had hanging on a cork board by his desk. He laughed and mentioned it was a gift from his brother. “Axel, right?” She asked, jolting at the movement she caught by Carson’s feet in the slight darkness of his room, one head raising up by the end of his bed and the furry companion whimpered. El arched a brow, “You didn’t tell me you had company.” She teased, seeing half wrapped in the covers was a yellow Labrador pressed tight against him.

Carson sat up and scratched and the pups head and ears, introducing her to Lucy. He explained that usually he had more than one in here but his brother’s dog Obi Wan was bunking over at April’s for the weekend since he tended to require a little more attention than Lucy. El set down the keychain and walked back to his bed, getting on her knees on mattress and giggling as Lucy’s tail thumped excitedly while she greeted her. “I thought you didn’t like committed relationships?” She joked, petting Lucy who had crawled her way closer to El by now. "You didn't have to lock her up because I'm here." She said, lying down beside him as he mentioned not really knowing if she liked dogs or not. "I've never had a pet." She admitted.

"Yeah but I figured with everything else you were gonna be hit with coming here, you didn't also need the added distraction of a big flop of a dog like Luce here trying to get you to play fetch. Especially since I realized I had never asked you if you were okay with dogs beforehand." Carson answered her, more than a little relieved that while El wasn't a pet owner herself she seemed to have no problem with his beloved lab.

Carson scratched the top of his faithful canine's head when she flopped herself between Elizabeth and himself on the bed. The brunette didn't seem to mind, not even a little hesitant snuggling right into Lucy's side and kissing her long nose. Lucy's thick tail thumped against his leg and he chuckled as his dog who was normally all over him gave all her focus to Elizabeth.

"Well I see where I rate, Luce. Five minutes with El and I become chopped liver." He commented with a fake pout, petting the dog's side not really annoyed at all to be snubbed if it meant Elizabeth and his pet were getting along. He listened to El speak in baby talk to Lucy, laughing when she mentioned to the canine how they were making him jealous.

"Jealous? I'm not jealous at all... But now that you two have met, I can think of a few things I'd like to be doing right now that require the bed to be a tad less crowded. Lucy, hop down girl. C'mon, down." Carson responded playfully, pointing his arm at the lab's oversized bed on the floor that she pretty much only slept in when he directed her to like this. The lab quickly got up at his prompting, jumping off the bed and going straight to her own cushion and El commented on how well she minded.

"Yeah, she's a good girl. Axel's dog Obi is another story, but it's not because he's bad, he just... Doesn't have much attention span so he doesn't always listen the first few times." Carson chuckled, shaking his head a little at the parallels between dog and owner. He shifted closer to Elizabeth, finding that he was more than pleased by the image of her here in his bed. He had never once brought a girl home, obviously because he'd never been with anyone he trusted enough to reveal his real life to, but also because if he was being honest with himself, he had never been with anyone he even wanted to know long enough to consider opening his bed to.

Elizabeth was the only exception to that rule, and he was finding that the more he broke his own rules with her, the better things got. Going farther with this woman only made him want more and it was nothing he'd ever expected to happen. El shook him from his train of thought, asking him why he was staring at her funny and he mentally shook himself, surprised that he'd let himself get lost in his thoughts so easily.

"Funny? What, I can't just appreciate the sight of a beautiful woman for a minute? Especially one that's in my bed?" Carson retorted, leaning in with a broad smile on his face and kissing Elizabeth languidly. The contact was sweet and slow at first, but whether it was her leg hooking over his hip or his hand sliding under her baby doll top, the temperature between them quickly boiled over. Carson nipped at El's pouty lower lip, rolling above her and grinding his growing arousal down against her center.

El mewled into his mouth, her hands gliding over his shoulders to his back, one hand brushing over his bandage without thinking. Carson hissed and jolted at the sudden pain, and the brunette began apologizing repeatedly for forgetting to be careful. He shook his head and quickly interrupted her, pressing his brow down against hers.

"Shh, it's all right. I can take it I promise." Carson chuckled, his voice husky with want. Elizabeth giggled airily, pressing her lips back against his and he growled at the heat of her kiss. His hands wandered up and down her lovely body, riling them both up and after a few moments Elizabeth pushed at him trying to get him to roll their bodies. He grinned and complied with her unspoken request, falling to his left side and dragging her up atop him with the momentum, tugging her top off and devouring her bare front in the low light.

He kept arching up against her, only lightly gripping her hips and watching her eyes skim over his tattooed arms and chest. "Everything here to your liking, beautiful?" The hunter asked in an amused tone as she inspected him.

El traced her hands over his bare chest, appreciating his form and drinking it all in with her eyes. She bit her lower lip lightly, getting something of a chill at the name he called her. It sounded far more sincere from him, far deeper. “Why? Are you afraid I don’t like what I see?” She questioned, running her hands up his chest softly as she could, careful of his freshly scarred flesh. “Because I do. Can’t I take a moment to appreciate the sight of the smooth toned body of a handsome man?” She smiled at him, using his own words against him in a sense.

Carson chuckled, arching up again and pressing his lips to hers as her hips canted slowly against his making them both groan. She cupped his face as he sat up with her braced on her knees above him in his lap, kissing hungrily and savoring every brush of their skin and tongues along one another. “You should…” She started to speak between kisses, “Be resting. Sleeping.” She whispered against his lips, mewling at the change of angle of their bodies feeling him hardening beneath her.

She smirked as she pulled back and he reminded her of what he said before, that there was nothing wrong with a few good rounds of sex to lull you to sleep. Elizabeth laughed and shook her head, pressing her forehead to his and struggling to keep her breathing even. She shifted in his lap and slipped down his body, helping him out of his bottoms and briefs and tugging down her own so they were both bare before each other.

“Lie back baby.” She urged, watching him take a moment to settle after reaching over for the box of condoms in his bedside table drawer. El took it from him and pushed his chest again more insistently, “Lie back.” She smiled and bent over him as he did what she asked, her lips trailing over his neck to his collarbone and down his chest, kissing him as she ground down against him bare, moaning as he stimulated her clit. She blindly tore open the foil packaging and moved off him enough to slip her hands between their bodies, rolling on the condom and immediately sinking down onto his arousal.

Carson groaned through his teeth as her body engulfed him, starting a slow steady rhythm above him. She slid almost all the way off his shaft only to drive her hips back down onto him fully, taking him as deeply as her body allowed. She swiveled her hips to find the right angle, moaning his name as he hit just the right place. She shifted over him, arching her body across his and dragging her nails lightly over his sides up his arms, guiding them to the sides of his head and lacing their fingers. She knew if he hadn’t wanted her to he very well could have fought against her grasp but instead he held her hands just as tightly as she did his.

Her lips dragged up his jawline, ghosting along the very edge of his mouth each time she drove herself down onto him. “God Carson… You feel so good…” El panted out, her pace picking up as his hips rolled up into her, his fingers curling tighter around hers and she started to lose control. Her chest brushed his, the added sensation against her breasts luring her to the edge quickly. She gasped, crying his name once more only to have it muffled as his lips found hers, clenching around him and coming hard with a ragged sigh.

Carson sealed his mouth to hers at the cusp of her pleasure, swallowing her moans as she bucked and shuddered against him. His grip on her hands tightened as he followed her over the edge, pumping up into her rapidly until he was spent. The brunette sighed raggedly as she came down, her motions slowing to a stop till finally she relaxed atop him. The hunter opened his hands so she could free herself from his grip and slip off of him, resting against his left side and lying her arm across his chest carefully below his bandage on the right.

Carson cleaned himself up and tugged Elizabeth in tighter, kissing the top of her head and enjoying the feel of lying skin to skin with her. "Best. Sleepover. Ever." He stated with a crooked grin, chuckling when he heard her giggle at his comment. El nuzzled her head on his chest and murmured her agreement, sighing deeply and getting settled to fall asleep. Carson shifted and gently freed his shoulder from beneath her head, disturbing her as he moved to his side and looked down at her snuggling into his pillow in place of his body.

"Hey now, I thought sleepovers meant staying up late." He said as he leaned over her, nuzzling into her neck and kissing at her warm skin making her giggle. She agreed that it was standard practice to do so but only if there was something worth staying up late to do, like tell ghost stories or play truth or dare. Carson smirked and tugged her body farther beneath him, his mouth still wandering over her collarbone to her breasts as he replied to her.

"Oh I think I can make it worth your while. I think you'll get plenty of ghost stories around here during the day, why don't we play truth or dare?" He muttered in a soft but hungry tone, settling between her legs and slipping one hand between them to lightly circle her clit as he gave his body a moment to be ready again, his mouth finding her rosy peaks and teasing them to stiff points with his tongue and teeth.

Elizabeth melted beneath him, writhing and moaning softly from his ministrations but still managing to tell him to go first and give her a truth or dare to pick. Carson smirked against her skin and lifted his head to meet her face, dipping his middle and ring fingers into her heat still slick from her recent pleasure. He began stroking her walls just how he knew she liked, shaking his head slightly at her.

"Nope. In this game I pick. And I dare you... To tell me one of your dirtiest fantasies. And my dare is to make it happen for you, no matter what it is." Carson told her, his expression leaving no shred of doubt that he would do whatever she might come up with. He kept working her with his hand, keeping her from being able to retreat from him too much by spurring the reaction of her body to his touch, smiling devilishly at the way her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink than they had been a second ago.

"Ah... See you thought of something. I know you did. Come on let's hear it beautiful." Carson prompted, feathering kisses across her face hoping to show her that he wanted nothing more than to make her feel good. He slid his fingers back up to her clit, swirling around the little bud and making her moan louder before she could form words to respond.

Elizabeth writhed beneath his touch, rolling her hips up into his hand and taking his fingers deeper with every arch of her body. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of him working her up and his lips against her skin adding to the sensations in her body. She breathed a sigh of want, grasping his biceps and listening to his words prompting her to consider what she was wanting.

She thought for a few moments and suddenly her cheeks flushed at the image in her head. It was something entirely too much to ask of a man she actually wanted to be with or at least she considered it to be a little out there when she was only just learning what it was he was into. She swallowed down her worry when he caught how red her face had gotten, her green eyes fluttering opened and meeting his gaze before he started kissing her cheeks wanting to urge her to tell him.

El moaned, riding the edge but there was a part of her mentally keeping it at bay while she tried to voice her fantasy to him. “Well I’d really love for you to take me in the library.” She said, grinning at his somewhat confused reaction. “We could play a little game.” She said, scratching her nails against his unmarked flesh and smirking as she slowly found her confidence when he agreed.

“I didn’t say tonight.” She muttered up to him, her chest heaving with her heavy breathing as he kept working her up to the point of nearly making her shatter. Carson whispered for her to tell him, seeming intrigued, “The dungeon.” She moaned, arching up against his frame and riding his fingers a little more eagerly.

“We don’t have to umm…” She started, seeing the look in his eyes, one she couldn’t read while he seemed to process that she meant the space they locked up all things to torture if needed. He shook his head and kissed her, quietly requesting she tell him why. El wetted her full lips with her tongue and raked her fingers through his hair as she answered. “Well I thought I could chain you up. Exposed against the wall… Down on your knees for me…” She whispered against his ear, holding his frame close to her as if in fear if she didn’t cling to him it would startle him off of her.

“I could make you do whatever I wanted. Tease you until you beg for me to make you come. Urge you to eat me out like only you know how. Ride you with your hands above your head, keeping you from touching me. I have all the control over every single part of you.” Elizabeth panted, picturing the events in her mind and the little groan Carson gave told her he was considering it to.

She looked at him as she pulled back, her nerves kicking back in despite the darkness in his eyes. “Sorry. That’s—I mean you’re probably not into that. It’s uhh… I haven’t—“ El mumbled uncertainly, tugging his hand from her body and feeling a bit of self-consciousness now. “We could just stick to the library thing.” She shook her head, squeezing her eyes closed a bit and clearing her throat to try and silent her want and make herself refocus until Carson’s lips pressed to hers and he kissed her just as deeply as he always did, the contact simple yet so intimate and she accepted it gladly.

Carson wasn't intimidated in the least by her answer, but he was more than a little surprised to hear such a fantasy from her. The library made perfect sense to him considering her profession and passion outside the bedroom, but the dungeon and her desire to have him helplessly at her command was the first glimpse to a side of Elizabeth he hadn't seen yet. As she described in greater detail what she would do to him while he was in chains, he fed off how turned on the concept made her and groaned lightly with want against her skin as he continued to work her.

Even though he heard her genuine desire in her answer, he could also hear her self-consciousness starting to eclipse her want and that was his signal to reassure her that he was ready and willing to do anything she wanted just like he'd said. He pulled back and let her push his hand from her center, watching her with a fond expression as she shut herself down both with her words and by squeezing her eyes shut as if she could just pretend the last minute or two hadn't really happened. He suppressed a chuckle, leaning down to capture her lips in a deep ravishing kiss to leave no doubt in her mind that nothing she'd said had perturbed him in any way.

He broke away and nudged his nose against hers, winning a little smile from her at least. She opened her mouth to backpedal from what she'd said again and he hushed her, gently tugging his hand from her grip to lightly brush over her hip and thigh, gradually nearing her center again but not touching her quite yet while he spoke. "Elizabeth. Stop." He murmured softly when she kept trying to talk over his hushing.

"I said I'd do whatever you wanted, and I meant it. I wanna give you exactly what you want baby..." Carson insisted, kissing her lightly and finally slipping his hand back between her legs to stroke her slick center. El shivered at his touch and he dipped his fingers inside her once more, working her back up slowly as he craned his head to kiss at her ear and whisper against it, "Tie me up, chain me down, whatever you want. You standing over me, making me do whatever you say... Just the thought drives me crazy." His low voice turned into a groan as he spoke, imagining being at her mercy. He was accustomed to being in control and often took the lead, but that didn't mean he was opposed to submitting to a woman who clearly knew what she wanted like Elizabeth.

The brunette moaned at his words, starting to arch up onto his hand again, her confidence returning. Her hands slid back around his waist and she clung tightly to his frame, her eyes slipping closed again but for entirely different reasons. Carson grinned, glad that he'd been able to ease her mind and kissing her again as he drove her closer to the edge. Elizabeth managed to gasp his name through her pleasure, telling him she was getting close and he sped the pace of his fingers, pumping in and out of her while flicking his thumb over her clit.

Elizabeth's back bowed off the mattress as she came, her walls clenching around his digits and her nails pressing into his skin. Carson groaned low in his throat as he watched her come unraveled, slipping his fingers from her center and pumping his throbbing length with his slick hand, quickly following her over the edge and coming on her belly. He held himself panting above her as they finished together, her hips still rocking up of her own accord as the last wave rolled through her.

The dark haired hunter grinned down at the woman as she finally opened her eyes again and looked at him, shifting off her so he could grab the tissues and clean her up. "I think we'll need to make both of those fantasies happen, they both sound hot to me." Carson commented, leaning down to kiss El's temple and settling on his side facing her. She blushed again but nodded, seemingly surprised and pleased that he was so willing to oblige her.

"El... You do know you should get whatever you want, right? It's not to much to ask. You're smart, gorgeous, funny, strong... I'm lucky to get to give you exactly what you want." Carson murmured as he pulled her in closer against him, tugging his sheet up over their entwined bodies. "Don't ever be afraid to tell me what you need, all right? I want to give it to you." He added in a whisper, kissing her softly and shifting to get comfortable enough to let sleep claim him.

Elizabeth sighed as she settled in against Carson’s frame once more, glancing up at him through partly hooded eyes as he spoke in a gentle tone. She appreciated that he was so ready and willing to try what she wanted to and give up control to her like she often felt she needed. He was one of the first in fact that she didn’t fight when he claimed her. She nodded at his agreement to both ideas being something hot and different to try but it was his next few lines that made her cheeks burn hotter than before.

 

She tried to reign in her emotions at the sentiment he gave, the compliments he fed to her and each word was sincere entirely. She scooted as close to him as she could, tangling her limbs with his and snuggling with him beneath the sheets. “I’m all set here.” She muttered, hoping he understood as she kissed him again slowly.

He pulled back and smiled at her, his lips pressing to her forehead and temple as he held her tighter. "Thank you Carson. You're too good to me sometimes." She whispered resting her head over his chest and listening to his strong beating heart. She had never felt so close and connected with someone, their limbs tangled together and their fingers laced perfectly with one another.

Elizabeth slept soundly against her lover, waking up early morning which with her schedule wasn't entirely uncommon. She groaned a little as she stretched against him, curving her neck up to kiss his jaw though he was still sleeping. She smiled at his sleeping face pressed slightly into his pillow and his eye lids fluttered as she disturbed him a little. He didn't rouse completely as she slipped from his grasp and climbed out of bed, dressing again.

Lucy whined quietly, clearly knowing that she wasn't meant to wake her owner. El smiled and pat her leg in indication for Luce to follow her out and she got up instantly, doing just that and trailing behind her to the kitchen.

Mari was already up and dressed for the day, making El breakfast and coffee despite her protests that she didn't need to. Eventually El ended up in the library with Lucy sitting on her lap mostly, keeping her lower half warm as they snuggled closely in one of the lounge chairs. She flipped through one of the many books she had taken off the shelves and smiled as she spoke to Lucy about what she was reading.

"You know they say dogs make good hunters. Right here. Says you can sense the paranormal." El hummed, sipping at her coffee and finishing off the mug as she flipped to the next page. Her eyes darted up at the sound of Carson's voice teasing her for being in here so early. "You've had some heavy few days baby I didn't want to wake you." She muttered, smiling up at him when she noticed the two mugs in his grasp.

"Milk and sugar?" She asked, pleased by his nod in response saying he knew the drill. El sat up and accepted the hot mug, letting him take the empty one and put it aside. Carson commented on her attire, her sleep shorts and his grey tshirt that she had rolled the sleeves up to. He mentioned how he wondered where that got to and she laughed, "I stole it. Smells like you. Makes me feel like I've got your company even if I don't." She shrugged, having taken it off the end of his bed this morning. "You can keep my top in trade if you'd like." She teased.

Carson chuckled and joked about trying it on later making her laugh with him. "I'd like to see that... thank you for the coffee. Your mom wants you to replenish and sometime this morning go through a second healing session." She told him, scooting over at his prompting and sharing the chair with him now. He tugged her mostly in his lap, kissing her neck as he read over her shoulder. "You know what we dealt with at my apartment is sort of a rarity. It takes a lot of power to lock down and house one of those things. Your dad told me it was probably in there for decades." She muttered, watching Lucy adjust with them on the chair as well.

 

Carson kissed lightly at Elizabeth's neck, chuckling lightly to think that on only her second time talking with his parents she was already getting into deep discussions with them about hunting and all things that went bump in then night. He'd never figured he could bring a girl home that wasn't another hunter, but he supposed that even though El wasn't about to go lopping heads off wraiths or tracking down wendigos she had the spirit of a hunter and a woman of letters put together.

"Hmm, that's really fascinating." Carson murmured against her skin, kissing up her throat more interested in the way she smelled and tasted over what she could tell him about what he already knew concerning the hell ravens. She chided him for teasing her, pushing at his face lightly so she could keep reading without his mouth on her and he laughed lightly at the flush that had tinged her cheeks despite her protests that he wasn't distracting her at all.

A moment later Mari came in with a tray laden with freshly baked cinnamon rolls, asking Elizabeth if she wanted another which the brunette politely declined but complimented her on how good the pastries were nonetheless. Carson's dark brows raised as he watched his mother turn back towards the kitchen, raising his arm up off the chair in a gesture of mock indignation.

"Hey, what I am huh? Chopped liver? Maybe I want some!" Carson teased, chuckling when his mother called back at him that if he wanted breakfast he knew where to find it to serve himself. The hunter sighed and gently shifted El from his lap to get his own food, giving his mom a light kiss on the cheek in the kitchen as he dished up and promising to eat quickly so she could heal him. She followed him back into the library and he ate as he walked, seating himself at one of the long tables and devouring the rest of his roll while Mari waited. Elizabeth peered over her book noticing what was going on, shooing Lucy off her lap for the moment so she could get closer.

Carson sat back and took a centering breath as he peeled his bandage off, revealing the shallow open cuts running along his pectoral up to his shoulder. His mother placed her slender hands over the wounds, asking him in a whisper if he was ready and he nodded. Elizabeth hovered close to him, her eyes bright with interest and wonder as Mari began healing him once more. Carson growled a bit in his throat trying to keep his pain response in check, his hands tensing into fists till his mother finished up her task. When she drew her hands back only light pink abrasions remained, as though he'd only ever been lightly scratched without his skin ever being broken aside from the blank streaks in his tattoos.

Carson smiled in quiet amusement as Elizabeth asked his mom a few questions about her powers, seemingly a little more relaxed today about interacting with his family and that pleased him. The two women spoke for a moment then Mari offered to bring El some fresh coffee, and Carson couldn't help but sigh audibly.

"Ma, you're totally upstaging me here. I brought her fresh coffee don't worry about it." Carson broke in, gently shooing his mother off so he could spend some more time with El. The elder brunette seemed happy to give them their space for the moment, wandering off and the hunter shook his head as he caught Elizabeth's hand in his and kissed her fingers lightly.

"Jeez, hot coffee, cinnamon rolls, supernatural demonstrations, who needs a boyfriend when you've got my mom huh?" Carson quipped with a light laugh, standing up from the table and waving Lucy over to scratch at her head, sweet talking the dog asking her if she'd like to have some breakfast herself. He heard the flustered note in Elizabeth's tone when she asked him what he'd just said, turning to face her and seeing the genuine shock on her face. He suddenly realized what exactly he'd said himself, his gut tightening up with apprehension hoping his freudian slip hadn't just ruined everything. 

Elizabeth smiled as Carson kissed at her fingers, stepping closer to him again and lingering in his space as he spoke about his mother, teasing at the fact that she was so well taken care of by the elder brunette she might have no use for him. It wasn’t what he said so much as how he addressed it and the title he suddenly gave himself in her life. Her eyes went a little wide, not sure how to take that or if he even meant it at all.

“Carson… Umm…” She fidgeted, tucking her bangs out of her eyes and behind her ear with her free hand. “Wh-What’d you just say? I mean what’d you… call yourself?” She asked him, patiently waiting for him to respond which he did rather quickly. He looked overly tense, blinking up at her and sighing as he stammered out that the word just slipped, both of them acting almost like he had called her a bad name or spoke terribly of himself.

El shook her head trying to think things through while he defended himself, apologizing for his assumption at what she might consider him. “No. No, baby I just—I thought you know…” She fidgeted and ducked her head a bit as she tried to find the right words. “I thought you didn’t label things… that you weren’t wanting all of that baggage with me especially I mean I sort of raised a bit of hell on one of our first dates.” She laughed.

Carson laughed with her and muttered about how he never did normally, that he wasn’t usually one to even try that but if she wanted it then he did too. Her eyes watered a bit and it was silly really but she never felt the need or desire to be with someone, nodding her head at him. “It’s not something I’ve ever wanted or needed until now. Carson I want that with you.” She muttered through another light laugh, letting him tug her into his lap and she kissed at him softly, cupping his face in her hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t—You just caught me off guard that’s all.”

Elizabeth shifted and tucked a leg on either side of him, sitting on him in his chair and wrapping her arms around him as she kissed him again slowly. He apologized again but the smile on his face told her he wasn’t all that sorry considering her agreement to the term, kissing her repeatedly and making her giggle. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead to his, “I think you need to know a couple things about me though Carson…” She whispered softly, touching the scruffy edges of his hard jawline and waiting for him to ask what those were. “You make better coffee than your mom.” She started, making him chuckle, “And I haven’t had a boyfriend since my freshman year of High School so I’m sorry if I’m not very good at it anymore. I’ve… Umm... I’ve never had the greatest luck with guys. In fact you’re the first I’ve let stay overnight at all in years.”

Carson chuckles wryly at Elizabeth's words, drawing his hands up her sides to cup her face like she had his a moment ago, keeping her brow pressed to his. "First of all, I know I make better coffee than my mom. She likes it too weak to wake you up properly." He laughed, his expression softening to something a bit more serious, "And it's all right. I'm sort of new to this too if you couldn't tell. We'll figure it out as we go along, together. All right? I'm just happy I can call you my girlfriend." He said happily, tipping his chin forward and kissing her sweetly.

Carson managed to get caught up on some of his own studying over the day, he tried to keep his own information as up to date as possible for future hunts and he had to make sure he recorded the incident with they hell raven for reference later should he ever need it. He mostly hovered in the same space as Elizabeth, letting her devour all the information she could and only interrupting her pretty much for meals and to drag her to bed the following night. He didn't mind though, he figured at least her first several trips to the bunker would be like this considering who she was and what she was passionate about. He worked out, looked for possible jobs for the following week when Elizabeth had to go back to work and even got some work done on a bike he was planning to sell.

He came in from the garage that night sweaty and covered with grit and grease, finding Elizabeth almost exactly where he'd left her with her laptop balanced on one knee and her arm keeping an ancient dusty book open on the chair leg beside her working on comparing notes he guessed. Carson laughed and the noise caught her attention, her green eyes sweeping up his form and then glancing over at the clock on the wall. She drooped visibly, apologizing for ignoring him all evening and he held up his hand and shook his head.

"I keep telling you, don't feel bad babe. I know what this place is for you, I'm perfectly happy to wait while you get your fill of all the supernatural knowledge you could want. As long as you throw me a bone every once in awhile." He winked at her, wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his hand. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up, you enjoy your books on beasties." He laughed, ambling off to shower and try and get the layer of grease of his hands that had accumulated from the engine work he'd been doing.

Carson half-hoped Elizabeth might come join him in the shower, but with the way the water ran black the first minute or so maybe it was a good thing she didn't. He got completely scrubbed off and came out into his bedroom in nothing but a towel, sort of expecting his newly appointed girlfriend to at least have migrated to his bed with her work. But his room was empty, his usual canine companion had forsaken him as well to hang out with El while she was here, which didn't bother him really.

The hunter shook the excess water from his thick dark hair and pulled on some black athletic pants, forgoing a shirt entirely since he knew by now his parents would be in their room for the night and maybe he might be more tempting to El than her books showing a little skin. It was shameless he knew, but she did seem to love his tattoos after all...

Carson wandered back out to the library where he was sure she'd be, probably having lost track of time again with her nose in a book. He was surprised to find the space vacant, the materials Elizabeth had been perusing neatly stacked where she'd left them but the woman was nowhere to be seen. Lucy was lying on the floor in front of the chair El had been occupying before his shower, and his brow furrowed with concern. Certainly if Elizabeth had gotten up for a drink or something Lucy would have followed her.

The chocolate lab raised her head, her tail thumping on the floor and a little whine escaping her. He called to her and the lab sprung up, wondering if Elizabeth had told her to stay put and that's why she was waiting on the floor like that. But... El knew not to wander the bunker alone without him or at least one of his parents. There were some truly dangerous things in here and the woman wasn't exactly trustworthy not to go opening boxes and things in the pursuit of discovery.

"Elizabeth?" Carson called softly, trying to keep the alarm from rising in his chest as he looked behind the free standing shelves in the back of the room just to make sure she wasn't hidden there, absorbed in her reading so she didn't respond. His heart beat a little faster when she wasn't there, and he took off down the hallway calling her name a couple more times. He was starting to get full on panicked when his phone buzzed in his pocket and he scrambled to get it out, his brows knitting as he saw he had a new message from El.

The hunter opened it up, seeing it was a picture message. He stared at it, confused for a second till he realized that it was a photo of one of the walls in their in-house 'dungeon,' the one with a couple metal rings bolted to it that had long silver chains attached to them ending in heavy silver cuffs. Carson's first thought was dismay that she had wandered back down there on her own against what he'd asked of her, but... Then he recalled their conversation from the previous night. Was she down there waiting for him... For the reason he thought she was down there waiting for him?

A slight smile curved his lips and he padded downstairs double quick, a little out of breath by the time he finally got to the holding room his girlfriend had apparently texted him from. The sight waiting for him when he slipped inside made his mouth dry and his pulse quicken with want. Elizabeth was leaning fully stretched out against the wall, wearing tight lace-up corset style black lingerie she must've packed with her for the trip. It was an ensemble he hadn't seen before and she looked amazing in it, his earlier distress all but forgotten as he devoured her with his eyes.

"So, uh... Got your message." Carson murmured, holding up his phone for her to see and setting it down on the table, shifting his weight from one foot to the other wondering exactly how to play this to please her. He was familiar with giving up control in the bedroom, but he'd never actually been someone's prisoner before.

Elizabeth bit at her lower lip as her boyfriend wandered into the space with her finally. “Mm.” She nodded, pleased that he got her message as she nodded at him. “Good.” She said, keeping herself pinned against the wall for the moment, one leg bent at the knee with her heel braced against the wall behind her frame. She unfolded her arms and looked him over, devouring his taut frame with her eyes and licking her lips almost in a show of want for him.

“Are you nervous?” She asked, being more sincere with him now and worried he might have decided he didn’t really want this but he quickly shook his head at her and insisted he wasn’t. She grinned, knowing that was a lie at least in part, he was nervous about how she might treat him, where they might begin and he voiced that to her, scratching the back of his neck and informing her he wasn’t sure what to do for her. “Well this isn’t about me really. Or… I guess it is. I sort of want to make my mark on you if you will. Claim you.” She muttered, stepping forward in her heels and into his space.

“I’m glad you opted out of a shirt but you’re still a bit over dressed.” El murmured against his ear when she got close enough to him, kissing the shell of it just lightly and making his breathing pick up. She pushed her hands down his abdomen and shoved at him a littler harsher than she might normally, making him grunt as he bumped the wall with his back. His pupils were dilated and she knew for certain if he had wanted to he could have fought her back quite easily. She kept her hands on his chest and pinned him to the best of her ability, grinning wickedly as she kissed down his frame to his happy trail, licking back up to his belly button and hearing his rough response.

Her eyes darted down and she noted with satisfaction that his body was quickly responding to her as well, his athletic pants visibly tenting for her. She giggled, “I thought you were nervous.” She teased, nipping his flesh as she eased back up to his chest, biting at his nipple a little roughly. He laughed but it turned to a groan as she grasped at his wrists and urged his arms up one by one to the shackles, taking the key from between her breasts she had already discovered the first time down here.

She chained one hand first and glanced at him, pressed up against him and feeling his arousal against her front. “You okay?” Elizabeth asked softly, meeting his eyes and hoping he was fine. He nodded his consent for her to continue and she did, putting his other hand in the opposite bound. “Safe words ‘cupcake’ but I promise I’m not going to be mean it’s just… well if you’re going to hang here a while I don’t want all the blood rushing to your feet, y’know?” She smiled, pulling back and waiting for him to respond.

He nodded and she watched him shift to get as comfortable as he could, kissing his lips slowly and languidly tasting him. They both growled and mewled to one another, devouring the other until she pulled away abruptly, watching his face as she grasped his ran her palm over his hardness, humming as she remembered all the pleasure he could give her. “Should we see how worked up I can get you?” El refused to let him catch her nerves at all as she pushed his bottoms down and helped him step out of them, stepping back and admiring his hard frame, eyeing his thick length already fully erect for her.


End file.
